World Kindness Day is celebrated annually on November 13th, and this year, in early November, Alice Springs School of the Air devoted a whole day to learning about kindness and doing acts of kindness. World Kindness Day was created so that “on this day participants attempt to make the world a better place by celebrating and promoting good deeds…” (awarenessdays.com). At ASSOA we recognise the importance of being kind, and chose to recognise and celebrate this day as part of our commitment to building our students’ social and emotional awareness and skills.
Preschool to Year 9 students participated in this whole school event throughout the day through a blend of online sessions (in their house teams) and activities to be done in their home classroom with their siblings, home tutors and families. None of the usual school lessons and activities happened on this day instead students participated in activities in multi age groups rather than their usual grade level classes. Giving students an opportunity to mix with others in their school whom they do not usually learn with contributes to our strong culture of relationship based learning, and also provides a break in the usual school routine for our students.
The day began with a whole school assembly exploring what it is to be kind, and setting a kindness challenge. Each student made a chatterbox filled with ideas for acts of kindness and then throughout the day were challenged to show kindness in these ways to those around them. Throughout the day students joined into online sessions in their house teams, and completed kindness themed activities. They filmed a role play with others in their home classroom showing kindness; they created a board game with the aim of promoting kindness, and they designed Kindness posters to display in their classrooms.
Students, families and teachers alike enjoyed the opportunity to work with others in the school community with whom they do not usually get to spend much time, and to spend a day focusing on kindness.
“How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time” (Morgan Freeman).