At the end of each term, we celebrate children who have been “caught being kind”. Staff nominate children who have been spotted treating others with respect and kindness and more specifically, this year we are also considering the important acts of kindness to our school and environment.
When talking to the children about kindness, we always try to remember that it should be something we aspire to be all the time, everywhere, to everyone. We explore the meaning of integrity – doing the right thing even when no one is watching – and ‘caught being kind’ reminds our children that these things matter and don’t go unnoticed or unappreciated.
This week, Mrs Windett has led the school in our Kindness week (which actually runs all year round, every year….) where we have given even greater time to consider the impact of our behaviour on the world around us. This is what we have been up to:
“Throughout the week, we have all been keeping a note of random acts of kindness or kind gestures that everyone in our school community has demonstrated. This could be as simple as listening to a friend, welcoming a peer into a game at lunchtime, or tidying up their workspace. We have been writing these acts of kindness on coloured bricks and are creating a ‘Wall of Kindness’ displayed outside the school hall. It has been lovely to watch happy faces reading the wall as they walk past!
At BPS we know that kindness is more than just good behaviour; it is so important that it is one of our five beliefs. The art of kindness involves harboring a spirit of helpfulness, being generous and considerate, and doing so without expecting anything in return. Kindness can affect us in the following positive ways:
- Increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood.
- Decrease blood pressure and cortisol, a hormone directly correlated with stress levels.
- Boost our immune systems, and help reduce negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, and depression.
- Create a ripple effect, where people who receive kindness are more likely to help someone else.
- Make us feel better about ourselves as a person or about the meaning of our lives, confirm our self-competence, distract us from our own troubles and stressors, give us a ‘warm-glow’ feeling, or help us be more socially connected with others.
We will be continuing with our wall right until the end of term and we are very keen to see how big our wall will grow. Can you catch anyone being kind and add to the wall?”
I have managed to catch lots of people right across our community being kind this week, so here is my mini wall of kindness…
Mrs R-J for delivering cakes for staff today, Mr Bullock for helping our neighbour with an outdoor lighting problem, Eleanora for telling her Mum that she smelled nice, Julia for getting Mrs Nunn her favourite crisps and decorating Mrs Twyford’s desk, Lucy for decorating Julia’s desk, Mr Jeens for making a visitor’s day by being the first “other” Mr Jeens he’d ever met, Chef for always making Harry and Hugo’s day and Markus for his increasingly beautiful manners.
Have a wonderfully kind weekend.
Mr C
