Kindness is key for children at Chilton Primary in Ramsgate who are exploring the many different meanings and ways of being kind.
All year groups are reinforcing how to be supportive and respectful, how to collaborate and help their peers with learning and other parts of school life.
Teacher Kirby Walker is Chilton’s PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education) Lead. She said “At Chilton, we believe that in a world where you can be anything, you should be kind.
“Being kind not only feels good for others, but makes us feel good also. It is a great boost for children’s social and emotional well-being.
“To promote ongoing kindness within school, we had a focused kindness week – every class was asked to create a class challenge for all children to work towards a kindness goal.
“Their brilliant efforts can be seen in our amazing displays of how to pay it forward.”
For example, Team Indigo had a top-secret mission every day which was posted to them. When the children saw a friend completing the task, they voted for them to win a certificate.
In Reception children were picked at random to be a secret agent. No one knew who the secret agent was, and if they were caught being kind, they won a prize.
Pupils in Team Cyan made boxes and decorated them. Throughout the week, children wrote compliments and put them into their friend’s boxes.
Team Sapphire girls and boys read the story Have You Filled A Bucket Today? They discussed the importance of being kind and passing kindness on.
Children also explored problem-solving and discussed bullying using role-playing and comic strip scenarios, spoke about the people they trust and can talk to and discussed how to help those that have or are being bullied.
And as part of the overall ongoing well-being learning, pupils have also discussed the importance of speaking out and telling someone about their worries and learned about the worry boxes in their classrooms and how to use them.
Head of School Kate Law said: “The focus on kindness has been a great success – staff have noticed how much more respectful and kinder the children are being and what a wonderful atmosphere it creates, as well as boosting morale and self-esteem.
“Chilton’s core values are extremely important to our children and staff. They are apparent in everything we do all year, but each term one particular value is highlighted and children focus on it with learning differentiated for each age group.”
As well as kindness, Chilton’s other core values are courage, respect and equality.