Our kindness initiative
KindFest is an annual, volunteer-led, online kindness festival. Launched in the height of the global pandemic in 2020, its aim was to encourage people to build kinder teams, kinder organisations and kinder communities. In 2022, its third year, they added a new element – Kindness in Education Awards.
We were thrilled to be one of the first winners of this new award in recognition of how kindness is embedded within our school.
In addition to receiving the physical award, now proudly displayed, our award-winning video entry was shown at KindFest 2022. It highlighted the many initiatives that combine to ensure that kindness is at the heart of RGS The Grange. As the Headmaster explained when receiving the award, ‘we want our children to be upstanders, not bystanders.’
One such initiative is Kindness Club, hosted by our Kindness Captains. Your son might find himself making friendship bracelets or designing pebbles with kind messages to leave around the school to brighten someone’s day. Your daughter might write poems encouraging everyone to be kind to themselves and to others. Whatever the activity, the focus is on empathy, compassion and thoughtfulness.
Projects, initiatives and activities were considered which:
- encourage people to be kinder to themselves, to each other and the planet
- build a kinder and more compassionate university/college/school
- have kindness/compassion as a core value or guiding principle
- are inclusive and enable people to be their full selves
- have a positive impact on all those involved
- build well-being – physical and/or mental health
- build bridges – help to bring people together for a common cause
- combat loneliness and build a sense of community
- build an understanding of the importance of kindness and compassion
- are scalable and could be replicated by other universities/schools/colleges
- put people at the heart of decision-making/show how difficult decisions have been made with kindness and compassion
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