[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I had this happen to me in various years of high-school. The ignoring method does work but I also used another method. For example, when I was teased and told I was a loner then laughed at, I laughed right back at them saying along the lines of "You're right, I am a loner but the fact that you're insulting me makes you a lot lower and more pathetic than I am. So continue and let others see how the only way to boost your miniscule ego is to take down the weakest, pretty pathetic shrimp in the sea". May consider different wording but the same idea is there. It's also a way where if they continue it or get more severe, which is a possibility with this method, if done at school, other students or teachers may come and help.

Of course this can lead to physical confrontations but I managed to have very, very few of them. They're clearly not your friends, so there's no reason you should treat or consider them to be your friends. I have no clue what could have started their silly verbal and physical attacks on you but it could have been something you said or did to them, or simply them gossiping about you and eventually booting you out of their social circle you were once in.