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BULLYING. |
Suggestion for collective worship -
primary level |
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Tell the children Hans Anderson's story of the Ugly
Duckling. |
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One spring a mother duck sat on her nest close to a pond near a
farmyard. She had five eggs in her nest. She kept them warm so that they
would hatch. One by one four of the eggs cracked and tiny ducklings
pecked their way out. They were very pretty. The mother duck was very
proud of them. She wanted to take them to the farm-yard to show them off
to the other ducks. But the fifth egg had not hatched and the mother
duck went on sitting there to keep it warm while the little ducklings
tried out their legs and practised saying "Quack".
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At last the fifth egg began to crack. First a beak poked out, then
a head, then the whole egg broke and out stumbled the fifth duckling.
But oh dear, it was much bigger than the other ducklings and nothing
like such a pretty, fluffy, yellow as the others were. In fact it was
very ugly. |
When the mother duck took her babies to the farmyard the ducks
there, and the other animals, said how nice her ducklings looked. But
they made some very unkind remarks about the fifth duckling. "I
don't think that is a duckling at all," said an old duck. "I
think it's a turkey!" |
Some of the ducks pecked at the fifth duckling, and pushed it hard. |
"Show us you can swim," they said, "otherwise
we shall know you are a turkey. An ugly gobbling turkey! Turkeys cannot
swim." But when the mother duck went to the pond, all the five
ducklings joined her in the water. |
"No, you're not a turkey," said the mother duck. "You
do look rather odd, but you are my own fifth duckling." |
But now the old farmyard turkey joined in the bullying. "Of
course you're not a turkey, you ugly thing," he said. |
Poor duckling. His brothers and sisters didn't like him because he
was bigger than they were. "We hope the cat catches you,"
they said. "We don't want you swimming on the pond with us."
The chickens mocked him. The older ducks went on pecking him. And the
girl who fed the chickens even kicked him. "Take that, you ugly
thing," she said. |
The duckling was so unhappy that he flew away. He flew
over the hedge and across a field until he came to a great marsh where
the wild ducks lived. But the wild ducks were just as cruel as the
farmyard ducks. "Go away, you nasty ugly brown little thing,"
they said. |
The little duckling hid in the reeds. There two geese found him. "Why
don't you come with us," they said. "We don't mind how
ugly you are. Fly with us to another marsh where we live."
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But two hunters with guns were lying in wait for the geese to shoot
them to take them home for their dinners. When they flew up above the
reeds there were two loud bangs and the geese fell to the ground. The
duckling was terrified. He hid in the reeds until the hunters had gone
and then he ran, and flew, and flew, and ran as far as he could. |
The next day the duckling went on again. Then he came to a cottage
where a woman lived with her hen and her cat. She took the duckling in
and fed it. But the hen teased it and called it rude names for being
ugly. And as the duckling grew a little older the woman grumbled at it
because it did not lay eggs. |
"You are no use to me," she said. "I am
not going to feed you any more, you ugly, useless thing." |
Once more the duckling was driven out. It was autumn now and the
weather was getting cold. The duckling travelled on looking for fresh
lakes or rivers where it could swim and hunt for fish to eat. One
evening, just as the sun was setting, it saw some beautiful white birds,
with long necks and graceful backs, swimming on a lake. As he watched
them they rose up into the air on strong white wings and flew off. The
duckling uttered a strange cry. He felt that they were so lovely. He did
not know what they were. But how he wished he could have joined them. "But
they would only have bullied me and driven me out," he thought. |
Winter arrived. The duckling had a very hard time. He was often
very cold and hungry. He was lonely, too. But he stayed at the lake
where he had seen the beautiful birds. Sometimes he had to swim very
fast in circles to stop the ice forming on his lake. One night there was
such a hard frost that the water froze completely and he was held fast
in the ice. The next morning a man found him, broke the ice and took him
to his house. But the duckling was frightened there. He thought they
would bully him like everything else did. He flew about in fear and when
the man's wife cried out, he flew into her butter tub and then into her
flour. He looked a very strange sight. The man's children tried to catch
him and they struck at him with wooden spoons. But the duckling managed
to get away. |
The rest of the winter was dreadful for the duckling. But then
spring came again. The duckling set out again to find a new home. He
came to a beautiful garden with sweet-smelling bushes and a beautiful
river. And there on the river he saw three graceful birds swimming. They
had lovely white bodies and long curving necks. They were just like the
noble birds the duckling had seen on his lake. How he longed to join
them. But he was afraid that they would hate him because he was ugly and
they would peck at him and sneer at him. |
But the lovely birds saw him. One of them glided down the river
towards him, its feathers fanning out like a sail. The duckling stayed
still by the water's edge, bending its head down over the water, waiting
for the first blow of the bird's beak. |
And then, looking into the water, he saw his own reflection. But
what was this? Where was the ugly overgrown duckling with the brown
feathers? All he could see was another graceful bird with a long white
neck and a pure white body. He was just like the lovely birds himself.
He was not an ugly duckling at all. He was a swan. He went forward into
the river and swam happily among the other swans. He was accepted at
last. |
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The story of the ugly duckling has a happy ending. But think how
unhappy the little swan must have felt when those ducks and other
animals, and people were unkind to him, and bullied him. |
We cannot always be sure that there will be a happy ending when
people are bullied. Sometimes people are so badly hurt and upset that
their whole lives are spoiled. We must be very sure always that we are
never unkind to other people. Whether they are like us or different we
must not pick on them, or call them unkind names, or hurt them in other
ways. Bullying is wrong. If ever someone tried to bully you, you must be
sure to tell an older person, because bullies have to be stopped from
doing harm to others. |
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