We launched Anti-bullying week with wearing odd socks.  The odd socks representing how we are all different.  

Throughout the week we are discussing anti-bullying, keeping children safe when crossing the road and ending the week with Children in Need.

Keeping our children is a role we all take incredibly seriously and it is not something that is limited to a special week.  We take every opportunity in lessons, on the playground and in assemblies to revisit the key messages of how we keep safe online, on the road, out and about etc. 

To explore bullying we used the example of how a fold in a piece of paper does not have a huge impact, but how that simple act when repeated over and over again leads to a crumpled up piece of paper where the impact/damage is clear for all to see. Words are the like the folds, they may not seem big or serious, but if we hear them again and again, they do cause damage.

We then explored the poem below and then wrote letters from the Bully to the Author.

All I Ask

I'm sorry I don't impress you,
Don't act the way you want.
I'm sorry I'm not pretty
And don't have much to flaunt.

I'm sorry you can't accept me
For the way I am inside.
I'm sorry that your cruel words
Make me run and hide.

I'm sorry I'm not in your clique
And that I don't fit in.
I'm sorry that being born, to you,
Was such an awful sin.

I'm sorry I'm so ordinary,
Not an extraordinaire.
Does that give you reason, though,
To stand and cast your glare?
 

I don't know what to tell you
To make you stop your games,
And I can't think of a way for you
To take back all those names.

Please answer me this question,
And please be honest, too.
What do you get from hurting me?
What does it do for you?

We may not understand each other
Or ever get along,
But I've never said one word to you,
Never done you wrong.

So do me just one favour,
Just one simple task.
Please stop being mean to me.
This is all I ask.