School pupils from around Knowsley and St Helens have been doing their bit to make their community a kinder place after taking up a challenge set by housebuilder Taylor Wimpey to mark World Kindness Day.

World Kindness Day is celebrated internationally on 13 November every year. It was introduced by the World Kindness Movement in 1998 as part of their mission to create a kinder world.

The housebuilder, who are delivering new homes as part of the Halsnead Garden Village development, asked pupils from schools across the region to take part by carrying out small acts of kindness. In Knowsley, Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School in Prescot and St Leo’s and Southmead Catholic Primary School in Whiston took up the challenge and pupils came up with a range of inspiring ways to support their community.

Among the acts of kindness the children carried out were:

Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School

• Ava in Year 5 made a ‘Get well soon’ card and delivered it to Whiston Hospital for the patients
• Caleb in Year 5 donated to his local foodbank. He said: “Donating this food makes me realise how lucky I am.”
• Entela in Year 5 took pound coins from her piggy bank to give to homeless people in Liverpool, and also helped her neighbour with her walking aid
• Lucy in Year 5 helped to cook her brother’s favourite shepherd’s pie for his tea to make him feel better because he had chicken pox

St Leo’s and Southmead Catholic Primary School

• Several pupils wrote poems and created posters about what being kind means, including Ariana, Ava, Heloise, Olivia and Safia
• Reggie helped his dad wash the car and his mum wash the dishes
• Max helped his friend Rufus up after he fell over while playing hockey
• Levinieh asked God to help her and others to show kindness

As a thank you, all four schools will receive a £250 donation to help fund new equipment and treats for the classes that took part, and Taylor Wimpey will present the pupils with a certificate to recognise their kind acts.

Helen Scott, Year 5 Teacher at Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, said: “The Year 5 children loved taking part in the random act of kindness challenge and it really underpins our school mission statement of ‘Loving, Learning and Reaching Out to All’. I am really proud of the children’s efforts to live out our mission statement at home and in our local community. What a lovely opportunity to work with a company on this project.”

Angela Tambourini, Headteacher at St Leo’s and Southmead Catholic Primary School, said: “Taking part in the Taylor Wimpey ‘acts of kindness’ challenge really brought home to our children the importance of living out our school gospel values.  Learning how our children are being kind not only in school but in their community was very humbling for us and highlighted just how important it is to be the very best version of ourselves.  As always our children rose to the challenge and inspired each other to go above and beyond with their kind acts.”

Jennifer Burns, Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey North West, said: “I think we can all agree that a little kindness goes a long way, and our teams really try to go above and beyond when helping customers to settle into their new homes.

“We were excited to see what the pupils did to mark World Kindness Day and we certainly weren’t disappointed. They showed such a range of kind and caring behaviour and it’s clear that our future is in good hands with these youngsters. Thank you to everyone who took part.”