In March 2018, we invited local headteachers to our school to share a project that we had been working on in the hope that it would sort out a problem in a class. Some children did not want to come to school as they had been upset by other class members. Something had to be done! Our teacher, Mrs Ketcher-Murrell, gave us the idea to take responsibility for our actions and say sorry to the people we had upset – face to face. This was in December, and so far, we’ve all kept our word and have worked hard to keep our relationships on a positive note. This then led to a lesson from Class Dojo’s “Big Ideas” about a ripple of kindness and the seed had been sown!

We discussed how we could be more kind and came up with some suggestions, most of which we have already started in our school and around our local community. We thought about a theme and motto, and designed a logo. The colour we chose was yellow (a happy colour) and then set up a Twitter account @BeMoreBeKind. Everything we do, we add the hashtag #BeMoreBeKind and we try to keep the colour scheme going, too.

Here are a few things we’ve done:

• We put yellow bows up around our village with kindness messages attached to them. The same day, a lady took a photo of the bows whilst walking her dog, and said it made her day. She posted this on Facebook and was one of our first Twitter followers.

• We put sunflowers in people’s car doors and gardens, each with a kindness message attached.

• We looked into the “Kindness Rocks Project” and painted rocks in our colour scheme. These were placed in people’s gardens around our village.

• Kindness notes were placed in pupils’ pockets and lunch boxes.

• We dropped yellow tennis balls in local parks for dog owners to play with their beloved pets.

• Games were made in small tins and left along the seafront, each with a message asking the ‘finder’ to play a game with a new friend.

• We have a kindness tree in our classroom and kind acts are displayed on the leaves.

• We hosted a lunch for a local charity to encourage the older generation to get out and about and meet new people. We made bara brith (tea fruit loaf) for dessert and chopped up all the vegetables for 70 portions of cawl (traditional Welsh soup).

• We’ve had kindness pin badges made bearing our logo. There are five in the school and they are passed along between the pupils when they see someone being kind. Nobody keeps the badge for longer than a day in order to keep the idea flowing.

Our intention is to catch people being kind and making this part of our culture at Newton Primary School. Our aim is to make people feel appreciated and happy by receiving kindness, and then they will hopefully carry on this kindness. Who knows? Maybe this project will spread around the world – wouldn’t that be great? The impact on this project has been amazing; to be able to put a smile on somebody’s face is a wonderful thing – it even makes you feel better!

If you would like to be involved, just speak to the Kindness Crew/Criw Garedig.

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward,

safe in the knowledge that one day someone might to the same for you.

Princess Diana