Gotherington Primary School – Kindness is a thing that Makes People Happy

Celebrating World Kindness Day, The Songwriting Charity is marking this global celebration of kindness with the official launch of the ‘Something Kind’ Primary School programme in Gloucestershire, in partnership with Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning, with generous support from the Summerfield Charitable Trust.

This autumn, to run alongside our hugely successful and impactive “Bully Beat” programme, we are launching the “Something Kind” programme.

Underpinned by a focus on emotional health & wellbeing, the programme seeks to raise confidence levels in those involved and engender strong relationships at secondary level whilst bolstering resilience through transition to secondary school for our primary school participants. We will be working with schools in the most rural communities in Glocuestershire with a range of disadvantage based on numbers of disabled, impoverished and geographically isolated children, ensuring those with least access to the arts are given new opportunities to participate.

We think of Something Kind as the flip side of our Bully Beat coin. Once awareness is established through school based bullying prevention work, it’s important to help children explore other creative measures to establish and maintain a happy and enriching learning environment. This Something Kind workshops will provide unique opportunities to experience and offer kindness through the magical means of songwriting and self-expression.As always, the Something Kind workshops will leave the wonderful legacy of an original song for the school and the lasting effect of children reaching out to each other to offer kindness.The programme is generously supported by The Summerfield Charitable trust and Gloucestershire Healthy Living & Learning.

Something Kind encourages acts of kindness through songwriting – giving “Kindness” the reputation it deserves.

Coming with the Light of Kindness

What is Something Kind?

Something Kind is our newest programme and has been designed in partnership with Gloucestershire Healthy Living & Learning and is generously match funded by The Summerfield Charitable Trust.

The idea behind this programme is to consider anti-bullying from a different angle. Children often tell us that bullying means people are saying unkind things or aren’t nice to one another. Through positive reinforcement and considering the impact that kindness and acts of kindness can have, we’re helping children (and schools) to look at addressing bullying behaviour in a different way. Our key aim is to highlight the mutual benefits of kindness, looking at and measuring how this consideration can boost a child’s confidence and self-esteem, while also facilitating a more caring and supportive environment.

Already 85% of participants think that they will do ‘kind things more often’ With a further 74% saying they think their workshop experience will make children in their class feel more confident about being kind to each other. A further 65% feel proud of their achievements during their workshop, in particular the words they had written that day. The important thing is for children to recognise the power and impact an act of kindness can have on their peers, school community and on them as initiators and receivers of acts of kindness.

Something Kind is the flip side of our Bully Beat coin. Once awareness is established through school based bullying prevention/anti-bullying work, it’s important to help children explore other creative measures to establish and maintain a happy and enriching learning environment. Something Kind workshops provide unique opportunities to experience and offer kindness through songwriting and self-expression.

We’re adding new videos to the Something Kind playlist on YouTube. Have a look at what we’ve done so far right here.

This is what people are saying about Something Kind

“We were having slight problems with a group of Y5 girls asserting their authority somewhat with other girls both in Y5 and Y4. These girls gained a lot form the workshop and it has made them think: the problems have not recurred this term. During and after the day, the pupils were full of the experience. Afterwards, some of the Y5 girls came and asked when it would be used and what for. They were proud that it would form the basis of this term’s assemblies and follow up focus. One of the other girls came quietly and told me that she had really enjoyed the whole experience and felt that she was more ‘in’ with some of the other girls as a result of it.” Jane Attwood, HEAD, Leighterton Primary School

“The box of kindness is made and up and running and looks great! In the end, we got the children to all do a small drawing or write a message and stuck them all over the box so that they had all contributed to it.  They started telling me about acts of kindness they’d witnessed straight away, so that’s great! What’s also been useful is that when we’ve had any minor friendship issues come up, we’re able to reflect back on the workshop and what was discussed and think about if the individuals involved have shown kindness and then use this to resolve problems.” Gemma Rouse, Class Teacher, Gotherington Primary

“Thank you so much for a super day on Friday.  The Year 5 pupils had a wonderful time.  It was a great experience for them and the song sounds great! Thank you also for your assembly which you led at the end of the day – the children loved it and learnt a lot at the same time.” Sally Green, Head, The John Moore Primary School, Tewkesbury

“The team were extremely professional and importantly able to impart knowledge to every child. The end result was one which was completely owned by the children. There are many hidden elements contained within the workshop which can be used as supporting evidence. I feel that this one project would support an Outstanding Ofsted judgement as it covers many of the aspects contained within the SMSC criteria and the criteria for Outstanding.” Ben Jordan, Head, Gotherington Primary