Orton Wistow Primary School Parent Portal - Issue 354: 18th June 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope that you are all well.

Small Acts of Kindness
A while ago, pre-COVID, I led an assembly on Small Acts of Kindness as I wanted the children to understand the value of doing a small thing to make people feel better and how sometimes, you may not even realise just how much these things have an impact on someone. We also talked about Mood Hoovers and 2%ers. This comes from the fantastic ‘Art of Being Brilliant’ book by Andy Cope. Andy has this to say about 2%ers:

‘We reckon only about 2% of people fall into the category of feeling consistently great. The “2%ers” stand out a mile. They are enthusiastic, optimistic, energetic, effervescent and possess a ‘can-do’ mentality. Research shows that they live longer, are more productive and raise the happiness levels of the people around them.’

Then you have the Mood Hoovers who can suck the positivity out of any situation and find something to complain about. He also explains that the 2%ers don’t have less bad luck than the Mood Hoovers, they just choose to look at life more positively. I try to put this into practice when I can. I am prone to get frustrated in traffic jams so I now make myself look around to appreciate the buildings and landscape that I would have missed. I know it sounds silly, but it does work!

Anyway, my reason for mentioning this is that in the last two weeks I have been lucky enough to be the recipient of some small acts of kindness. They have come at just the right time as I find this half term a challenge. The amount of work I need to get through can leave me feeling as though I’m drowning in To-Do lists.

Thankfully, when it was my birthday last week, Mr Marks gave me a lovely plant for my office and Mrs Matthewman gave me a brilliant Cold Tea water bottle. Both of these things have made my days better. Two days later a parent stopped me on the playground to say how much they had enjoyed the new FS Parents’ Evening via Zoom and that her friends, who had children about to start school, also felt the same way. Then I read Mr Marks’ lovely comments in his last newsletter about how well the children behave at break and lunchtimes.

This week, Mr Marks and I were given a beautiful homemade Father’s card from a child in Year 4 who called us the Fathers of the School – that’s a first and it made me smile. Then Mr Clifton, one of our Midday Supervisors came to find me to say how amazing our children are and how much he loves his job. The cherry on the cake came when a child in school who has benefited from the generosity of another family wrote them a thank-you card. In the card, he said that when he was older he was going to ‘pay forward’ this small act of kindness and do something for someone else. What an amazing school and world we would live in if we all made the time to be a bit kinder and to ‘pay it forward’ when someone has been kind to us.

My job has now been to find ways to pay it forward. I also need to acknowledge that I have felt like a bit of a Mood Hoover recently and will endeavour to be more of a 2%er. Thankfully, working in a primary school, full of the loveliest of children makes this much easier to do. I am about to start planning next week’s assembly which is all about School Diversity week. What a great opportunity for me to remind the children to be kind to one another, to seek the positive in others and to praise difference and individuality.

Kind regards,

Mr Eardley

Head Teacher

^{Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash}

Empathy Day at OWPS

By Mrs Campling, Librarian

Empathy Day was founded in 2017 to encourage children and young people to exercise their ability to empathise and inspire them to lead a movement of empathy. The day focuses on using books to step into someone else’s shoes (#readforempathy) which, as I’ve written before in my Library Corner, is one of the most powerful effects of reading.

The ability to not only imagine a different situation than your own, but to feel compassion and empathy for the person in it, is one that is invaluable for our children to learn. This year more than ever we have seen the best of the human ability to empathise, in the ways that communities have gathered together to support one another through the pandemic, and to accept difficult situations for the benefit of others.

Each year, Empathy Lab (https://www.empathylab.uk) runs events and activities for schools, families and libraries to help children to “read, connect and act with empathy”. This has mainly been online and through resourcing schools with activities and lesson plans specifically designed for exploring empathy through reading.

Children have been able to take part in different activities when they’ve visited the library such as creating ‘empathy glasses’, reviewing and recommending books, and following a character trail with clues relating to how characters may have felt about the things that happened to them.

We have also tied this in with our new collection of books from A New Chapter, a new, diverse bookshop that aims to support schools in creating diverse book collections. These books cover a variety of things: neurodiverse characters, LGBTQ+ characters, diverse families, grief, and more!

There is plenty more that we can do at school and at home to encourage empathy, such as:

Going for an ‘empathy walk’ where you imagine yourselves in the shoes of the people you see out and about. Try and notice what their body language or circumstances may say about their feelings.
Make empathy resolutions. How can we respond to other people when they are in difficulty (practically and emotionally)? Choose one person, organisation or cause to reach out to or help regularly.
Pretend you are somebody else (either a family member, a member of society such as a bus driver, nurse, or teacher) and imagine what it would be like to be that person. Is it the same as being yourself?

And lastly, why not give our character clues a go at home?

My parents died and my aunt & uncle didn’t treat me well. At school everyone thought I was special, but not in a good way! My friends accepted me though, and we ended up defeating evil together.
I was lonely and sad when I arrived from Peru, but I found a home and a family who love me even though I am different.
We didn’t have a lot of money and had to all share one room, but everything changed when I discovered a golden ticket!
I am the smallest creature in the wood but by using my imagination and being brave I stopped bigger animals from eating me - and even made the BIGGEST one think I would eat him!
Sometimes I am naughty (or even horrid…) but I just want to have fun! I may not behave well but I don’t really mean to hurt anyone.
I'm not like everyone else in our village and they thought that was a bad thing, but I changed our whole way of thinking for the better.
My family picked on me because I am cleverer than they are, but my special powers and love of reading helped me find a new home.
I stand out from the rest of the herd and sometimes they think I am silly; but what makes me different is what makes me special!
Some people think that I am dangerous because I am wild, which can be lonely sometimes. But one person invited me in to have tea with her and we became best friends.
People kept trying to tell me what I was - a bat, a sword, a flag, a twig - but I know who I really am! I’m me - and I just want to get home.