Nobody understands better than children the difference a little kindness can make. It is a value that is easy to give and to receive and the girls enjoy telling of times when, not only were they kind to others, but also when they felt someone had been particularly kind to them.
Anti-bullying Week (16 to 20 November) was an opportunity to discuss how Kindness could be a weapon against bullies.
At Spencer House, many of the girls entered a competition to write and illustrate a famous quotation about kindness. There were so many to choose between but the winner was Katarina Oestmann, who selected ‘Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see’ (Mark Twain) and illustrated her poster beautifully.
At the end of each value a Star Badge is awarded to a girl who, in the opinion of staff, has best reflected the relevant value. This time, however, the responsibility for awarding the badge was handed over to the girls themselves. The Star Badge for Kindness was thus selected by a democratic vote held in each class.
At Wilberforce House each class had their own kindness poster. When the children spotted acts of kindness in the classroom, they wrote them down on a Post-it note and put them up onto the class poster. On the last day of term we had a wonderful assembly where each class shared some of the acts of kindness which they had seen. It was heart-warming to see how ‘the wave of kindness’ had spread through Wilberforce House.
