This week has been national Anti-Bullying Week. The theme for this year is ‘One Kind Word’. Kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last 18-months has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us. The Anti-Bullying Alliance have given a ‘call to action’ to all young people that includes:

• Ask if someone’s OK. Say you’re sorry. Just say hey.
• In a world that can sometimes feel like it’s filled with negativity, one kind word can provide a moment of hope. It can be a turning point. It can change someone’s perspective. It can change their day. It can change the course of a conversation and break the cycle of bullying.
• Best of all, one kind word leads to another. Kindness fuels kindness. So from the playground to Parliament, and from our phones to our homes, together, our actions can fire a chain reaction that powers positivity.

In addition to our Tutor programme, our assemblies this week were designed to help pupils understand anti-LGBT+ bullying and its impacts. It also aimed to make them think about how we can all make schools a better place for LGBT+ people.

Monday saw three periods of our day devoted to the ‘Careers and the Wider World’ strand of our Life Education Programme. Each year group had a different set of activities that included areas such as CV writing, university and apprenticeships, developing a ‘can-do’ attitude, planning for the future and much more. The highlight was the careers fair, where we had over 20 different exhibitors who were available to talk to, and answer questions from, our pupils. There was also some ‘hands on’ activities including Virtual Reality. Exhibitors included Babcock International, the British Army, Bluescreen IT, Super Tech, GHQ Training, Peninsular School of Medicine and Denistry, Plymouth University, The Royal Navy and Vospers to name but a few. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that made this event possible.

This week we are delighted to let you know that we have struck up a new partnership with City College Plymouth. The aim is for the two organisations to work collaboratively to ensure that all young people experience the highest quality careers education possible. We want all pupils at Plymstock to be fully aware of the skill demands and areas of sector growth within the city, so everyone has access to the best opportunities and can take appropriate steps towards successful careers. We look forward to developing a successful collaboration, which will also give our pupils access to some of the state of the art equipment and facilities available at City College Plymouth.