ST. JAMES: "TRULY A SCHOOL AHEAD OF ITS TIME"

Discussion of the children's schools in the UK.
Justice
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:13 pm

ST. JAMES: "TRULY A SCHOOL AHEAD OF ITS TIME"

Postby Justice » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:49 pm

I recently received a copy of a new free magazine through my letterbox entitled 'Country House Magazine' which is distributed to 100,000 homes in west london and Mayfair.

Included with the magazine was a supplement called 'School House'. This seperate magazine includes articles and advertising from private schools in the same areas.

One of the lead articles in the magazine is entitled 'The Happiness Factor' and describes how various schools have been "introducing a range of inspired measures to counteract the stresses and create balanced individuals instead of mere academic achievers.'

St. James's Senior School for Girls in Hammersmith is heavily featured in the article, and includes a 3/4 page colour photo of two girls meditating.

The article goes on to say:

"De-stressing takes another, gentler form at St. James's Senior School for Girls, in Hammersmith. "One of the most vital things we provide for pupils is the opportunity for them to experience complete quietude and the abscence of all activity twice a day," explains Headmistress Laura Hyde. "For ten minutes each morning and ten minutes each afternoon , we have a period of silence in which the girls meditate and contemplate together and find their inner peace. It helps them to be calm and put the world into perspective, which ultimately makes for healthier individuals."

The girls agree. "Silence and listening are the most important things in today's society" says year 12 pupil Gina. "The benefits are immense. I'm not a Christian, but going to church and meditating from a young age have given me the ability to reflect on the greater issues of life. Until you know yourself, no-one can truly know you."

The article goes on to say:

"This might all sound rather New Age, but Hyde points out that regular meditation sessions have been taking place at St. James's since it was founded in 1975. Truly a school ahead of its time."

What the article fails to mention is the fact that the school was set up and is controlled by a Mind Control Cult! Nor does it explain how the school provides an opportunity for pupils to join and be indoctrinated by the same Cult using coercive Mind Control techniques!

The Editor of 'School House' Magazine is Penny Dash. Anyone interested in contacting her can send her an email to:
penny@deepermedia.co.uk

Tom Grubb
Posts: 380
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:23 pm
Location: London

Postby Tom Grubb » Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:24 pm

Many thanks for posting this, Justice! I'm going to contact Penny Dash with some further examples of just how "ahead of its time" St James was/is. I hope others will do the same.

It would be great if someone could type or scan the complete article.

Justice
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:13 pm

ST JAMES: "TRULY A SCHOOL AHEAD OF ITS TIME"

Postby Justice » Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:46 pm

Tom Grubb said:
Many thanks for posting this, Justice! I'm going to contact Penny Dash with some further examples of just how "ahead of its time" St James was/is. I hope others will do the same.

It would be great if someone could type or scan the complete article.


As suggested, the entire article appears below.

SCHOOL HOUSE MAGAZINE
Issue 01 / March 2007



THE HAPPINESS FACTOR

As teenage exam pressure rises to unbearable proportions, independent schools take action.

By Monica Porter

Today’s teenagers are under more pressure than ever to achieve. In the academic hot-house atmosphere of public schools, they are making university and career choices earlier, and the competition is fierce. Top universities are rejecting large numbers of applicants with three A grade A levels. And that’s before the rat race begins.

Childline, the children’s helpline, gets thousands of calls each year from overburdened youngsters worried about exams. Some even attempted suicide. Most callers are teenagers, but even children as young as seven can get worried about school tests, claims Childline. On top of all this, many children are subject to social, family, and cultural pressures. No wonder so many fall prey to depression and eating disorders.

Now for the good news. Our schools have been introducing a range of inspired measures to counteract the stresses and create balanced individuals instead of mere academic achievers.

In the forefront is Wellington College in Crowthorne, Berkshire, whose Master, Anthony Seldon, is an outspoken critic of the obsession of exam success and league tables. Not satisfied with the PHSE courses which already exist in many schools, he recently added weekly well-being classes to the curriculum, with the aim of producing “well rounded people who are better able to look after their bodies , minds and emotions”. He claimed the ‘happiness classes’ as they’ve been nicknamed, would enhance pupils’ relationships and help them to become masters of their lives. “These initiatives may not change the world,” says Seldon, “but they are our response to the need for a more holistic education.”

Elsewhere, too, ‘holistic’ is the new approach, and ‘well-being’ the new buzzword. At Priory Field Girls’ school near Godalming, Surrey, Headmistress Julie Blade is planning to open a well-being centre for the older girls to serve as a “peaceful, comfortable retreat, somewhere to go in order to think or relax. We might also have yoga sessions there, Indian head massage and other calming therapies.”

