Today we welcomed a group of five monks and three nuns from Plum Village. They spent two hours with our pupils this afternoon singing songs, sharing stories and teaching us some simple but powerful mindfulness exercises.

Sister Peace reminded us how effective the ‘inviting’ of a bell can be in bringing us back to focused awareness and the children discussed the various ways we use a ‘mindfulness’ bell at the school, as well as suggesting other occasions when it might be useful – “to help with concentration before doing homework”, “to help calm down an argument” and “to help us connect with how we really feel.” Sister then asked pupils to take it in turns ‘inviting’ the bell, which proved very popular!

Brother Stream handed out clementines and we all learnt how to peel and eat the fruit slowly and mindfully, enjoying the bright orange colour, the citrus fragrance and the crisp sound as we each held a Clementine up to our ear and gently removed the peel in one long piece, before holding a segment in our mouths and enjoying the taste.

We also learnt how to give ‘silent applause’ and how to centre ourselves using our breath and we sang some uplifting songs – “Breathing in, Breathing Out” and “I Love Nature”:

“I love nature, nature is cool

The forest is my classroom, the Earth is my school

Trees are my teachers, animals are my friends

And on this school all life depends”

The group’s energy, warmth and humour was infectious and we all thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. We are really grateful to the Sisters and Brothers for taking time out of their busy touring schedule to visit the school and hope they will return to see us again.

Here’s what some of our 9, 10 and 11 year-olds had to say:

About sport…

“Often boys don’t think girls can run fast, but when I run and get going I’m really fast and they’re amazed!”

“At my last school I wasn’t allowed on the football team with the boys, but here I can be on the team with them and we play together.”

“Me and my friends love football – to begin with the boys thought we’d be rubbish, but when we start tackling we’re brilliant and the boys say we’re playing well and we all become a good team.”

About creativity…

“Sewing is great, I made a skirt once and wore it to school and a boy said “wow!” when he found out I’d made it myself. It’s good when you can be creative and make something to wear instead of just following fashion and because we don’t wear a uniform to school I can be an individual.”

“I don’t like it when all the things in shops are pink for girls. It’s fine to like pink if you’re into that, but why does everyone assume all girls like pink, all the time? ”

“If I have a boyfriend when I’m older and he doesn’t like the way I look and wants me to wear loads of make-up all the time, then I’d think I was with the wrong person.”

“I like wearing trousers a lot as they’re easier to do sports and play in, but I’ve heard boys say they like it when girls wear dresses and skirts. Girls have more freedom though to wear what they want and be more fun with their clothes and hair, it’s harder for boys to do that. That’s one of the fun things about being a girl. Not all girls in the world can have this freedom, that’s why we need an International Day of the Girl so people can be aware and change things for girls everywhere.”

“I want to be a scientist or a doctor and I’m excited about it.”

“I don’t know what I want to do yet as a job, it’s good to have lots of things to choose from though. We need a Day of the Girl so all girls can have lots of choices.”

Thursday 11th October is the first ever ‘International Day of the Girl’ – designated by the United Nations following an extensive campaign led by Plan UK: “It’s a day to spread the word that the power of investing in girls is extraordinary.” This year the focus of the day will be on Education.

On 11th October, a flagship event in London, organised by Plan, will focus on mentoring girls of secondary school age to achieve their potential in terms of career success. At The Dharma Primary School, our approach is to support girls’ development from a much younger age (4 - 11) through an ethos of mindfulness and self-reflection. Research shows that cognitive and ‘coping’ mechanisms learnt around the age of seven are crucial in determining how we will function as adults. Self-awareness and understanding developed through mindfulness practice can help buffer girls against low self-esteem and the bombardment of cultural messages they receive about body image, beauty and what it ‘means’ to be a girl.

Through class projects, discussion and mindfulness practice, we will be focusing on the importance of both genders supporting, understanding and respecting each other – to help build a more compassionate and peaceful world: Our Year 6 pupils are taking part in a ‘role reversal’ project exploring what it might feel like to swap typical gender roles – in classic children’s stories and historical contexts through to playground games, hobbies and career choices. The children in years 3 to 6 will also be learning about successful women in society which will include the lives of girls from other countries and cultures. The school will also hold a special puja for pupils to mark ‘International Day of the Girl’, on Thursday 11th October.

“The Buddhist practice of mindfulness is neutral; it enables us to reflect upon our biases and attitudes towards many things, including gender and the meanings we attach to that, so that we can reach our full potential as human beings. To nurture girls within our school, and indeed to improve the prospects of girls worldwide, it is crucial to engage both girls and boys with the notion that, as human beings, we all deserve respect and understanding, and access to equal opportunities.” – Peter Murdock, Head Teacher, the Dharma Primary School.

Mindfulness in Education has been in the news again this week with an interesting article in Scientific American that discusses the benefits of teaching mindfulness practice to children. But what do we really mean by mindfulness? And how do we engage young children with the practice? Throughout the coming weeks, we will be bringing you a series of short blogs on how we actually apply mindfulness in the classroom. To begin, Ross Young, who helps teach Ocean Class, describes a simple exercise that is often an effective tool for calming pupils’ minds after their busy lunch time in the playground:

“Sometimes, after lunch break, the children can find it hard to settle from a period of play-time into learning-time. They often find their minds are ‘cloudy’, rather like when we shake our Buddha snow-globe (pictured above). The snow-globe can show them how their minds are working; they may have positive or negative thoughts, feelings and emotions towards themselves or others after a lot of interaction in the playground.

What we like to do together is to accept this and understand that our minds are busy and ‘cloudy’ from the past hour of rushing around and playing. Because a lot has gone on in the playground, we can’t always focus clearly or learn easily as our minds are busy with all these thoughts and feelings. So we take a moment. We take time. We feel our breathing, we rest. We see what happens.

We often notice that our minds settle. These thoughts or feelings may pass and change or they may still be there, but more settled and not clouding our perspective anymore. We can deal with them more easily and we can make better judgements. We often agree that this enables us to work and learn with clearer, focused minds.”