Messages of kindness hit a right note
SCHOOL pupils have been putting smiles on the faces of people by handing out ‘notes of kindness’ as part of the M.E.N’s #WeStandTogether campaign.
Parrs Wood High School students came up with the idea themselves to support the campaign, which was set up in the wake of the Arena bombing and encourages acts of kindness as well as fighting every kind of crime which is driven by hatred.
Each of the pupils’ notes contained a positive message or quote, such as ‘we rise by lifting others,’ and ‘simple acts of kindness are the seeds we plant to change the world.’
The notes were given to shoppers at Tesco in East Didsbury, as well as people in Didsbury and Cheadle Village in a bid to brighten up their day.
Stacey Copeland, head of personal development and wellbeing at Parrs Wood High School, said it was just one of many things the school has been doing to support the #WeStand Together campaign.
She said: “I was stood by the doors as people were walking out and it was lovely to see them smile as they were reading them.
“We had a wonderful response, a lot of shoppers were stopping and having conversations with the pupils, who are part of our student leadership team, which was also great to see. Quite often people see a small group of youths causing trouble, and then tarnish them all with the same brush – it’s another form of prejudice.
“This was a lovely way of not only brightening people’s days, but also showing them how nice and hardworking these kids are, and how they want to make a difference.”
Stacey said the school recently hosted its first #WeStandTogether event, which aims to celebrate diversity and start a conversation around hate crime, and had guest speakers to talk to pupils about their experiences. She added: “There were many reasons we wanted to support the campaign, and one of them was because of how our school community was affected by the attack at the Arena.
“We are an extremely diverse school, and we should never take for granted that everyone will just accept each other’s differences and get on. We need to keep spreading these messages and making sure our pupils continue to work together.
“It’s the same with sexism, gender bias, homophobia – we need to be proactive and do something about it now. We can’t just assume it doesn’t affect us because it does.”
Another major aim of the #WeStandTogether campaign is to bring peace conflict studies to all schools in the region. They are already part of the curriculum at Parrs Wood High School, where students are now setting up a Peace Forum with other schools.