On Friday the 20th of May, we celebrated 2022’s Pink Shirt Day. We wore pink shirts to raise awareness against bullying.

Throughout Week 3:

Oaklands school has been celebrating Bully Free Week.

Our student leaders and teachers have organized many fun activities to raise awareness for anti-bullying.

We had multiple Wheels Days where students could bring in their scooters, skateboards and rollerblades to play with during lunch and morning tea.

We also had various creative activities being held in the hall including coloring, pink shirt decorating, heart messages and paper chains.

During lunch and morning tea, there was a pink shirt scavenger hunt, where the students could find laminated pink shirts, if you found one you could collect a prize from the hall.

We asked our Year 7/8 students some questions about pink shirt day, and these were their responses:

Student voice:

Why do you think schools celebrate Bully Free Week?

Lucca - To make an impact on bullying.

Mya - To stop bullying from happening.

Hayley- To support those are being bullied, and to stop bullying

Why do we wear pink?

Cooper - to support anti-bullying.

Kaira - To show we’re upstanders.

Adan - To show support against bullying.

What is the importance of pink shirt day to them?

Noah - The importance of pink shirt day is remembering the boy who decided to wear pink, and no matter what, kindness always wins

Isaac- To stop bullying.

If someone was being bullied what would you tell them?:

Charlize - Don't let it bother you, and don't let it get to you.

Emily - Ignore them, the bully probably has something going on.

Josie - No one should be treated this way and we are all here for you

If someone new was coming to this school, what would you say about the school to reassure them?:

Kinjal - It’s a positive place and if there is bullying, the Kiva Team would shut it down.

Max - If there was bullying here we wouldn’t support it, we are kind and have been taught throughout the school to prevent bullying when we see it.

Pink shirt day is one of the many ways Oaklands school raises awareness for anti-bullying. If you do have a problem at break time you can notify and fix the problem by asking one of our Peer Mediators, but if the problem has become physical or property is broken notify a teacher.

We also have an amazing group of teachers that form Oaklands School’s Kiva Team that can help if you have a bullying issue.