More than 50 students have been suspended from a high school near Newcastle following a cyber-bullying incident that went viral around the school.

Fairfax Media understands the incident at Toronto High School, near Lake Macquarie, involved a game in which students' names were messaged to other students via Facebook with the intention of eliciting negative comment. An assembly was called on Thursday morning and all students who had participated in the posts asked to identify themselves.

Nicole Charlesworth and her son Nick, who is a student at Toronto High School. Credit:Jonathan Carroll

The Department of Education confirmed that more than 50 students had received short suspensions of up to four days and a small number had been given long suspensions of up to 20 days.

In a newsletter sent to parents on Friday, school principal Mark McConville​ said students who had made negative, abusive or harassing comments about other students on social media had been suspended, as had students who had "liked" the inappropriate comments.