Friendship Seat

The idea behind the Friendship Chair is that whenever children have no-one to play with at lunchtime, they can sit on this seat; and someone will come over and invite them to join in with their games.It is hoped children will approach the one in the seat, make sure he or she is all right and ask them to play. It also aims to help prevent bullying before it becomes a problem. The seat can be a key beginning to promoting friendship and kindness in youngsters and help build a sense of community.This includes the values of friendliness, caring, respect, responsibility, valuing difference and including others.

Friendliness: children encourage contact with students using the seat to treat them in a friendly way to include them in what they are doing or help them find someone to be with during break times.

Caring: students approach the student on the seat in a caring way reflecting on how they may feel if they felt lonely or needed assistance on a particular day.

Respect: Students treat all students who access the friendship seat with respect understanding how they feel.

Responsibility: Students understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to monitor and use the friendship seat in the agreed way.

Valuing difference: Students understand that some students may need to use this seat more than others and may feel lonely.

Including others: All students will help include student(s) in appropriate activities after they have been on the friendship seat.