This week, the whole school has looked at “Bullying” in SPHE. This has involved discussions, looking at powerpoints and designing their own posters. We talked about the different forms of bullying, including name-calling, bullying because of jealousy, peer pressure, getting the silent treatment and spreading  lies.  We learnt how to respond to people if they tease us about the colour of our skin, our body size, our heritage or our beliefs.

The pupils learned how to respond to these pressures, taunts and hurtful comments. They learned what to do, who to go to and what to say. They learned about breaking the circle of bullying by being brave and speaking out. Then, they were put into little groups with their siblings and discussions were had about looking after younger brothers and sisters and learning patience and tolerance.

We looked at cyber-bullying and learned that hurtful messages and photos can be passed to others, very quickly through texting. We looked at the dangers of social networking and how to keep ourselves safe.

Today each child drew a heart and then crumpled it up as they thought of something hurtful that had been said to them in the past. Then, they were asked to un-crumple their heart. All their hearts had creases, some hearts were torn, but none were exactly the same as they had been before.This showed that unkind words and actions hurt us and even though we forgive and move on, as hard as we try, our own hearts will never recover 100% from these unkind thoughts and words. they will stay with us.

Before you speak, think and be smart,

It’s hard to fix a wrinkled heart.