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In celebration of World Kindness Day (13th November) we're asking school teachers to create Kindness Projects to help make their classrooms kinder places to be.
Encouraging kind behaviour in schools can make a big difference and is so much more than just a 'nice to have'. Evidence shows that promoting kindness among young people directly reduces bullying and disruptive behaviour and helps to increase social and emotional wellbeing.
Click here to download our Kindness Project pack
Every Kindness Project starts with doing: using creative activities to explore promote and experience caring and compassionate behaviour. It's important that children learn by doing, not just by talking or thinking about kindness. This helps their ideas become real and tangible; and with repetition, it helps them to start forming new habits. To help teachers create a Kindness Project to suit their classroom, we've included some activity ideas from the fantastic children's book Do Nice, Be Kind, Spread Happy - which can be printed and used in primary school classrooms, and a selection of kindness activity ideas (both classroom-based and external), developed by the US-based Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
See pages 4-13 in our Kindness Project pack for more info.
The second element of the Kindness Project involves asking young people to notice acts of kindness done by others around them. This teaches them to actively look for the good things that others do - and it helps to create a culture which rewards caring behaviour. Research also shows that kindness is contagious. Noticing kind acts not only makes us feel like we are living in kinder world, it encourages us to be kinder to others as well. A great way to encourage this is to set up a Kindness Wall in your classroom. This is a place where pupils can put up messages, stories, photos, drawings or thank-you notes about kind things people have done for them - or kind things they've seen done for others.
See page 3 of our Kindness Project pack for more details.
The more we share kindness the further it will spread and help to create a kindness revolution. We are asking teachers to help spread this as far as possible by sharing kindness in these ways:
Kindness Breeds More Kindness (Wired Magazine)www.wired.com/2010/03/kindness-spreads
The Amazing Effect of Witnessing Acts of Kindness (Psychology Today)www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/out-the-darkness/201311/elation-the-amazing-effect-witnessing-acts-kindness-0
Can kindness movements make a difference? (BBC)www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24548023
Can we teach kindness? (BBC)www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24363845
Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught? (The New York Times)www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/can-emotional-intelligence-be-taught.html
Brain can be trained in compassion (University of Wisconsin-Madison)www.news.wisc.edu/21811
Acts of Kindness: Key to Happiness for Children & Teens (Psychology Today) www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-moment-youth/201301/acts-kindness-key-happiness-children-teens
Random Acts Of Kindness Can Make Kids More Popular (National Public Radio) www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/12/27/168128084/random-acts-of-kindness-can-make-kids-more-popular
Random Acts of Kindness Can Release the Stress in Your Life (Sys-con media)www.sys-con.com/node/1592701
Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (Scientific American)www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-emotions-psychology
Pupils at John Stainer School re-branded Anti-Bullying Week as "It's Cool To Be Kind Week" and have been spreading kindness at school and in their local community. Read more
New Happiness book for children based on the Ten Keys to Happier Living, packed with fun activities to learn and try out.
Download our Keys to Happier Living posters for children
Schools have a vital role in helping children develop the capabilities to lead happy lives
Recent decades have seen big increases in the proportion of young people with emotional and behavioural issues. Mental health problems are increasingly prevalent, with 20% of children experiencing such issues each year. These problems affect other areas of a child's life and also increase the likelihood of mental health difficulties later on in adult life.
Schools experience the day-to-day reality of these issues but are also vital in combating them and promoting good emotional health. Our vision is for a movement of schools placing happiness and well-being at the heart of their ethos and culture, and proactively sharing their approaches with others.
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