Words of advice

Ms Bevan (Year 7 Form Tutor), along with three Year 7 girls, visited the Prep Department today to deliver a very powerful message to their younger peers. Their theme was all about how we should be kind to each other and consider the consequences of the things we all might sometimes say and do.

Ms Bevan, first asked the younger girls to consider what they do at the end of the day on a Friday. There were a range of responses including: “Go to Judo”, “Relax”, “Go to Props Club”, “Go to Hockey”, “Go riding” and “Go to Ballet”. One of the Year 7 girls then read an extract about a girl whose Friday is somewhat different. To the girl in the piece her Friday was all about the end of a week of bullying and the relief of a two-day respite, before school starts again. The Prep girls were then asked to consider what that might feel like.

To help them understand further they then took part in an exercise using pieces of paper. The girls were asked to scrunch up their piece of paper, stand on it, sit on it and then say horrible things to it. Afterwards they were then asked to say “sorry” to it and turn it back into the smooth piece of paper it was before. Try as they might the girls couldn’t get the creases out of the sheets of paper. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how scars remain. We can say sorry for the hurtful things we might say or do but that won’t completely take away the feelings they caused in the first place.

Another of the Year 7 girls then read out a piece of her own writing about the issue of verbal abuse, highlighting the fact that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will always hurt me.”

Mrs Etchegoyen, Head of Prep, said, “We are hugely grateful to the Year 7 girls for coming to assembly today and providing us with such an important message to think about. Not only in terms of how we must all try to be kind to each other, but also how we might be able to help our friends when they are feeling upset or worried.”