All children at Stowford School have enjoyed lots of different activities during Anti-Bullying Week. The activities included art work, stories and songs as well as dedicated assemblies and whole class discussion times. The week began with ‘Odd Sock Day’ which really helped to get the children involved in a fun way and introduce this important week. Special Assemblies also took place for each Key Stage with a focus upon saying making positive choices in different situations. Children in Key Stage 2 also took part in an assembly focusing on ‘Cyber bullying’ to help raise awareness and action against this kind of bullying. Using the theme of ‘Choose Respect’ during Anti-Bullying, children shared their own interpretations of what this means to them through making individual posters. The posters included pictures of people respected by the children and why, as well as their own thoughts on what respect means in practice.

Chloe and George of Eagles class in Year 6 shared their thoughts whilst making their posters. Chloe said “it’s important to think about bullying because you will know what to do if someone is being bullied”. George described what his poster portrayed, “I wanted to make a poster showing that all people are different but they all should be treated with the same respect”. All classes in the school had the opportunity to walk around the school and view all the posters made by different year groups that were displayed in a ‘Corridor of Respect’.

Everyone has had a very valuable and insightful week thinking about bullying and Mrs Williams the Headteacher has been working with the School Council to find out more about the childrens’ perceptions. On a really positive note, two children from Year 5 spontaneously shared with Mrs Williams and a visiting parent that they think bullying is not a problem for Stowford school. Fletcher of Year 5 said “there isn’t bullying at our school, sometimes people just fall out but there is no actual bullying and Eva of Year 5 said “I agree!”