‘My Mind’ Curriculum In today’s world, we are preparing children for jobs that do not yet exist, using technologies that have not yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. It is estimated that a week’s worth of today’s New York Times contains more information than a person would have been likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. A good education today therefore needs to teach children learning skills, attitudes and dispositions that will enable them to flourish in a quickly changing landscape. The aim of the ‘My Mind’ curriculum in Forms 2-6 is to teach the children the skills to think flexibly and adapt as the circumstances around them change. ‘My Mind’ consists of lessons in philosophy, study skills, mindfulness (including Tai Chi), critical thinking and PSHEE (Personal, Social, Emotional, Economic and Health Education). Though different curriculum areas, the themes and objectives of each of these subjects are interwoven and include: understanding that you can change the way you think; meta-cognition, or thinking about thinking, supports creativity; training your mind and body can help you learn better; focus and attention are key to learning and to happiness; learning skills in attention, speaking, listening and argument can help us to learn better together and think more creatively through collaboration. Across the different strands there is a combination of theory about the mind and self with practical ideas for implementing this theoretical knowledge. Whilst the ‘My Mind’ curriculum does prepare children for exam success, its scope is far wider and aims to help children understand themselves, their learning and their relationships in such a way as to be better able to manage themselves in the future.
‘Paws.b’ Mindfulness The ‘Paws.b’ Mindfulness programme, which stands for ‘Pause, Breathe and Be’, is designed for the younger age group and has been used for the third year at Byron House with Form 2. It supports, in a highly practical way, the children’s emotional development, teaching them to recognise and regulate their emotions. It focuses on teaching children about the different parts of their brains and the role these play in how they experience the events that happen in their lives. ‘Paws.b’ also teaches some Mindful practices which support attention and concentration and can be used as a calming tool in times of difficulty or as a way of noticing when things are going well. Some of the ‘Paws.b’ sessions have included topics such as: dealing with difficulty; the storytelling mind; growing happiness; brain training; steadying a ‘wobble’. The children also learned about the parts of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus and insula and how these parts of the brain work together to help us concentrate, focus, stay calm and make good choices.
Mindfulness In Senior House, Mindfulness teaching continues to be an effective way of helping children to slow down, bring attention to the moment and reduce stress. For example, one Form 6 child described how on entering his Common Entrance exam, all his revision was like “pages flying about” giving him only “glimpses of information and then it disappeared”. During and after the mindfulness practice used before the exam began, he said that he “saw the information drop down into trays marked with each subject and the writing became still” so that he could access the information that he needed.
A Tai Chi lesson, part of the ‘My Mind’ curriculum
Tai Chi This year we have extended the teaching and practice of Mindfulness skills through a programme of Tai Chi lessons for all children in Forms 2 and 3. While practising Tai Chi, the focus of one’s awareness in the present moment is on the movement of the body. The goal is for the children to be able to integrate these key Mindfulness skills into their everyday lives. Taught by specialists from the company Cambridge Kung Fu, this martial art nurtures the connection between body and mind and provides the children with a more accessible means to develop their skills in awareness, focus and resilience, through whole body movements. Scientific research specifically pinpoints these attributes as being important for a number of factors including academic selfefficacy, the development of effective coping skills and positive mental health. Critically, these skills can be trained through practice.
the johnian 2018 ~ innovations
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