Contributions to The Deenway Foundation
Sadia F S is raising money for The Deenway Montessori School
Participants: Meaningful learning experiences
“Meaningful learning experiences”
on 31 May 2018
Story
Thank you for taking the time to share in this story.
I am raising funds to facilitate meaningful educational experiences for children in the United Kingdom, through the work of The Deenway Foundation; its Montessori Primary School and Liberal Arts Secondary School. The distinct educational vision outlined in the school is rare to find. Its continued practice and complete implementation is desperately needed today - not only for the benefit of individual children, but for lasting change and growth in our communities. Supporting institutions such as Deenway opens up an opportunity for us to positively and concretely channel our concerns about the beautiful yet troubled world we have been entrusted with – by investing in the kind of young people who will come forth to work for its betterment.
The Deenway Foundation urgently needs your support to sustain its work, leading an intensive campaign for help to secure its home in the building that has housed the school for the last ten years. Will you help?
Why does this project matter?
‘Introspection’ - “After my first meeting with this word, I have heard it being used in school, in classes, sometimes whilst watching television and even in my books. This word reminds me to think about my own thoughts and feelings, rather than to jump on to other people’s thoughts and feelings. It reminds me to check on them, make sure that my thoughts are good and sound and to also make sure that I’m always feeling happy – and if I am feeling sad, I am able to understand why I am feeling sad. Something that I’ve learnt is that ‘words have power’ and when we use them, we should make sure that they’re good ones” – Year 9 Student, 2016.
For the better part of the past decade, I have grappled with how the experience of education can be meaningful to children as they struggle to navigate their lives and the roles they can take on. The question has been an unshakeable companion; academically, professionally, and very personally and has led me in various directions in thought and practice. Schools are recognised as important spaces for supporting children’s journeys of growth, so it is frustrating to see the extent to which they have instead become sites for children to live as ‘data’, often focused solely on producing a workforce for the ever-changing needs of the economy with little time for the possibilities of real character-building.
Working with the children at the Deenway school over the past few years has allowed me to explore the possibilities of meaningful positive connections between educational experiences gained from school and the characters children go on to embody. My students are not extraordinary nor any more special than others we might meet. What is special, however, is the outcome on their moral, intellectual, physical and spiritual development of a truly thoughtful approach to curriculum – and of a space to practise how to think ‘at a deeper level than typical’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018).
What does this project look like?
My day-to-day ‘view’ over the past few years at Deenway has seen an impressive range of children’s activities. Children are inventing playtime games; running mock elections; composing and structuring original novels; debating the standardisation of the English language; constructing creative tales out of their lessons with robotics; pulling their hair out over Arabic grammar; diligently sewing shadow puppets; rehearsing plays; preparing and serving food; welcoming and saying goodbye to classroom goldfish (with a dignified burial!); reimagining perspectives from the tales of The Odyssey with ease and flair; crafting artwork inspired by Shakespeare’s best-loved lines; singing spiritual poetry; organising charity events; practising archery skills; negotiating the difficult task of teamwork; contemplating sacred texts; tutoring each other in maths problems; embarking on research projects in the very personal space of exploring family identities and roots as second and third generation British children from immigrant backgrounds; designing their own assessments;– and always learning to connect across disciplines and to connect these disciplines to their lives.
“What I have learnt to practice in the last five years is excellence of effort” - Year 11 Student, 2017.
Students at Deenway ‘value the opportunities they have to become skilled learners who are responsible for their own learning...and develop an impressive ownership of their learning’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018). As much as the usual pressures of teaching ask us to look for expected and controlled results, the complete joy of teaching these students is in being taken by surprise every day by the freshness and uniqueness of their thinking in response to the wide-ranging material that they engage with. ‘They are taught to question what they hear to deepen their own understanding’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018) – and the result is children who ask questions that propel their thinking further and deeper, free of agenda-driven constraints.
How does your contribution help?
The school is not a project completed. It is very much a work-in-progress with numerous challenges and opportunities. This work needs your support to continue. Funds will contribute to the school’s campaign to purchase the building it has been renting for the past 10 years in Reading, Berkshire. The important open ‘space’ the school offers requires a reliable, suitable and solid home. This is now an urgent need.
The space cultivated by the school allows children to make connections between traditions, nurturing young people who have strong footing in sound sacred tradition, and a thorough appreciation and love for the knowledge traditions of their land, and beyond. Collectively, they are equipped with the knowledge they need to navigate the world they inhabit in their unique ways, and to be deeply introspective about their academic and personal learning journeys.
This work is a heartening reminder of the powerful possibilities of meaningful study at school; enriching students with what really matters. To be party to this is intellectually stimulating, and personally heartwarming and rewarding.
