Schoolgirl asks teachers for ‘Friendship Bench’ so pupils aren’t lonely at break

A little girl worried about fellow pupils being ‘lonely’ at break time penned a sweet letter to her school suggesting the perfection solution.

The schoolgirl wrote to her teachers asking if they would consider installing a ‘Friendship Bench’ in the playground.

Teachers at primary school, Fernando de Rojas, in Burgos, northern Spain, were surprised to find the letter in the staff post box from the Year 4 pupil.

She told teachers if they were going to make the new addition to the playground, the bench needed to be colourful with a sign making it clear that it was a spot to make friends.

The letter read: ‘Hello Ana,

‘I would like it if there was a friendship bench in the playground.

‘It needs to be colourful and with a sign that says ‘Friendship Bench’, so people who feel lonely sit down and someone sees them sat down and asks: “Do you want to play with me?” Thanks.’

The young girl finished the letter with a drawing of her idea coloured in with yellow, pink and red stripes, reading ‘Friendship Bench’.

Staff were so touched by the letter, which has since gone viral on Facebook, they have decided to honour her wishes and are set to install the bench in the next few weeks.

With the school’s 40th anniversary coming up, Headteacher Ana María Martínez confirmed the plans praising the pupil’s idea.

She told Spanish news site Burgos Conecta it was ‘an initiative suggested by a pupil for other children’ and that sometimes children just have better ideas than adults.