Our school’s mission was fittingly showcased on International Kindness Day, November 13, which brought cheer and joy in secondary corridors as members of the Student Council distributed anonymous letters expressing kind thoughts to fellow students.

When preparation for this day commenced, numerous concerns and questions were raised. Elim in Year 8 on Teams asked, “How will these letters get sent to people?”

“Oh no! So everyone will see the messages,”  worried Year 7 student, Ai Cheng.

The organising team was well prepared. Ethan Wang (Y12) took the lead on managing technical aspects assisted by Amaya Peele (Y7), Layla Cobb (Y11) and a few others who took on the responsibility for proofreading and distribution of the letters.

After extensive brainstorming by the Secondary Student Council (with the help of Ms Hayley Edge and Ms Rachel George), students settled on the idea of anonymous “kindness letters”  submitted via a QR code to guarantee privacy. Each participant wrote a letter to his or her preferred recipient expressing some kind thought. Emotions were clearly overflowing with a whopping 650 letters submitted.

The Logistics – Kind Acts All Add Up

“We were inspired to do this because we wanted to make sure every student felt acknowledged and appreciated,”  says Layla.

But, before the kindness tap could be turned on, logistics had to be sorted. Once all the letters were submitted to an online platform they needed to be proofread. The list was daunting. To save time, Ethan came up with a simple but effective idea. “I wrote a programme to split the file equally.”  This allowed for at least 10 people to start proofreading right away, saving time and really putting our collaborative work ethic into practice.

Was there a general theme to the letters? “People were sending a lot of appreciative messages,”  says Ethan. Typical was a letter Layla received. “Thank you so much for everything,”  the note simply stated.

Amaya, who was responsible for both proofreading and distribution, found some of the messages funny. Seeing the recipients react to them was heartwarming. “People were happy because we also had chocolate for everyone,”  she added. The submissions were so overwhelming that she still has some notes to deliver. 

Wow! I Got a Note…

There was a general air of excitement and expectation. "I felt happy because I knew who sent me the letters and those were really kind messages,"  says Daisy Lin (Y7).

Chan Hok Sum (Y7) received two notes: "I felt extremely surprised and curious as to who the sender of the first note was. I knew who sent the second one because he told me."

"I was like wow! I really got a note," exulted Alhejazi Faris Anwar (Y8).

Our students learned that spreading kindness doesn’t require grand gestures and even the simplest “thank you”  speaks volumes.

The cherry on top was provided by Owen Yip (Y7) who specially designed “kindness shirts” that are available for our school community. We look forward to seeing everyone clad in one as we continue to spread cheer.