Pupils and staff at Bedford’s Edith Cavell Primary School have been celebrating receiving the Useful and Kind Schools’ Mark – and they can write about it in their very own Kindness Newspaper.
The Mark recognises and celebrates a school’s commitment to nurturing useful and kind behaviours and leadership across a whole school community.
At Edith Cavell, teacher Sara Wibberley said that the school had been recognising kindness for a number of years, so when they were approached by the Useful and Kindness (U&K) charity, asking if they’d like to strive for the Mark, “it sounded perfect”.
She told the Bedford Independent: “We have also been rewarding kindness for a few years now – not just hard work and effort – with kindness stones. The children can nominate each other to receive a kindness stone if someone has done something kind for them.
“In recent months we have gone that step further by having a Kindness council, an after school Useful and Kind Club and strengthened our links with the wider community.”
Recently, Edith Cavell’s Year 5 and 6 Kindness Club members added a splash of colour to a neglected shed on the school site, which pupils wrote about in their termly Kindness Newspaper.
“The year one children were delighted to see the shed’s wonderful new look. All kindness club members painted flowers with colours of their choice giving the shed a vibrant touch,” wrote Phoebe, Y5.
“Mrs Wibberley has made links with Manton Heights Care Centre across the road from our school,” wrote Mia, Y5.
“The U&K club were very keen to do something kind for their residents. One of the projects we recently completed is making 100 birthday cards for one of their residents who turned 100 years old in mid-December.”
Describing how the pupils and staff felt when they were awarded the Mark, Mrs Wibberley said: “We are so thrilled to be recognised as a Useful and Kind school.
“All the children are more aware of how their behaviour affects others, and are encouraged to stop and think about whether their behaviour was either useful or kind.
“We hope they will carry this with them when they leave our school and become fully-fledged members of society. The world could certainly do with more useful and kind behaviours.”
