“Thank you so much! Through the use of drama, our 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 School, December 2018)
What a week we had! Celebrating our differences, revelling in our uniqueness, and showing that, ultimately, if we respect each other we can help put an end to bullying. And by visiting 54 schools across London in November, and many many more across the North of England and Wales also, it can only have been one thing; Anti Bullying Week of course!
As proud supports 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 Helen Beecher Bryant.
With some new powerful performances and wonderful workshops doing the rounds this year, ‘The Bigger Picture 2′ and ‘Respect’, 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 fun 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 #Respect, 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:
“I absolutely loved the approach used by both Bigfooters!. They were friendly and knowledgeable and clearly enjoyed working with children. 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 to now share the experience across the school.” (Bevington Primary, Safeguarding Coordinator, Nov ’18)
“This was a fantastic way to engage the harder to reach children in the important subject of bullying. Thank you!” (Olga Primary, Year 5 Teacher, Nov ’18)
“A very engaging way to teach children how to love themselves.Our facilitator was outstanding! She was very positive with the children and very good at keeping the children engaged and taking part at all times.” (Vane Road Primary School, Year 1 Teacher, Nov ’18)
“This was an active and engaging programme that educates about bullying in all it’s forms, and informs children what to do if they/a friend are being bullied. We loved having Bigfoot in for the day. It is always a huge hit with the children who genuinely look forward to these events.” (Stanley Crook Primary, Year 2 Teacher, Nov ’18)
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.