Recently, I went to visit another school that, like us, is a member of the Independent School Association – St James Junior School in London. This school also has an interesting and non-standard ethos and aims to provide an education which seeks to promote and support the spirit of unity, so that everyone may be happy and enjoy well-being.
The Head, Catherine Thomlinson, asked me what our school ethos is and I feel that I want to share what I articulated in that conversation and, upon reflection, what we are aiming to do and how we are aiming to do it.
For me, the process that we are engaged in as the school community, is beautiful and full of potential and opportunity. Uniquely in the UK, we are a school with a Buddhist ethos (rather than a faith school) so we are guided by the key Buddhist teachings, such as cause and effect, interdependence, impermanence and the four noble truths. These teachings permeate our approach.
‘Educating the whole child for a whole world’ is one of the school’s stated aims, combining the provision of excellent academic teaching and knowledge and the learning of skills, with the cultivation of the emotional and moral insights needed to be a responsible member of contemporary society. The school endeavours to fulfil the vision of His Holiness The Dalai Lama by nurturing children with “warm hearts and clear heads; children who will one day help to create a more compassionate, intelligent and peaceful world.” (Taken from ‘Mindfulness in Early Years Education’, Alison Mayo.)
We aim to provide an environment where children can learn to access and connect with the present moment so that it becomes a resource for them. We do this through many different means. In effect, the whole school community acts like a sangha – a community committed to upholding the school’s values through individual practice and modelling; we co-create an atmosphere of kind awareness (mindfulness). We have many creative and joyful ways of practising this, for example, through songs, mindful movement, sitting and walking meditation practices, through mindful eating, kind communication and through communal activities. We also do this through focused creative practice and through an attention to how we are feeling.
We are held in this kind awareness by the ethical guidance of the five mindfulness trainings, also known as the five precepts. The emphasis here is that they provide direction rather than being used as absolute rules, as I believe I mentioned in a previous Head’s Up. They guide us through the knotty territory of thoughts, speech and action and our own judgements of what is right and wrong. As we are in training, we make mistakes and a vital part of both modelling and teaching this approach is that ‘to err is human’ and forgiveness is an essential part of that.
In turn, this then provides a framework for our behaviour policy. We aim to help children develop self-regulation and self-discipline. We also recognise that this again is a training and also that it can be promoted by helping students understand how all members of the school community depend on each other.
When a child’s behaviour indicates anxiety or fear in any of their forms and becomes disruptive or offensive to others, teachers try to hold the whole child, and in fact the whole class, in kind awareness. This delicate balance sees firm boundaries as integral to a compassionate response; we hold children especially in their distress.
It is important for me to be clear that the cultivation of the whole child includes how and what we teach in class in addition to the atmosphere and environment of the whole school. We share a close affiliation with Plum Village and their approach to teaching children through their Wake Up Schools initiative. In addition to this, in the first year of my Headship, we have become excited by key ideas from the Building Learning Power programme, originating from Prof. Guy Claxton. Core concepts such as developing learning muscles (and becoming a better learner) and the skilful exploration of resilience, resourcefulness, reflectivity and reciprocity blend very well with our approach. We are in the business of educating children to be empowered and confident lifelong learners.
It is a core idea for the school both from a Buddhist and an educational perspective (see Carol Dweck’s ‘The Growth Mindset’) that all things are subject to change. This includes our minds and our mindsets; we can become better and more skilled at activities we find difficult.
Guy talks about ‘a split screen’ approach – teaching subject content whilst also keeping an eye on children’s learning muscles and on what needs to be exercised to optimise learning skills. Though our curriculum is informed by the national curriculum, it is not my aim for us to teach merely this. We have the leisure and pleasure to be able to imbue our teaching with a whole child approach. Broadly, it means that I am pro Outdoor Learning and Forest School and absolutely committed to a creative approach, that runs seamlessly across all subjects.
As I come to the end of my first year as Head, I want to briefly mention my experience of our school community. My felt sense is that it is an incredibly supportive resource for both the children and the staff. With various offers of help and suggestions from different people, I want to thank all of you for your involvement in this joint project and exploration of whole child education.