The Buddha goes to School

Last Friday, Steph and I visited Gurnard Primary school to assist in the presentation of their "Buddhism Day". This was part of an initiative by Garnet class teacher Natalie Pettifer as part of a week introducing her class, along with Emerald and Coral classes, to the major world religions.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the day and were made most welcome by the staff and children at this friendly island school.

I've taken the liberty of borrowing the entry about the day from Natalie's class blog (with her kind permission). It's nice to have an independent assessment of our activities and how the day went. Below you can see the children practicing walking meditation, the bells and gong also proved very popular!

Here are just some of the Buddhist artefacts brought in today by Stephen and Steph from the West Wight Sangha (Buddhist group). They very kindly spent the day in school, sharing techniques for meditation and answering some very interesting questions the children had thought of. In the afternoon, they spent more time explaining to the children about the different strands of Buddhism and their own experiences. 

The answers to our “Who Wants to be a Buddhismaire” quiz showed the children really took in what they had been learning about today – it was a really enjoyable and educational day for all of us! 

Next time you feel your monkey-mind taking over, Garnet class, try putting some of those meditation techniques in place to clear your thoughts!