An ‘emotional’ day for students in Littlehampton

Young people in Littlehampton were among the first in the country to take part in a new national awareness day, on Wednesday (October 17).

Global Dignity Day, a worldwide initiative encouraging thousands of children to discuss the term “dignity”, was introduced to the UK for the first time this month.

Year-eight students at the academy took part in a series of sessions and discussions in the morning, alongside outreach workers from the charity Just for Kids Law – which organised the day – to talk candidly about their experiences and how they had helped to shape their opinions of the world around them.

Emotions

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During the day, the children took part in a host of small group talks in which they were encouraged to express their emotions, as well as learn from one another’s mistakes and life experiences.

They were also asked to write a letter to their future selves with a set of actions they hoped to take over the course of the next year, to help improve something about themselves or their lives. This letter will then be given back to them during next year’s Dignity Day, to see whether or not the youngsters have stuck to their pledge.

“Incredibly moving”

Jodi Manning, operations director of Just for Kids Law, co-ordinated the event at the academy.

She said: “The students today were absolutely magnificent and were a credit to the work being done at The Littlehampton Academy.

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“They understood why it is so important to treat each other with dignity and they shared some incredibly moving and personal stories.

“Young people do not often have the chance to speak about their emotions and when they are encouraged to do so, like today, it is a very powerful experience.”

Global Dignity Day was established in Norway, in 2006. Now, 40 countries take part in the annual event involving around 100,000 secondary school students from across the world.

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