Lotus class just had a lesson about karma and consequences. Here’s what pupils had to say:

“Karma is sort of ‘what goes around, comes around’ and we learned that for every action there is a reaction, a bit like in science. It’s like a ball that rolls or a circle; your actions or thoughts start something rolling that can come back to you.”

“We talked about the consequences of our actions and how something that might seem good at the time can sometimes have bad consequences later, but also things that we often don’t like doing can be good for us down the line. Also good thoughtful actions can lead to more good whereas bad actions can result in more bad stuff happening. We did some work where we thought of situations where one thing had led to another thing happening and we used plus and minus symbols to show how we felt about what happened, like this…. ”

- - “I said something mean to a person without thinking and straight away I felt guilty. Later on I got talked to about it by a teacher and that person no longer liked me.”

- + “Doing homework (tee hee), sometimes I like doing it, but mainly it’s like a block in my afternoon, but once I’ve done it I realise I’ve improved.”

+ + “I was nice to someone and made them my friend. After this they were nice to me and everything was good.”

+ - “On Halloween I ate loads of sweets including millions of crunchy bars as I loved them. The next day I felt sick and had gone off crunchy bars for life.”

- + “I have to clean out my chickens and I don’t like doing that, but after I did clean my chickens out they were really happy.”

 

 

 

 

 

Today pupils from Years 3 and 4 were invited to visit the same year group at Brighton’s Elm Grove Primary School, to share their experiences of Buddhism and mindfulness practice.

Ross Young, who teaches our Year 3 and 4 pupils said: “This year we set up a link with Elm Grove Primary School. The children at The Dharma Primary School were set the task of producing a non-fiction text explaining Buddhism and mindfulness for children their age. Today we went to visit their school and read the children our work; we also explained how to meditate and did a short meditation. We played some mindfulness games, shared stories and played a game of cricket together too. Before returning to our school, we presented the Elm Grove pupils with their own ‘Tibetan Prayer Flag’ sending good wishes to all the children in the class.”

Some comments about meditation and today’s visit from our Ocean class pupils (Years 3 and 4):

“I liked playing the mindfulness games, especially when we had to work together to get across the squares.”

“Meditation makes you more aware of your real thoughts and feelings, otherwise you don’t really think about your actions - you just do stuff without really knowing why or thinking about it.”

“Meditating is a bit like learning that you have your own ‘super-power’, your own inner power that is always there if you need it….it makes you feel strong.”

Last term, pupils from Years 3-6 (Ocean and Lotus classes) created a series of podcasts and blogs about meditation and mindfulness as part of an ICT project with teacher Ross Young. As most of the information online about these practices is written by adults (primarily for adults) they wanted to relay their experiences and perspectives in a way they felt would be accessible to children their own age. You can view an archive of their project at meditationandmindfulnessforchildren.blogspot.co.uk

Our pupils really enjoyed blogging and podcasting about their experiences of mindfulness and meditation and although the initial project has now finished, pupils will continue to contribute their thoughts and experiences here on the school website in the Pupils’ Mindfulness Blog.