Turning blue to beat bullying in Rotherham

The national Anti-Bullying Week saw blue buns being sold by children at Bramley Sunnyside School and similarly coloured balloons released by youngsters at Rawmarsh Sandhill Primary, one of which drifted as far as the Netherlands.

Children at Bramley Sunnyside also donned blue clothing on Friday to mark the initiative, which has seen pupils writing poems and bullying and learning about people’s different beliefs.

Hayley Pierce from the school said they had also held a workshop for parents and already provided worry boxes around the building to allow pupils to confidentially pass on concerns, although they did not have a bullying problem.

Meanwhile, Aston Hall Junior and Infant School’s “kindness crew”, who had been trained to by anti-bullying buddies, wrote and performed their own play about what to do when if someone is upset, Rawmarsh St Joseph’s Catholic School children joined in an anti-bullying workshop featuring a “toothpaste challenge” — where children squirt all the toothpaste out of a tube and then have to put it back and Aston Lodge kids held You’ve got a Friend workshops.

Ann Foxley-Johnson from The Anti-Bullying Company led assemblies at

Laughton Junior and Infants and East Dene, Roughwood, Kilnhurst, Canklow Woods and Redscope Primarys, with the latter holding an anti-bullying disco on Friday afternoon.