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Positivity helps the brain, laughter, music and a supportive environment are all beneficial for learning. So, learning about kindness, feeling appreciation and doing small acts of kindness are not only good for the students’ wellbeing, they also create a positive space and accelerate learning.

At Puget Sound Community School in Seattle, America, every day starts and ends with appreciation. The students take it in turns to share something that they are grateful for. Andy Smallman, the headteacher offers an online kindness class with 3 themes – kindness to yourself, to a friend and to a stranger. These activities can be adapted to various age groups and sizes.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation share teaching ideas and lesson plans for different ageshere.

Greater Good have a great article titled ’4 ways to encourage kindness in students’, that includes a study on kindness published in Psychological Science. Researchers have found that students who show kindness to each other; achieve acaedemic success, have a supportive network of friends and a strong relationship with their teachers.

Kindness can be linked in with the curriculum in English, PSHE, Citizenship and languages.There are ‘kindness projects’ that students can do to support each other and their local community. A small act of kindness can have a knock on rippling effect, benefiting the students, their environment and their learning.

If you work with children, in any capacity, why not take 5 minutes out to share something you are grateful for and ask them to do the same.