More than half of Oxfordshire's children and young people say they have been bullied.

The figure was revealed in a survey released at a conference on bullying held at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium.

Of the 6,539 young people who took part in the Children and Young People Survey 2007, conducted by Oxfordshire County Council, 51 per cent said they had experienced bullying in some form in the past year.

A total of 34 per cent said they had experienced homophobic name-calling and 13 per cent were subjected to racist name-calling.

Hundreds of children and young people from 47 schools across the county attended the Bullying... What's New conference on Thursday. The event was aimed at stamping out all forms of bullying.

Amir Ahmed, of Rivermead Road, Rose Hill, Oxford, who was one of the young people involved in organising the conference, said he had heard some moving stories on the day.

Amir, 15, was bullied for a year while a pupil at Peers School, in Littlemore, Oxford, and wanted to help other victims.

He said: "I'm pretty sure that when the results of this survey are published, people will be shocked by what young people are saying."

The report also showed that nearly half of those who took part in the survey felt telling an adult had not made things better.

That was something supported by Tahli, aged 11, who said she had problems when she reported her bullying at school.

She said: "I reported my bullying seven times to my headteacher and nothing was done about it.

"It wasn't until I went to my deputy head that something was done. He told off the girl that was bullying me and it stopped."

Twelve-year-old Joseph said he had once been a bully, but that he regretted what he had done.

He said: "I realised that bullies are cowards and that the only reason they bully is because if they don't do it to someone, then it might happen to them."

Alison Partridge, service manager for children's rights and involvement at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "What's happening in Oxfordshire is the same as what is happening across the country.

"We've heard a lot of good ideas at this conference, now we just have to make them happen."

Schools attending the conference will now go away with action plans on how to tackle bullying, which will be followed up by another survey in 2009 by Ms Partridge's department.