For most of this half term I have been contemplating the relationship between myself, my home-life and my work as Head – the infamous work-life balance. My thinking around this, which I began to explore on the staff Inset day at the beginning of term, started with an idea of how we all need to take care of ourselves, in order that we can take care of others. If this balance is somehow disrupted, then all sorts of negative emotions and patterns can arise and cause us more suffering. This disruption can occur in manifold ways, but the fact that it arises is pertinent particularly to those of us attempting growth in a spiritual way, as we seek a reflective life that moves towards awakening. Our inclination is to help others, though it comes sometimes at the expense of ourselves. This may achieve results and relief in the short term, but in the long term there is an accumulation of resentment, tightening and tiredness. As we tighten, our thoughts and feelings can become less attuned to ‘what is here now’ and more defined and directed by the tightness.

A couple of weeks later, another aspect to this knotty reflection occurred to me. In school, I am part of the work team and the wider school community. Although I am still a new Head, I am considering the whole structure, the school and the sangha. The word ‘sangha’ (Sanskrit for ‘inseparable’) most often refers to a community of Buddhist monks or nuns, but can include both monastics and lay practitioners. Even though I use the term loosely for our school community, as I get to know people more fully, I feel an increasing interconnectedness with you as parents, staff and the children.

Perhaps the defining practice that distinguishes a Buddhist practitioner is the ritual of going for refuge. It is often referred to as ‘Going to Refuge to the Three Jewels’. The three jewels, or three most precious things are the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. It is said that taking refuge in the sangha, in the community of those practising, is committing to noticing the inherent connectedness with all life, past, present and future. As the third jewel of Buddhism, Sangha offers a deep well of support and wisdom. This sense of support renews and strengthens our inspiration and energy especially when our motivation has waned.

In our technological, individualised culture, it feels countercultural (the Buddha referred to it as swimming upstream) to emphasise sangha. As a member of the school sangha, the school’s success and health does not just depend on me, on us all, but is central to ‘me’, as I am interwoven with it and so are all of you.

To go back to my original reflection, that of work-life balance, there is then this additional aspect - teamwork. It seems that in noticing my deep interconnectedness and my good fortune to be where I am, there is some extra engagement and elasticity. For instance, I am no longer working in the state sector with all the pressures that entails. I am able to work with others on this grand project of creating a unique, grounded, child-centred education. As a strong sangha we can develop young learners with skills, heart, aptitudes and dispositions which will serve them and the world. In short, this is an amazing school and it has amazing potential.

Enjoy the half-term break!

The other day, as I was running by the sea, I noticed that I was holding my arms tightly. That is, they were not moving with my body. On noticing, I experimented with letting them go. Suddenly I felt very ‘active’ – there was a lot going on, and I was a bit uncomfortable with that. I persevered and as I ran faster (briefly – I am no Steve Cram) I again noticed this disconnect. If I had not got so much tension in my shoulders, they would be merrily pounding away giving my upper body a workout too. I had wanted subconsciously to ‘separate out’ my body, for whatever reason.

Later, I reflected on something Christina Feldman, my meditation teacher, said to me once. We were talking about the process of sitting in meditation and ‘trying’ to achieve calm. She said that if the something – some repetitive thought or idea – came up again and again, to let it go. And if that wasn’t possible, was it possible to let it be? Was it possible to be ‘in the same room’ as this repetitive thought or feeling? For me, this is a question about accepting and tolerating.

It feels to me that what she was talking about was a gradation; ideally, it would be good to accept something and, if necessary, let go of it or the resistance to it. This can then lead to calm, to internal harmony. If that was too difficult, she was saying, do not create more stress for yourself, try at least to tolerate the existence of this mind event or process that you actually want to push away.

The word tolerance sometimes has a bad press, but within ourselves, our families and our communities, it can ‘allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one dislikes or disagrees with) without interference.’ (dictionary definition).Tolerance is a virtue. Coupled with empathetic understanding, this can lead to acceptance.

I would emphasise at this point that I am in no way condoning unacceptable things and situations. I am referring to meditation practice with the end result of becoming more unified, whole and calm. I am inquiring into my own habits of body and mind. If I don’t make an attempt to accept or tolerate, then I become slightly more fractured. There seems to be only two directions of change; the way through to letting go and letting be, or the solidifying of non-acceptance.

So to Khalil Gibran’s super poem, On Children, from The Prophet, the first two verses of which are sung by Sweet Honey In the Rock. This poem and the lovely rendition of it speaks to me of the practice of acceptance of my child as she is. ‘Though they are with you, they belong not to you’, and ‘you can strive to be like them, but you cannot make them just like you’. As I accept my daughter for who she is, I have the opportunity to be a bigger, less attached person.

