Invicta Vlogs
'Kindness is mankind's greatest delight'
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Roman Philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Earlier this month, you may have heard the story about the plumber who was the recipient of an outpouring of praise after invoicing a 91-year-old woman, £0. James Anderson, who runs a plumbing company in Burnley, fixed the boiler of the elderly customer. But rather than charging the woman, the plumber wrote on the invoice that there would be ‘no charge for this lady under any circumstances’ and that his company would ‘be available 24 hours a day to help her and keep her as comfortable as possible’.
A photo of the bill was originally shared on Facebook by the woman’s daughter, before it was shared to Twitter, where it has been liked more than 100,000 times. On social media, Anderson has been praised as a ‘hero’. ‘The world needs more people like this kind man,’ one person wrote. Another tweeted: ‘This proves there are still good people in the world.’
In response to the support, Anderson simply stated that, ‘At the end of the day, we’re all part of the same family living on a rock in space. If we don’t look after each other, it’s a very sad place in which we live. We all do what we can and we all come together as a community. We need to be a human race, to look out for each other."
Kindness is not new. It is old, very old. Aristotle said: “It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favour but to be ready to do kindness to others.” It is a source of pride when I hear stories of our own Invicta students’ acts of kindness and community spirit. From Year 8 students volunteering to buddy the new Year 7s - helping them settle in to their new school; the charity penalty shoot-out raising money for the Stroke Association; 11C’s charity bake sale for Evelina Children’s Healthcare, or individual acts of kindness, such as Lavinia in Year 9 who performed music recitals for elderly residents in Care Homes, to collective efforts involving baking, buying and enjoying cakes at the Macmillan Coffee Morning, each act serves to foster a sense of community and belonging.
A sense of inclusivity being created, simply by being thoughtful and aware of how others might be feeling, was evident at the Year 7 Team Building trip to Bewl Water and the Year 13 students’ enthusiasm in welcoming new students to the year group.
Our Foundations and Pop Core activities also explored this theme of kindness, with the Upper School learning about equality and human rights - undertaking activities to raise awareness about discrimination and prejudice. Whilst the Lower School embarked on a month long campaign of completing random acts of kindness, where 994 kind acts were carried out including: helping elderly people onto the bus; volunteering at a retirement home and writing a thoughtful note to someone who was feeling down. Students also enjoyed three very creative POP Core sessions, where they created and shared origami cranes displaying their own personal words of kindness to each other.
Caring for one another is a virtue we hope to instill in all of our students and our focus on ‘community’ as a key theme for this year, has undoubtedly got off to a very strong start. I am very pleased to announce that as a school, we are now in partnership with the School of Kindness and are embarking on a series of ventures and projects to create a culture of kindness in the classroom and encourage our students to become courageous advocates for positive change.
The School of Kindness is part of the 52 Lives Charity and believes that being kind is the most important thing a child can be. As a school, we share their aim to empower children by helping them to realise that the ‘little choices’ they make every day, have the power to change people’s lives and change the world.
I am very proud that our students and staff continue to build such a thoughtful, compassionate and kind community. As September, National Kindness month, draws to a close, we acknowledge all the acts of kindness, large and small, seen and unseen that staff, students and parents perform on a daily basis. I am confident that these acts can only serve to make Invicta an even stronger community of which we are very proud.
Mrs Giles
Head of Lower School
