“We absolutely love the approach used by Bigfoot! The programme was an inciteful and realistic approach to tackling bullying and to teach children what respect is. Just brilliant! I am hoping we can secure funds to have Bigfoot in again next term to now share the experience across the whole school”
Wow!! What an incredible few weeks we’ve had! Up and down the country we have visited THOUSANDS of young people to help them understand that ‘Change Starts with Us’ and how to ‘Be Kind’. It is our hope that, by spreading these simple messages, children will recognise the implications of bullying behaviour and understand what they can do to help put a STOP to Bullying!
As proud supporters and partners of Kidscape, our Bigfooters were prepped and ready to work with both KS1 and KS2 students having been trained by not only our Bigfoot trainers, but also Kidscape’s Ashley Rolfe.
With our some powerful KS2 performances and wonderful workshops (‘The Bigger Picture 1’ and The Bigger Picture2; Respect’) as well as our brand new KS1 assembly ‘It’s Good To Be Me’, doing the rounds this year, we have continued to raise awareness about how we should treat others and how we should expect to be treated ourselves. We have reflected on what positive relationships look like, as well as how to deal with negative attitudes and behaviour. We have explored online safety and the concept of cyber bullying by using our accessible workshops as a vehicle for safely exploring serious issue facing all young people today. And we have done it all with wisdom, creativity, and flair!
And by embracing the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s campaign centred around #ChangeStartsWithUs, our assemblies and workshops received such wonderful feedback across the board. We often say this, because it is so often true, but this year we are delighted to say it has been our busiest and best year to date for our anti bullying programmes! Feedback has been resoundingly outstanding, with schools commenting the following to us post their Bigfoot visit:
“Such a great way of bringing the PSHE topic of anti-bullying to life. Will definitely be booking again next year.” (Michael Faraday Primary, Rebecca Smith, Nov ’19)
“Outstanding! Through the use of drama, children were able to explore different scenarios and imagine what it would be like to be in different situations connected to bullying and treating each other with respect. Children were able to explore motives behind people’s actions and see that such actions should not always be taken at face value, as well as seeing the importance of having respect for themselves and others.” (Crown Lane Primary, Ruth Grimwood, Nov ’19)
“The energy, behaviour management and knowledge of the Bigfooters is what makes this work. They are great fun and the children loved the assembly and the workshops and there was a real buzz about our school for the 2 days that they were visiting.” (Southborough Primary, Gill Hawkins, Nov ’19)
And once again, we are happy to share our ‘Top Ten Tips’ on how our Bigfoot Facilitators create an inclusive classroom, which is available to view here.
So thank you to all our highly talented Bigfooters for delivering our messages so coherently and with such energy, enthusiasm and commitment. And thank you to all the schools who chose to have us working with their students in order to help inspire such important anti bullying conversations.