In our whole-school friendship strategy, we teach the kids how to manage conflict. To keep things super simple, we define conflict into two categories: Friendship Fires and Mean-on-Purpose behaviour. By teaching kids to respond to conflict in a healthy way and stand up to Mean-on-Purpose behaviour, we create cultures of kindness in schools.
But, it doesn’t stop there! We can get even more intentional about creating kindness by introducing students to Kind-on-Purpose behaviour.
Despite what pop culture leads us to believe, studies show that children who exhibit kindness are more socially accepted by peers. In other words, kids who are kind are more well-liked and have more friends. Not only that, kids who engage in acts of kindness improve their own wellbeing.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia interviewed over 3,000 kids and uncovered some interesting perceptions children have about kindness. Of particular concern is that students perceive their school as less kind from Grades 4 to 8.
Let’s change that statistic with this lesson inspired by two of our URSTRONG Schools: Hunter Valley Grammar (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) and Masada College (Sydney, NSW, Australia).