Happy New Year to all and welcome to the new term! The staff team started the year with an Inset from Guy Claxton, during which he introduced us to key concepts and ideas in his Building Learning Power (BLP) programme and discussed how these may translate to the Dharma Primary School. With the enthusiastic agreement of the staff team, our school is now beginning to orient itself towards a BLP approach and this week I wanted to outline why this fits in so comprehensively with our ethos and why it is so beneficial to teach our children in this way.

It is worth mentioning that Guy has spent many years thinking about what sort of education would prime children to be able to thrive as adults in an increasingly complex world. He was part of a seminal group of Buddhist practitioners and interested educationalists that came up with The Elephant’s Footprint 25 years ago, which discussed what a Buddhist school might look and led directly to the establishment of the Dharma Primary School.

During the Inset day, Guy talked about the different layers of learning that have always occurred when children go to school. Of course, in the top layers, children learn facts, knowledge and skills. In a ‘good’ school, according to inspectorates such as ISI and Ofsted, ultimately a good clutch of GCSEs or SATs results is a key indicator of success.

However, the evidence suggesting that young people are not coping well in the 21st century is overwhelming. The demands of 21st century life are exceeding the resources of young people to deal with them, leading to a great deal of stress which is reflected in how they cope at school. As Guy has said about children’s experience of fact learning, “If there is a logic that links understanding acids and bases to the development of real life learning capacity, the lack of which they feel so keenly, it is not obvious to them”. There are also the deeper, slower levels of learning where what is taught is less obvious – and this applies to parental influence too. As children are such great imitators, they are constantly picking up habits of mind, dispositions and values, and they are building an identity. It follows that positive habits of mind and learning dispositions can be taught too.

At the Dharma Primary School, we have always been good at equipping children in emotional literacy and personal development through teaching an empathetic understanding of themselves and others, and also through teaching techniques such as mindfulness meditation and yoga. I have now turned my focus towards overtly building techniques of learning that will serve our children in the long term, which are transferable and lifelong. We want to expand our children’s capacity to learn. These skills or habits of mind are sometimes known as the 4Rs: resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity:

* Resilience – knowing how to stick at it

* Resourcefulness – the ability to learn in different ways

* Reflectiveness – the ability to take stock of your learning

* Reciprocity – being able to learn on your own, or with others.

For example – in terms of resilience – being able to stay calm, focused and engaged when you don’t know what to do is not merely a matter of technical training. It requires a self-concept that has not been tainted by the pernicious idea that ‘being confused and making mistakes means you are stupid’. Letting go of such attitudes and beliefs requires guidance, time, consistency and skill.

Guy has been guiding us to reorient our teaching and assisting to enable these learning muscles to grow because research has shown that being interested in the process of learning, the joy of the struggle, also leads to improved test results. We already have so much in place as a school and our children generally leave with above average attainment and skill sets. What we need to be thinking about is the whole of their learning – from nursery, through primary, secondary and tertiary and then out into the world. We want our children to have the confidence to try things that appear difficult, different, or not initially attractive so they can be open to life’s opportunities and excel.

I will leave you with an article that illustrates some of these ideas: How Not to Talk To Your Kids, The Inverse Power of Praise – by Po Bronson

(from our school newsletter, Friday 11th December 2015)

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye this term to Bea, one of our longest standing members of staff and much loved by us all. I have worked alongside Bea for the past four years and her creativity and wealth of knowledge re the school have been invaluable in enabling me to fulfil my role as Communications Manager. Up in the top office, we have laughed and cried (often at the same time!) and shared our ideas and hopes for the school. I shall miss picking up Bea’s favourite ‘Sister Peace’ sandwich (carrot and Wensleydale cheese) from M&S, and putting the world to rights over lunch and a desk stacked with overflowing in-trays and good intentions.

Bea has held the heart of the school close to her own for so long, often at the expense of her health, because she loves this place (and all that it stands for) so deeply. Throughout the past two years, she has been our lynchpin during what has been a challenging time of transition. As Joint Acting Head (prior to Clare’s arrival) she shouldered a huge amount of responsibility, on top of her role as Deputy Administrative Head. Quite simply, without her dedication, the school would have struggled to thrive.

Bea’s background is in art, design and photography and she worked in advertising before joining the school as a Teaching Assistant in the Nursery. She has taken on large-scale art projects – mandalas in the playground, school artwork for the interior design of Maycroft Manor (a local Nursing Home) – and been our ‘official’ photographer for many years. As well as raising funds for the Bodong project, and co-ordinating our relationship with Plum Village, she has trained as a mindfulness teacher on the .b programme and been an ambassador for the school at numerous events, including Future Mind’s education conference with Alison, our Head of Nursery. Bea has always been committed to the ethos of the school in practice and I hope she will continue to share her wealth of wisdom and knowledge with us moving forward.

- Sally Turner
Communications Manager

Photos (from top)

- Bea with Clare, our Head Teacher

- Bea Art Letters

- Presents for Bea (including art canvasses from each class)

- Bea with our lovely staff!