Acts of Kindness in Schools Across the City
I am sure that many of you will have read Charlie Mackesy’s book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. And if you have not read it, then you might have watched the BBC adaptation over Christmas. Throughout this simple story there are many thought-provoking reflections and comments. One of these is when the mole asks, “What do you want to be when you grow up?" "Kind", replies the boy.
Over the past two years at St Thomas Crookes, we have been exploring what it means to be a ‘kind’ church, or to be known for our kindness. We have been thinking about what it would look like to bless people across the city for no reason, no strings attached...just simply to be kind.
One of the main ways that we have been doing this is by blessing as many staff rooms and teachers as we possibly can every half term. This has predominantly been through providing sweet treats! At Easter we gave away over 4,000 creme eggs - placing one in every teacher’s pigeon hole. In the incredible heat wave this summer, we gifted ice cream parlours to staff rooms (complete with chocolate flakes, sprinkles and sauce!). At Christmas we gave staff rooms a hamper full of goodies, such as hot chocolate, fruit teas, posh coffee, and nice quality biscuits to brighten up a long dark term.
We started small - just with the schools that were very local to us - but this has now expanded to include virtually every school where people in our church work or where children in our congregation attend. In total we have been able to bless 33 different schools across the city in the last academic year.
It has been really encouraging to hear how these simple acts of kindness have been received in schools.
“What a lovely gesture! Thank you so much; that will be a nice way to end what has been the most challenging Covid term for us since the pandemic began!”
“Thank you so much to STC Sheffield for donating ice creams to all our staff. Such a kind and thoughtful gesture. We certainly appreciated and enjoyed them.”
“To all at St Thomas’, a heartfelt ‘thanks’ for our crème eggs! They were very much appreciated and enjoyed.”
On Valentine’s Day last year, we gave every teacher at our local school a bag containing some Love Hearts, a glass heart ornament and a little business card that said, “You are Loved.” We thought that these would just be put in the staff room for people to pick up. Instead, the Headteacher actually decided to put them out on every chair at the beginning of a staff training session that week to ensure that every single person received the gift as an encouragement and blessing.
Our prayer for the coming year is that Headteachers across the city would continue to allow us to bless staff rooms in this way, and also that we are able to maintain connection with a school even if a member of staff or child moves on. We also want to look at ways of “being kind” to schools that go beyond providing sweet treats, as we know that they face serious financial and budgeting issues and resources are very stretched. Our current thoughts are to provide schools with packs of consumable items such as glue sticks, felt tips and crayons.
However God leads us to develop this aspect of our vision to bless the city, we are really enjoying learning more about what it means to “Be kind to one another.”
About the Author
Helen is the Family and Children’s Team Leader at St Thomas' Church in Crookes, and also Headteacher of the OFSTED registered nursery that is run by the church. Prior to working at St Thomas', Helen was an Assistant Head Teacher at a Sheffield secondary school, and has over twenty years experience working in education and with families.