Anti-bullying non-profit You Can Sit With Me has partnered with Tip Top, to promote kindness and inclusivity in the school playground.
This year, Tip Top and You Can Sit With Me have teamed up to drive social inclusion in primary schools. The partnership will see Tip Top support You Can Sit With Me in its ongoing work to empower and educate Aussie schoolkids, their parents and wider school communities on how to form stronger peer-to-peer social bonds.
Tip Top will feature as a major sponsor of today’s event, taking place in over 900 schools across the country.
Research released today by Tip Top has found that more than 50 per cent of Australian parents and caregivers suspect their child has experienced bullying at school, but two in five feel ill equipped to proactively address the topic of bullying with their children at home.
For primary school kids, the large majority will alert their parents proactively to bullying in the playground, while others (30 per cent) rely on their school community to flag – placing even greater onus on these communities to foster transparency and approachability.
More than half of Aussie parents aren’t sure their child would have the confidence to speak up against bullying in the playground (55 per cent), despite three-quarters believing their children are armed with the right language and tools to manage it.
With parents largely unsure on how best to broach the subject of bullying and isolation with their children, organisations such as You Can Sit With Me play a role in providing education and encouragement to students, with the aim of fostering a culture of kindness and inclusivity.
Tip Top marketing and innovation director Brett Grebert said providing young Australians with anti-bullying education had the ability to change lives.
“Tip Top sandwiches have been a staple of school lunches for generations and sitting down together over lunch provides an important opportunity for students to connect and make friends.
Tip Top's partnership follows other recent ESG initiatives from Chobani, Mars and Kellogg. Calls for an extra $45 million for food relief programs and a proposal for rapidly disbursable stand-by funding for disaster relief ignored in the recent federal budget saw businesses stepping up where the budget fell down.
Chobani’s latest charity partner, Eat Up, supplies more than 13,000 meals to children in moderate to severe food insecurity, across 623 schools around Australia every week, and has made and delivered over 2.5 million cheese sandwiches to households with dependant children since 2013.
Mars Food Australia doubled its food donation to Foodbank Australia, providing a total of three million meals, while Kellogg hosted a Big Breakfast in partnership with Foodbank in WA.
You Can Sit With Me founder, Sophie Sparks said the non-profit was developed in response to loneliness and isolation witnessed on the school playground.
“Having no one to sit with at school can be a very isolating experience for students,” Ms Sparks said.
“However, we also know that schools are full of kind, empathetic children who are happy to welcome other students to sit with them, and the bright yellow wristbands help make this clear for students in need of a friend.”
