Pupils at a north Essex school hope their competition-winning mobile phone app for reporting bullying will be a national success.

East Anglian Daily Times: Students Lewis, Alex and Nick at Ramsden Hall School meet with James Warner, Edward Woodley and Mark Thomas from Coderus who are helping to make their anti-bullying app.Students Lewis, Alex and Nick at Ramsden Hall School meet with James Warner, Edward Woodley and Mark Thomas from Coderus who are helping to make their anti-bullying app.

The Ramsden Hall School, Langham, pupils came up with the idea for the app which allows either victims, or those concerned about friends, to anonymously tell staff about issues with bullying.

The idea, thought up by a group of five students aged 14 and 15-years-old, won a competition run by the Diana Award with the finals held at a national anti-bullying event at the Emirates Stadium in November.

It won praise from the judging panel which included Dragon’s Den star Kelly Hoppen, and they are now going to see their dream become a reality.

The app is now being developed with the help of Coderus, based in Martlesham Heath, which is working alongside the students so they remain involved throughout the project.

East Anglian Daily Times: Students Lewis, Alex and Nick at Ramsden Hall School meet with James Warner, Edward Woodley and Mark Thomas from Coderus who are helping to make their anti-bullying app.Students Lewis, Alex and Nick at Ramsden Hall School meet with James Warner, Edward Woodley and Mark Thomas from Coderus who are helping to make their anti-bullying app.

Fay Greaves, nurture manager at the school, said: “We are very proud of the boys and this is huge for the school.

“We hope the app will be used nationally, and it gives the boys some drive.

“We have to give praise to Peter Fairclough the IT manager and teacher who has given the boys the inspiration to put it all together.”

Mark Thomas, Coderus managing director, said: “We’re really pleased to be working with the student team and are looking forward to helping to inspire this new generation of developers in the process.

“The boys will be actively involved in this project from the design and functionality to actually coding sections and building the app. This sits well with the national curriculum and everything which they’re being taught in school at the moment and we’re delighted to be able to mentor them in this way and help inspire the coders of the future.

“We’ll be working to keep the fundamentals of the students’ original plans in place, bringing an app to life that is, essentially, designed by kids, for kids.”