8 September 2023

The community at St Brigid’s School, Gisborne, turned the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence into a week-long call for kindness.

The school’s ‘Call for Kindness’ campaign was dedicated to promoting and inspiring kind and compassionate behaviour. There were classroom activities, lunchtime activities, and guest speakers from the community who shared their experiences of kindness and uplifting words of encouragement with the students.

‘It’s important for our students to see the value in being kind and how it represents what makes St Brigid’s a positive place to learn’, said Principal Melanie Daly. ‘I was so proud of the way our students responded to the week, and how it’s had a lasting legacy for great relationships in the classroom and playground.’

Throughout the week, the school highlighted how many kind acts are part of our day, both as givers and receivers. In focusing on kind acts and words, the conversation-starters identify the happy positives for recipients and how this is in direct contrast to the negativity, sadness and pain we feel with cruel and unnecessary words and actions.

The week culminated in the students dressing in orange and walking to a nearby oval to spell out ‘kind’ as a visible demonstration of the school being unified by kindness, compassion and inclusion. Individual classes then created small versions and held a ‘kindness relay’ where students exchanged positive, kind and uplifting messages as they ran back and forth.

‘Kindness seems a simple concept but, if this was true, then everyone would be kind and no one would experience bullying or the hurtful/mean words or behaviours inflicted by others’, said teacher Emma Barker. ‘Kindness must be taught and practised. Our goal as a school community is to teach, model and reward kindness and compassionate thoughts and actions, and to verbalise how acts of kindness make us feel and inspire us. We believe that validating kind actions and behaviour encourages more social awareness and compassion, empathy and connectedness towards or with others.’