A teenage girl was seriously ill in hospital yesterday after her family said she took an overdose of painkillers because she was being bullied at an Oxford school.

The 14-year-old girl, from Blackbird Leys, is a pupil at Peers School in Littlemore.

She tried to take her own life on Monday night, just hours after talking to senior school staff about her fear of bullying.

Her family - who do not want to be identified - were last night at her bedside at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Headteacher Lorna Caldicott said there was no doubt the girl was "very frightened" at school but said everything had been done to help her.

The girl's grandmother, who lives in Rose Hill, said her grand-daughter had been bullied at the school since moving to Oxford at the end of the summer.

She said: "On Monday night my grand-daughter took a whole bottle of painkillers. The whole family is devastated, my daughter is in tears and is a bundle of nerves. She had only come back from holiday on the night my grand-daughter took the pills.

"My grand-daughter is fairly quiet, but bright - she was in the top forms at her last school.

"She has always been a popular girl and we couldn't understand why she was being bullied.

"We think it was because she was new. Most of the bullying was pushing and shoving."

Mrs Caldicott said the girl had raised her fears with senior staff.

She said: "We are very worried and concerned that she has done this.

"We knew she was very frightened and she had a meeting on Monday with the school's policemen, the school's counsellor and the head of year.

"We talked about what she wanted to do, what other agencies she could be referred to.

"If bullying was the cause of what she did, we had been taking good care of her and were doing the things she wanted to do.

"There is no doubt she was very frightened but everything had been done to boost her confidence and give her options. The head of year acted very swiftly."

Mrs Caldicott said there might have been an incident in the past, but was not aware of any recent physical bullying.

Last night, the girl's condition was still causing concern for her relatives, even though she had come off sedation and was speaking to her family in an intensive care ward.

Her grandmother said she was aware the school had spoken to her grand-daughter about the bullying, but felt the idea of going to outside agencies may have upset her as she was a quiet girl. '