Anti-bullying Ambassadors lead the way by Choosing Respect in Bishop’s

Odd Socks Day and Anti-Bullying Week: Celebrating Kindness and Unity

Let’s start this blog off with a well known quote from Barack Obama. He once said “Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied.”

The Anti-bullying team was busy this term as November is a significant month with Anti-bullying Week taking place from 11th November to 15th November. This year, the theme was ‘Choose Respect.’ We did lots to mark this week, including Odd Socks Day which we decided to mark this year as a fun and colourful way to celebrate individuality and diversity, as well as a simple yet powerful reminder that its okay to stand out and be different.

On the 12th of November, some members of the Anti-bullying team were able to participate in The Diana Award training for Anti-bullying ambassadors where we worked with lots of different schools. This proved very interesting and helpful for our own work in Bishop’s. The Anti-bullying team felt inspired and more connected to peers and teachers after this day and at the end of the training, each ambassador and teacher received a badge showing how hard they had worked to raise awareness of bullying and how we can tackle it in our schools.

The remainder of Anti-bullying Week included House activities such as The Positivity Tree and the Art bunting activity.

This year, in assemblies we have focused on what bullying is; the act of hurting someone physically or verbally over and over again, face to face or online. We have promoted what respect is – knowing others are valuable too and treating the people around you respectfully. The ambassador team spoke to different year groups about neurodiversity, racism, religious discrimination and ableism. We also focused on the potential impact of bullying as it could lead to someone not wanting to go school and becoming more and more anxious. Lastly, we suggested who pupils can talk to – friends and family, trusted adults in school and other organisations.

We are now looking forward to what we can achieve together in 2025!

Maryam A
Year 9
Anti- bullying Ambassador