This year's focus for Anti-Bullying Week  was 'One Kind Word'. At St Paul's we spent one hour each day exploring the following ideas and themes. These were linked, specifically, to the needs of our children. They were informed by pupil and parent questionnaires as well as the safegaurding needs of the children in our school community.

See parental letter below, outlining the key events for the week:

Parents/Carers,

It’s that time of year again folks - Anti-Bullying Week! Events will run throughout the whole of next week: Monday 15^h – Friday 19^th November. The focus this year is: ‘One Kind Word’. As part of our work, we will have a specific focus each day. The menu of events we are holding is outlined below:

• Monday - Odd Sock Day!

The children are invited to wear odd socks for the day, linking to Andy and the Odd Socks who you might remember gave us a special visit only a few years ago! This day helps us to remember that - like our odd socks - we are all different and we should all be proud to be ourselves. As we understand finances are tight for many of us at the moment, there will be a voluntary contribution of £1 which will go towards the ABA (Anti-Bullying Alliance). There is also an additional ‘pets in odd socks’ element this year so if you have any fun photos of your pets please share them.

• Tuesday

We will be exploring what bullying looks like and when behaviour becomes bullying. In school, we use the acronym STOP – Several Times On Purpose. This helps the children to differentiate between falling out and bullying. We will also explore the feelings involved and how damaging bullying can be on people self-confidence, mental health and general well-being. Each child will be designing and making their own posters to advertise around the school.

• Wednesday

We will be discussing what it feels like to be included and excluded from a game or a friendship group. Also, we will recap on what bullying behaviour is and the different types of bullying: physical, verbal, indirect (leaving others out) and cyber. When any of these happen, we should always tell a trusteed adult, either in school or at home.

• Thursday

We will be looking at the different roles we take within friendships and how this can lead to bullying situations. There are a number of roles which happen when bullying takes place: target, ring-leader, assistant, reinforcer, defender and outsider. To explore this more fully, we will be role-playing a range of bullying scenarios, taking turns to be different roles so we understand what it feels like to be in each of the roles. In the afternoon, we will be taking a whole school drone photo, spelling out this year’s anti-bullying slogan.

• Friday - Red and White Day!

The children are invited to wear red and white clothing for the day. We have a top-secret special event planned for the morning assembly where this will become clearer! This will be shared on the school Twitter site for parents to watch. In our class work, we will be summarising our weeks’ work on the overall theme of 'One Kind Word'. Crucially, we will explain that although our 'focus week' has ended, bullying behaviour does not. Remember to be that good friend to others and stand up to bullying. We will be concluding our weekly events by making eternity bands (Mobius strips) which the children will bring home with them.

Here's to a fun week ahead!

Many thanks,

Chris V (PSHE Lead)