Journey to the Future

Tamariki understand aspects of the school environment that contribute to a culture of kindness.

Print one Journey to the Future worksheet for each student or pair.

(If tamariki are completing this worksheet at home and have misplaced their printout, they could copy the questions into their exercise book. If you've discussed the concepts in class, they should have lots of great ideas!)

This is an opportunity to get feedback about your school from your students, and encourage a school-wide culture of kindness.

You may like to let tamariki know that in New Zealand they spend 1,152 hours every year at school- that’s the equivalent to nearly 15,000 hours by the time they complete all our primary and high schooling!

For somewhere where we spend so much time, it’s important that we are learning cool things, but also that we feel happy and safe.

Thinking about a ‘culture of kindness’ is one of the best ways to build a happy and safe school environment.

You may like to ask tamariki what a culture of kindness might mean and explore this.

Explain that as a class, you're all going to go on an imaginary trip into the future and visit your school in twenty years’ time.

Hand out the Journey to the Future worksheets and ask tamariki to complete these (either individually or in small groups).

Reflect on what's different about their future school, to their school today and what sorts of things may need to change in order that the future school eventuates!

It may be that your school already has a culture of kindness, but what small things could students and teachers do more of to make this more apparent.

Regroup as a class to share ideas - some classes love to give small presentations.

Explore how any of the ideas may be put into practice today - one way is for your students to submit a summary to your principal with a good plan of action.

Teachers and other school staff may like to do a similar activity, considering what things they would like for themselves and their students to experience as part of school culture.

If there is room for changes, ask keen and senior students to take the lead in writing new policies!

For help with this, check out Bullying Free NZ or Work Safe for templates. You can also check out the Pink Shirt Day website for extra tools (such as blurbs for your school newsletter) to support putting your new policy into practice!

Celebrate the establishment of any new tamariki-led policies!

Check out this Sparklers at home activity Everyday Kindness and resource How to help kids be grateful and kind