Academics matter to us — but they are only ever half the story. The other half is the kind of person a child becomes. That is why, each year, we set aside a week to talk openly, honestly and creatively about something every school must take seriously: bullying.
Our students took the lead. Armed with markers, cardboard and a good deal of imagination, they made their own posters — bold, colourful and heartfelt. One simply read “Don't be the bully.” Another, in cheerful hand-lettering, turned the message on its head: “Be a buddy, not a bully.”
It is easy to teach children to be clever. It is the work of a lifetime to teach them to be kind. We try to do both.
Led by the students
Throughout the week, students led assemblies, shared stories and role-played what it looks like to step in when a classmate is being treated unfairly. Teachers guided, but the voices that mattered most were the students' own. There is a particular power in hearing the message about kindness not from an adult, but from a peer.
Kindness as a habit
By the end of the week, the posters were on the walls and the conversations had begun to settle into something more lasting — a shared expectation that, at Essay Model Schools, we look out for one another. That nobody walks alone if we can help it.
This is what we mean when we say Academics with Godliness. A sound education that does not also produce kind, courageous, considerate young people has missed its most important lesson.
