THE DHARMA PRIMARY SCHOOL PROSPECTUS hoosing a school is one of the most important and pivotal decisions you will make as a parent. Your Cchild’s early schooling lays the foundation for their learning behaviours, confidence and wellbeing as they grow and develop. Our unique ethos, inspired by Buddhist principles, nurtures happy, resilient children who love learning. We offer everything you would expect from a first-class primary school, with the added advantage of 25 years expertise in teaching mindfulness to children, a practice which has scientifically proven benefits for wellbeing and learning. We are informed by the national curriculum but our skilled and committed staff team has the freedom to nurture children’s individual talents and interests and, crucially, their wellbeing. The integrated practice of mindfulness and the Learning Power Approach (LPA) supports excellent academic outcomes. Our fees are competitive and amongst the lowest in Sussex and families have relocated just so that their children can attend! We hope you will be inspired to consider us as a positive foundation for your child’s development. Warmest wishes, Clare Eddison Head Teacher ETHOS & AIMS ETHOS A foundation for all-round excellence with mindfulness at its heart. The Dharma Primary School is a small community school and nursery, with skilled and committed staff, in which children excel in a safe, secure and nurturing environment. We provide a quality academic education informed by the National Curriculum, but with the flexibility and creativity to respond to the children’s needs, talents and interests. Children develop confidence, motivation and a love of learning, enabling them to do well academically and to make a successful transition to local independent and state secondary schools. Through our Buddhist-based ethos and daily meditation and mindfulness practice, we encourage children to cultivate focus, self-reflection, wisdom and compassion. Buddhism is not taught as a ‘faith’, but as a set of principles and tools for living a productive and fulfilling life. Children are introduced to the benefit of stillness through regular meditation practice - enabling them to develop a reflective WE AIM: understanding of themselves, their life and the world around them. In • To guide pupils to develop mindfulness, love and understanding, ways appropriate to young children, we discuss and incorporate key and apply them in their daily lives. Buddhist teachings and enable children to understand such concepts • To provide a good academic education which enables children as cause and effect, the virtues of cooperation and the nature and to develop positive learning dispositions, and be challenged in pervasiveness of change. ways that accord with their needs and potential. • To promote self-esteem by teaching emotional literacy and AIMS problem-solving skills, enabling children to reflect and learn Our aim is that our pupils leave our school with a good heart, sound from all their experiences and transform conflict. ethical values and a sense of responsibility combined with the • To constantly strive to create a nurturing environment in which academic and social skills that enable them to make a successful positive, respectful relationships are developed among and transition into secondary education. We hope our pupils will then between all tiers of the school: children, staff, parent community go on to act in ways that will help to create a more compassionate, and trustees. intelligent and peaceful world. • To give children positive experiences of nature and the outdoors, inspiring curiosity, wonder and respect for the environment. SAFEGUARDING STATEMENT The Dharma School is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Safeguarding goes beyond the contributions made to child protection in relation to individual children. Our objective is to provide a safe and protected environment for all young people to learn and reach their full potential. It is integral to our ethos to maintain a climate in which all stakeholders feel able to articulate concerns comfortably; safe in the knowledge that effective action will be taken, as appropriate. At The Dharma School, children are taught about how to stay safe, including staying safe online. Our taught curriculum and programme of assemblies/pujas covers how to stay physically and emotionally healthy and includes Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). We support the government’s Prevent agenda to counter radicalism and extremism and we have many policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy. These policies are available to view on our website: www.dharmaschool.co.uk Here you will also find statutory information and key policies (in sub- headings under the Heading, ‘School Ethos’). BACKGROUND The Dharma Primary School, in Brighton, is a non-selective independent school and welcomes children aged 3-11 years from all backgrounds, faiths and abilities. Our philosophy is rooted in Buddhist principles and for more than 20 years we have successfully integrated a holistic ethos with an excellent academic education. Through the practice of mindfulness, the school aims to cultivate wisdom, reflection and compassion in children and to help them unlock their full potential. The idea of founding a Dharma Primary School evolved from the family camps at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire in the mid- 1980s. Early in the 90’s this interaction between parents, children and members of the Buddhist monastery inspired a group of parents to meet in Brighton with the aim of opening the first Buddhist School for children in the UK. On 9th September 1994, the Dharma Primary School opened its doors to four children in Queen’s Park, Brighton. On this special day the school received blessings from our founder patron, Luang Por Sumedho, a renowned Buddhist monk and teacher. We were also delighted to receive blessings sent from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who later became a patron of the school. With the generous support of patrons and friends, such as Noy Thomson (Mom Rajawongse Saisvasdi Svastis Thomson) and Peter Carey, dedicated Buddhists and founder trustees, the school moved to The White House, Patcham, in June 1995 with eleven children. Since then, a nursery and four classes from Reception to year 6 have been established (three mixed-aged classes). The school now provides a Buddhist-based education for nearly 70 children aged 3 -11 years old. CURRICULUM We encourage children in their primary school years to learn skills and express their understanding according to their readiness. Our differentiated, topic-based approach is informed but not constrained by the National Curriculum, with the flexibility to explore and develop according to the teachers’ strengths and the children’s interests. Teachers endeavour to give children creative opportunities and factual learning is enhanced by drama,story writing, poetry, music, ICC, outdoor learning, discussions and a wide range of artistic and hands- on activities. Our broad and balanced curriculum includes a core programme of literacy, numeracy, science, PSHE, humanities, music, ICC, French, PE and yoga. Within the curriculum we also offer Forest School and a range of different after-school activities. As well as good academic progress, we believe that emotional development and social aptitude are essential aspects of personal growth and character; that clear thinking and confidence to express develops understanding and wisdom and that good hearts hold ethical values. This approach generates seeds of learning that grow within all our children. We believe that these seeds can be carried throughout their entire education and still develop as the pupils mature into young adults. mind moves from one thought realise they have a safe place to MINDFULNESS to another. In this way children return to when they feel worried, begin to understand the power upset or distracted. Teaching of thought and feeling and children to connect and focus have an opportunity to observe on their breath is beneficial as and learn how they respond to our breath is always with us and situations and people around children learn that their breath is them. like a friend on whom they can always rely to bring them back In daily meditation, the older to the present moment, to calm children are given a range themselves and to feel centred. of opportunities to reflect on and discuss experiences that RESEARCH STUDIES have affected their inner world. Brain imaging studies show that Such meditations may involve mindfulness positively alters situations in which they did the structure and function of not get what they wanted, the brain, improving thought or were given what they did processing, learning and well- not want, and experiences of being. If children are taught separation from special people how to practise it at a young or pets. Children reflect on the age, whilst their brains are Although mindfulness might be experienced approach that experience and talk about it still developing, mindfulness a current buzzword in education, takes into account their shorter afterwards often expressing becomes a powerful habit that here at the Dharma Primary attention spans and emotional some relief or understanding. will help them thrive. There School we have been integrating development. At the Dharma This requires receptive and are now more than 500