“We hope and pray that they will be imbued with the beauty and majesty that is the inheritance of the children of Adam, that they will be people of righteousness, of forbearance, of gratitude, of charity and compassion; stoic and serious when required, but also able to jest and cultivate joy in themselves and others….they will grow to be intelligent young men and women, courageous, erudite servants of their Lord, stewards of the Earth, harbingers of peace, articulate, composed and inspirational.” - Headmaster’s Welcome
www.deenway.org
I am raising funds to facilitate meaningful educational experiences for children in the United Kingdom, through the work of The Deenway Foundation; its Montessori Primary School and Liberal Arts Secondary School. The distinct educational vision outlined in the school is rare to find. Its continued practice and complete implementation is desperately needed today - not only for the benefit of individual children, but for lasting change and growth in our communities. Supporting institutions such as Deenway opens up an opportunity for us to positively and concretely channel our concerns about the beautiful yet troubled world we have been entrusted with – by investing in the kind of young people who will come forth to work for its betterment.
The Deenway Foundation urgently needs your support to sustain its work, leading an intensive campaign for help to secure its home in the building that has housed the school for the last ten years. Will you help?
Why does this project matter?
‘Introspection’ - “After my first meeting with this word, I have heard it being used in school, in classes, sometimes whilst watching television and even in my books. This word reminds me to think about my own thoughts and feelings, rather than to jump on to other people’s thoughts and feelings. It reminds me to check on them, make sure that my thoughts are good and sound and to also make sure that I’m always feeling happy – and if I am feeling sad, I am able to understand why I am feeling sad. Something that I’ve learnt is that ‘words have power’ and when we use them, we should make sure that they’re good ones” – Year 9 Student, 2016.
For the better part of the past decade, I have grappled with how the experience of education can be meaningful to children as they struggle to navigate their lives and the roles they can take on. The question has been an unshakeable companion; academically, professionally, and very personally and has led me in various directions in thought and practice. Schools are recognised as important spaces for supporting children’s journeys of growth, so it is frustrating to see the extent to which they have instead become sites for children to live as ‘data’, often focused solely on producing a workforce for the ever-changing needs of the economy with little time for the possibilities of real character-building.
Working with the children at the Deenway school over the past few years has allowed me to explore the possibilities of meaningful positive connections between educational experiences gained from school and the characters children go on to embody. My students are not extraordinary nor any more special than others we might meet. What is special, however, is the outcome on their moral, intellectual, physical and spiritual development of a truly thoughtful approach to curriculum – and of a space to practise how to think ‘at a deeper level than typical’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018).
What does this project look like?
My day-to-day ‘view’ over the past few years at Deenway has seen an impressive range of children’s activities. Children are inventing playtime games; running mock elections; composing and structuring original novels; debating the standardisation of the English language; constructing creative tales out of their lessons with robotics; pulling their hair out over Arabic grammar; diligently sewing shadow puppets; rehearsing plays; preparing and serving food; welcoming and saying goodbye to classroom goldfish (with a dignified burial!); reimagining perspectives from the tales of The Odyssey with ease and flair; crafting artwork inspired by Shakespeare’s best-loved lines; singing spiritual poetry; organising charity events; practising archery skills; negotiating the difficult task of teamwork; contemplating sacred texts; tutoring each other in maths problems; embarking on research projects in the very personal space of exploring family identities and roots as second and third generation British children from immigrant backgrounds; designing their own assessments;– and always learning to connect across disciplines and to connect these disciplines to their lives.
“What I have learnt to practice in the last five years is excellence of effort” - Year 11 Student, 2017.
Students at Deenway ‘value the opportunities they have to become skilled learners who are responsible for their own learning...and develop an impressive ownership of their learning’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018). As much as the usual pressures of teaching ask us to look for expected and controlled results, the complete joy of teaching these students is in being taken by surprise every day by the freshness and uniqueness of their thinking in response to the wide-ranging material that they engage with. ‘They are taught to question what they hear to deepen their own understanding’ (Deenway Ofsted Report, 2018) – and the result is children who ask questions that propel their thinking further and deeper, free of agenda-driven constraints.
How does your contribution help?
The school is not a project completed. It is very much a work-in-progress with numerous challenges and opportunities. This work needs your support to continue. Funds will contribute to the school’s campaign to purchase the building it has been renting for the past 10 years in Reading, Berkshire. The important open ‘space’ the school offers requires a reliable, suitable and solid home. This is now an urgent need.
The space cultivated by the school allows children to make connections between traditions, nurturing young people who have strong footing in sound sacred tradition, and a thorough appreciation and love for the knowledge traditions of their land, and beyond. Collectively, they are equipped with the knowledge they need to navigate the world they inhabit in their unique ways, and to be deeply introspective about their academic and personal learning journeys.
This work is a heartening reminder of the powerful possibilities of meaningful study at school; enriching students with what really matters. To be party to this is intellectually stimulating, and personally heartwarming and rewarding.
“We hope and pray that they will be imbued with the beauty and majesty that is the inheritance of the children of Adam, that they will be people of righteousness, of forbearance, of gratitude, of charity and compassion; stoic and serious when required, but also able to jest and cultivate joy in themselves and others….they will grow to be intelligent young men and women, courageous, erudite servants of their Lord, stewards of the Earth, harbingers of peace, articulate, composed and inspirational.” - Headmaster’s Welcome
www.deenway.org