Kindness at Copleston
Kindness is like an umbrella that covers everything we do at Copleston. It forms one of our core values; it is part of our "I Aspire" award scheme; it is one of the criteria for earning a golden ticket; it is part of our STEPS acronym; it is taught within tutor time; it is modelled throughout the day; it is exemplified through our charity work and our leadership schemes.
At Copleston, we see acts of kindness every day. Students will enter buildings and classrooms with a cheerful "good morning" and will thank their teachers as they leave. They can often be seen holding doors open for staff and for one another or offering to help carry or give out books or equipment. We believe that kindness needs to be taught, so we model kindness throughout the day. In the mornings, it is staff who hold open the doors for students and ensure that every child receives at least one kind greeting as they enter the school. We encourage and reward acts of kindness and we celebrate these through Satchel badges, golden tickets and Principal's awards.
Charity Events
We hold charity events throughout the year. Events or initiatives in recent years have included a "Wear Blue Day" to raise money for Cancer Support Suffolk, a Christmas food collection for FIND (a local food bank charity), a large staff team in Race for Life for Cancer Research UK (and being the top fundraising team at the event), individual student bake sales to raise money for various local charities, an annual charity Christmas Jumper Day and student involvement in volunteering as part of their DofE award.
I Aspire
Our I Aspire award scheme encourages students to be kind, and to potentially push themselves out of their comfort zone to improve the lives of others. One of the awards within this scheme is given specifically for an act of kindness, either within school or in the wider community, but there are also awards for organising a charity event and for preparing an assembly about an issue they feel strongly about.
Rewards for Kindness
Our golden ticket includes the citation "I am polite and kind to others". We award golden tickets not only for outstanding academic achievements, but also for those smaller acts that help make somebody's day just a little better. If we spot a student doing something kind for another student or a member of staff, we acknowledge and reward this. Students don't do these acts to earn rewards, but we believe it is important to show students how much we value these and how much of a difference they are making. For significant acts of kindness, students also earn Principal's awards, which means their kindness is acknowledged by a senior member of staff.
STEPS
STEPS is a simple acronym we use to help students to remember that politeness and kindness go hand in hand. We encourage students not to take the work that staff do for granted and to also be kind and respectful towards one another. You can read more about STEPS here.
Our Tutor Time Programmes
In our BASE and APEX tutor time programmes, we introduce students to many role models from history, politics, science, business, sports, arts and popular culture who have been influential through acts of kindness, compassion or bravery. We have deliberately chosen examples from a wide range of backgrounds to show to students that anybody can be a role model and to ensure that ALL students have people who inspire them. We cover topics such as racism, homophobia and bullying, to show students the effects of not being kind or tolerant and to look at how we can effect change and improve the lives of those around us. We also have a "Kindness Week" each year where we encourage students to look for ways to carry out their own random acts of kindness during the week, in the hope that being mindful of our actions will make kindness become second nature.
Leadership
At Copleston, we believe that leaders should show compassion. We train our Student Leaders and Prefects to be helpful and kind to younger students and to their peers and within our application process, we look for students who have the qualities that will enable them to do this. We find that this comes naturally to them and younger students look up to them and know that students who wearing a Student Leader or Prefect uniform will help them if they are lost, worried or just need some extra support. Our Sixth Form students also have opportunities to mentor younger students, for example through our reading scheme.
Modelling Kindness
We model kindness at every opportunity. Kindness extends beyond what we teach explicitly through our tutor time programme, PSHE and assemblies. It goes beyond posters on classroom walls reminding students to be polite. We remind students to be kind and we show them how to be kind. On those rare occasions where students forget kindness, we help them understand the impact of not being kind and help them to get back on track, celebrating with them when they are successful. At Copleston, we place a strong emphasis on academic achievement, but this would be meaningless if we didn't also focus on developing our students into kind, compassionate and empathetic individuals who can focus on the needs of others as well as their own aspirations. Our aspiration at Copleston is for students to experience kindness every day and to leave Copleston with the ability to instinctively demonstrate kindness to others.
