Last week, Shiplake College joined hundreds of schools across England for the annual Anti-Bullying Week. The nationwide event, organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance, aims to raise awareness of bullying of children and young people, in schools and elsewhere, and to highlight ways of preventing and responding to it.
The week's activities were organised by the College's Anti-Bullying Ambassadors. Year 13 Ambassador J Burgess, explains what they did:
"Last week we spoke in Assembly about this year's Anti-Bullying Week theme which was 'Change Starts With Us'. With the theme in mind we wanted to encourage everyone to think of small changes they can make to the community in their day to day lives to help make a big difference. Following on from that F Brown spoke about the idea of the flag, and then throughout the week we went around the boys' houses to get signatures on the flag, and A Hallam and L Fahey took it around Gilson. We also spoke about why we wanted to do an Odd Socks Day on the Friday, because we wanted everyone to express their individuality through the colour, design or pattern of their socks. This week, all the anti-bullying ambassadors went to the top of Skipwith tower during lunch to raise the flag so it can be seen by the whole school."
Mr Brown, Deputy Head Pastoral, adds: "The Anti-Bullying Ambassadors have been great. It's wonderful to be able to leave a group of pupils to come up with their own inspirational ideas and for them to action these ideas with confidence and enthusiasm. I'm very proud!"
If any pupil would like to contact the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, please email [email protected]. Pupils, staff and parents are also encouraged to follow them on Instagram at @ShiplakeAntiBullying.
