Buddy bench eases loneliness
Lonely days of feeling left out in the playground are a thing of the past at Fitzroy School.
New Plymouth Red Cross branch has just donated its first buddy bench, where friends are encouraged to approach anyone seated on it, as a trial inside the school.
‘‘The concept of the buddy bench is pretty much to promote friendship,’’ Red Cross Taranaki Service Centre co-ordinator Jess Burrows said.
‘‘The whole idea of it is if there is someone who doesn’t have anybody to sit with or someone who is feeling a little excluded from a game or if someone’s friends are away, they can sit on the bench and everyone is encouraged to come on up and go, ‘Hey, you can play with me’.’’
Burrows said the idea to start a buddy bench programme in Taranaki originally came from a Facebook post.
A few months ago, some members saw an item, where another school that was overseas had one.
‘‘We thought this is something Red Cross can do. We’re going to trial it out at Fitzroy School and then potentially, seeing how it goes, roll it out to other schools in Taranaki.’’
Fitzroy School was chosen because of existing connections between staff at the school and the Red Cross members.
The children were all taught about the bench and encouraged to foster friendship with people seated there.
Pupil Georgia Smith, thought the bench was cool.
‘‘It’s good for kids who are lonely and have no-one to play with.’’ she said.
‘‘They’ll be able to hang out 11, there and someone will be like ‘oh, they’re left out, they can come and play with us,’ and let them join in.’’
Fellow pupil Blake Eaton, 10, also thought it was a great idea.
‘‘I think any kid could use it, age five to 10, anyone can use it,’’ he said.
‘‘Whenever they’re lonely they can come to there and just sit there.’’
Both pupils enthusiastically agreed if they saw a child sitting on the seat they’d help them out.
School principal John Mansfield said the concept of the buddy bench was something they were excited to explore.
‘‘I think it’s fantastic the Red Cross had done that. I think it’s a wonderful donation. It’s a really good concept and we’re really pleased,’’ he said.