A MALE model is supporting a charity for struggling pupils and has spoken about his own experience of suffering bullying while at school.

David Gandy, 35, is recognisable across the world, having starred in global campaigns for brands such as Dolce and Gabbana.

But he told how he was once picked on by classmates when he was a pupil at Billericay School in his teens.

David, who believes he was singled out because he was well-spoken and slightly overweight as a youngster, has become an ambassador for the charity Achievement for All.

He said: “I was bullied, not physically bullied but there was bullying involved. I had to keep myself to myself.

“My safe haven was the library.

“I used to go to the library. I never told my parents and eventually it stopped. Some children are horrendously bullied and now, with mobile phones, it follows them home after school.

“There has to be some different way of dealing with bullying — not maybe talking to the teachers but to the children, the onlookers, and appealing to them to stop it.”

Achievement for All offers support programmes to schools to help improve standards for the lowest achieving 20 per cent of pupils, using teams of highly-trained specialist coaches.

David, from Billericay, said: “One in five children are desperately underachieving at school and falling way behind their classmates.

“For them the future is bleak. Educational inequality starts early, and grows, and we know the effects can last a lifetime in terms of job prospects, health and overall contribution to society.

“Achievement for All is turning things around for these children. Many of them begin the programme way behind their classmates academically, yet in just two years they haven’t just caught up with their peers, more often than not they have over taken them.”