Last year, the school introduced a mentoring system in which the older girls mentor the younger ones, helping them with any personal or social issues they might have. (The older girls themselves each have a mentor from among the teaching staff.) In addition, there is a professional counselor who comes in twice a week.

“Each girl has a chart we call the Listening Tree which outlines the specific sources of support available to her at all levels, so she always knows who to turn to for help. Prior’s Field has a strong sense of community – we have only 372 pupils. No-one is invisible here.”

At another establishment, Woldingham Catholic Girls School in Woldingham, Surrey, headmistress Diana Vernon brought in fortnightly one-to-one coaching sessions for sixth formers. A more wide-ranging programme than the traditional tutoring system, teachers at the school were specially trained for it by an external life coach. “They get help and guidance with all their issues,” Vernon explains, “whether academic, social or personal. The girls really appreciate having the one-to-one focus time, and we hope it will enable them to leave school with a healthy life-work balance.”

It seems the schools’ approach to pastoral care is successful: in a recent nation-wide poll, Woldingham pupils emerged as amongst the most contented in the country. Seventy-eight per cent of them ‘really liked’ their school, compared with an average of 47 per cent.

At the co-educational St. Edward’s School on the outskirts of Oxford, Warden Andrew Trotman says, “We have a far better support network for pupils now, with plenty of pastoral care and both in-house and external counseling, as and when they are needed. We’re well aware that education is about more than academic results.”

And they are equally aware of the powerful de-stressing properties of physical exercise, because the school has no mere conventional sports hall in its beautiful grounds, but boasts a lavish, state-of-the-art Esporta health club, with a fitness studio where pupils can go for gym work outs, dance classes and games such as badminton. Clearly, the days of dull old Phys. Ed. Lessons are long gone at St. Edward’s.


"De-stressing takes another, gentler form at St. James's Senior School for Girls, in Hammersmith.”One of the most vital things we provide for pupils is the opportunity for them to experience complete quietude and the abscence of all activity twice a day," explains Headmistress Laura Hyde. "For ten minutes each morning and ten minutes each afternoon, we have a period of silence in which the girls meditate and contemplate together and find their inner peace. It helps them to be calm and put the world into perspective, which ultimately makes for healthier individuals."

The girls agree. "Silence and listening are the most important things in today's society" says year 12 pupil Gina. "The benefits are immense. I'm not a Christian, but going to church and meditating from a young age have given me the ability to reflect on the greater issues of life. Until you know yourself, no-one can truly know you."

This might all sound rather New Age, but Hyde points out that regular meditation sessions have been taking place at St. James's since it was founded in 1975.
Truly a school ahead of its time.

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bonsai
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Location: London

Re: ST JAMES: "TRULY A SCHOOL AHEAD OF ITS TIME"

Postby bonsai » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:31 am

Laura Hyde quoted in School House Magazine wrote:"For ten minutes each morning and ten minutes each afternoon, we have a period of silence in which the girls meditate and contemplate together and find their inner peace. It helps them to be calm and put the world into perspective, which ultimately makes for healthier individuals."


Contemplate? Transcendental Meditation is what St James and the SES endorses. TM has nothing to do with contemplation. It is all about repeating constantly a secret mantra in order (apparently) to quiet the mind. Contemplation would seem to have nothing to do with it.

The trouble is that meditation would seem to mean different things to different people.

Bonsai

Tom Grubb
Posts: 380
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:23 pm
Location: London

Postby Tom Grubb » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:52 pm

Just received a reply to my email to Penny Dash, of School House magazine:


Dear Mr Grubb

I raised the matter of your letter with the publisher, the editorial
director and the advertisement director of School House at our September
editorial meeting this morning, having looked carefully at the information
that you sent to me.

Whilst we can quite see why you should wish to pursue this, we feel that we cannot take the matter any further in editorial terms.

Thank you for drawing this to our attention.

With kind regards,

Penny Dash
Editor

User avatar
ET
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 10:49 am
Location: Gloucestershire
Contact:

Postby ET » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:09 am

I assume this means they won't be printing your letter on their letters page? I guess everyone is so afraid of being sued these days.....that is everyone except the SES it would seem....
Pupil at St James Girl's School from 1979-1989, from age 4-14. Parents ex-members of SES.

Justice
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:13 pm

ST JAMES: "TRULY A SCHOOL AHEAD OF ITS TIME"

Postby Justice » Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:54 am

Penny Dash, Editor of 'School House' Magazine wrote in a reply to Tom Grubb:

Whilst we can quite see why you should wish to pursue this, we feel that we cannot take the matter any further in editorial terms.


Does this mean that, knowing what they now know, 'School House' Magazine will NOT be featuring St. James in future editions of the magazine?


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