Our ‘junior reporters’ this week are Matilda and Oren from Ocean class: “On Friday three monks came to visit us. The Rinpoche told us a story in our puja about when he was a boy and his friend who was five was very upset. To make his friend feel better he gave him his favourite toy which was a Power Ranger robot. Rinpoche loved this toy but it made him feel good to give it away to help his friend. He decided that being kind was what he wanted to do more of and this helped him decide to become a monk when he was older. He gave us a Power Ranger to remind us of the story and to be kind. He also came into our class and gave us all a string each with three knots in that we could tie on our wrists like a friendship bracelet.”

(Venerable Kassapo was joined by His Eminence Sakya Dhungsey Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche who gave the children ‘friendship bracelets’ – threads in which he had tied three knots while chanting. They are a reminder of the connection to His Eminence and he told the children the knots would also remind them of the qualities of compassion, kindness and wisdom. His gift of a Power Ranger will be box-framed and displayed at school to remind us of his story of loving kindness).

Photo: Venerable Kassapo (left) and Rinpoche (right) handing out ‘friendship’ bracelets to the children

Happy New Year! This morning we held our first all-school puja of the Spring Term, with the theme of beginning the year anew. We began by chanting ‘Om mani padme hum’ together, a mantra associated with the bodhisattva of compassion, then each class read aloud a poem about the new year before we closed with a few moments of silence.

This term we have a number of exciting activities to look forward to, culminating in another visit by our friends from Plum Village in March (dates tbc) before we break for Easter. We are preparing to take part in Brighton’s Children’s Parade in May, and as part of our 20^th Anniversary celebrations, we will also be launching an all-school project this term, focusing on Random Acts of Kindness (RAK), a global initiative which is in alignment with our Buddhist ethos. More details will follow and we hope the entire school community will get involved.

Across the school each class has been preparing for the new term - here is an overview of some of the exciting activities that will be happening over the coming weeks:

Our Nursery children in Sunflower will be learning all about the weather and about feelings, and are also taking part in a Healthy Early Years (HEY) initiative being run by Brighton and Hove council. TA Julie has been on an HEY Healthy Choice course about food and nutrition, which aims to raise awareness about healthy school lunchbox food.

Dragonfly (Reception class) will be learning all about transport and are going on a bus trip. Another planned topic is ‘growing’ and they’ll be planting seeds and also learning about how children grow. The class is also looking forward to celebrating Pancake Day and Chinese New Year.

Mountain’s key topic this half term is Early Peoples and the children will be making a prehistoric cave dwelling in the classroom and decorating it with their own pigments made from natural materials. They will be learning about multiplication and division in Numeracy and comparing the properties of different materials in Science.

Japan is Ocean’s main topic and they will be making bento boxes (for sushi) as part of learning about shapes and space in Numeracy. In an ICT lesson they will also create their own ad campaigns for their bento boxes and will write haikus as part of Literacy. A visit to the British Museum (to view the Japanese collection) is also planned. Ocean teachers Ross and Gill will also be teaching some new sports activities - Ross will be teaching the children squash at Withdean Leisure Centre and Gill will offer Gymnastics and Movement.

Lotus class are studying Ancient Greece this term and will be making pottery and reading some of the Iliad. This week’s ‘junior reporter’ is Kip from Lotus class, who explains more about what they’ve been up to this week:

“This term we are starting a new topic which is all about ancient Greece. I did some homework on Greek gods and myths and we did a timeline of when everything happened which was a long time ago. In our class puja we talked about New Year’s resolutions. We came up with things like helping more around the house, walking the dog more often, learning to cook things instead of just beans on toast, and doing more sport and exercise. My New Year’s resolution is to work harder and to try new things. I am quite fussy with food and I’m not a big fan of tomatoes, potatoes or salad, but this year I am going to try ratatouille. Our class is also going to learn how to play squash, Ross is going to teach us, so that will be another new thing to try.”