To mark Anti-Bullying Week in our school, each class participated in a range of activities to explore the impacts and effects of bullying on children. These activities included talking about wrong choices and right choices, discussing the different ways that we could kind to each other and how a bully is someone who purposely does something mean to the same person or people lots of times.
Some children made a kindness heart and made a promise to always try their best to be kind to each other. They also role-played different scenarios of being kind to one another and sorted pictures of friendly and unfriendly behaviour.
Other children talked about how to be a kind and caring friend in school and how to a good friend to each other.
Some children thought up of ways they could fill another pupil’s bucket by saying something kind and positive, or helping others in the class throughout the day, e.g. helping someone if they fell, letting others join in their games, saying well done to another pupil etc.
Another class read the story of ‘Sammy’s Shoes,’ which illustrates how children are bullied because of their special or additional needs. They then explored the topic of Autism and had a great discussion as to what it feels like to ‘walk a day in someone’s shoes’ if they had autism. They talked a lot about differences and how some differences were harder to spot than others and came to the conclusion that we are all unique and with a little bit of extra help, children who have special or additional needs can learn and grow and do the things they want to – just like everybody else.
Some children were split into groups and given a scenario card related to different situations they may find themselves in around school. They were then given time to write a script for a role play. They worked together to come up with characters, stage directions and also what each character would say. They each tried to show what it was like to be in an uncomfortable situation and also how to solve it! There were some very creative uses of props and definitely some future actors/actresses in the making!
Thank you to the Anti-Bullying Forum for Northern Ireland (NIABF) for promoting Anti-Bullying Week every year, giving schools the opportunity to address the issue of bullying in a proactive way.
