June 2009

A regular e-zine from the British Institute of Sathya Sai Education  www.bisse.org.uk
Registered Charity No. 1118625

Dear Readers

Welcome to the June 2009 issue of the Sathya Sai Education in Human Values UK email newsletter.

This month:

“New Zealand Walk for Values “
Book Review:`The Little Book of Values'

Story Time

2009 Easter SSEHV Introductory Course 1 Review
A Special Treat...BISSE Trainers Day!!!

Calendar of Activities (Online)

Training update
Opportunities to convert your existing Foundation Level Training
Come along... Get involved... Drop us a line... Tell us what you think...

Maedrim School Wales

Four Days in Heaven


If you have any feedback, or would like to share your experiences of SSEHV, please write to us.

Kind Regards,
The Editor


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Sathya Sai Preschool Joins the ‘New Zealand Walk for Values’

The Sathya Sai Preschool – Rongomai children led the first New Zealand Walk for Values. The walk was organised by the Sathya Sai Service Organisation –NZ and was held on Saturday the 22nd of March 09.

It commenced at the Queen Elizabeth Square at the bottom of Queen Street (Down Town Auckland’s main street) and finished in Meyer Park at the upper end of Queen Street. Some 800 people mainly made up of children and parents from our Sai Spiritual Education classes and from the Sathya Sai Preschool- Rongomai children and their families. The NZ Institute Sathya Sai Education provided a bus to take the children to and from the venue and the trip was delightful with the powerful young voices of the children singing their favourite values songs.

The Sai Youth Group played an active role with face painting for the children taking part, distributing balloons and handing out apples at the end of the walk. The City Council gave permission for the walk to take place, the daily paper ran an article two days prior to the walk and walkers were provided with a police escort, which controlled traffic at the intersections along the way and generally saw that everything went smoothly.

The police officer in charge was one of the guest speakers at the end of the walk and said that he would like to take part in other community activities. There is even a possibility that they may bring some of the dog squad to visit the Sai Preschool.

The overall impression was one of an enjoyable celebration and one that in a small way helped to widen the awareness of the importance of human values.

Prepared by Richard Wallis, Director of the ISSE NZ

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Book Review: `The Little Book of Values: Education children to become thinking, responsible and caring citizens` by Julie Duckworth and edited by Ian Gilbert.

This book is divided into three sections, the first and shorter section looks at the value of values within teaching. It does not share the view that values are inherent as with SSEHV but other than this point it is very much congruent with the SSEHV approach. The main section of the book takes each of the values included and looks at it in a number of ways. It gives a definition of the word, a list of how children perceive this value and some examples of the value in action. There are a few stories and proverbs interspersed. There is a wide range of values covered, many of which are common to related values in SSEHV. Although each value is covered rather briefly, in practical terms it is useful to read as a reminder of the values and there are some useful facts and ideas. One example is the unity value. Here the unity in action section is based on the habits of geese! Explaining how they fly information to help each other and if one goose gets ill and falls out two others will always go with it and wait until it can fly again and other such interesting facts!

The final section is called the values toolbox and describes a number of tool, techniques and activities which can be used to incorporate values in teaching. Interestingly the first tool is the teacher as the role model! And the second is the positive discipline. All in all: a book written from experience and a passion for values education in general with plenty of overlap with the SSEHV philosophy.

By Colette Savage

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Story Time

Chinese story: Archery

Chenyao was a Chinese boy who loved archery. His friends played baseball, football and cricket, but Chenyao had been going to archery with his parents since he was a little boy and had become very good. He loved the praise that he received from the grown-ups who played and it made him feel that he was better than his friends.

One day, when he was practising in his garden, a lot of people in the small village where he lived had stopped to watch him. Amongst the crowd was an old man who sold groceries in the village shop. Chenyao thought he was doing very well as 8 or 9 shots out of 10, were bull’s eyes, which made his audience cheer.

The old grocer man smiled and nodded when Chenyao got a bull’s-eye, but he did not cheer and Chenyao didn’t think he was getting the attention and admiration that he deserved. This annoyed him. He asked the old grocer man, “Are you an archer? Do you know how to shoot? Can’t you see how clever I am being able to get so many bull’s-eyes?”

The old man replied, “No, I am not an archer myself, but I can see that you are good at shooting. It is just a matter of practising though.”

Chenyao was really angry at this and replied rudely, “You silly old fool. You can’t shoot at all, yet you have no respect for my talent.”

The old man replied calmly, “No need to get angry. When I sell cooking oil in my grocery shop, I have learnt through experience how to pour oil. Let me show you.”

He went to his shop and came back with a narrow necked bottle and a drum of oil. He took a small counter with a hole in the middle and placed it over the neck of the bottle and poured the oil from the drum into it. Not a drop of oil was spilled as he expertly held up the drum of oil and poured it out. “You see,” he said smiling. “It is just a matter of practising.”

Questions:

1) How did you feel when you heard the story?
2) Did it remind you of anything in your own life?
3) Do you think Chenyao stopped showing off after he met the grocer?

 

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2009 Easter SSEHV Introductory Course 1 Review

The April showers did not stop a truly international group of attendees for the SSEHV training! We had two Egyptian ladies, one Australian, one Brazilian gentleman and one Scott!

Carole Alderman (Director of BISSE) welcomed all to the course and it didn't take long for a real bond to develop among all the attendees. There was lot of leaning, fun laughter and the odd tear and much personal development was accomplished in the midst of it all.

The group was characterised by its enthusiasm for the course and many active discussions and debates over interesting topics from the course. And also by the amazing raps…. produced in a very short time demonstrating a real team spirit, courage, talent and sense of fun.

There was an incredible sense of respect and support for each person and a willingness to share experiences and wisdom throughout the course by all the attendees. Many of the attendees expressed interest in completing the work for both the SSEHV and the OCN certification.

A number of ideas for further participation in SSEHV activities were expressed and it is hoped to see many of these come to fruition in the future.

Many thanks go to Bob and Carole for hosting the training, and to all the trainers who popped in to help during the 9 days.

By Colette Savage

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Warning - Don't read this if you are not interested in SSEHV!

Dear All!

Have you ever thought about how you take SSEHV into where it is needed? Then please come along to the BISSE Trainers day.

The event is for all involved in BISSE training AND those who are not!!

The date: Saturday 22nd August 2009

The day promises to be lively and fun where you will have the opportunity to learn about the new Level 1 course, contribute your thoughts and ideas for the Level 2 course, and perhaps more importantly, (re-) connect with other like minded people who want to bring SSEHV alive in the community.

For further information please contact Jiten Patel at training@bisse.org.uk

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Training Update

All SSEHV courses are free to attend, although a refundable deposit of £10 may be required at registration (this is to cover photocopying costs of the extensive handouts provided at the course for you to keep). Details of all our training courses, together with contact information and dates can be found on our website at www.bisse.org.uk, in the Training section.

Location
Date
Module
Contact
Reading, Berkshire - 2009 May SSEHV Introductory Course 1: Sat 30th May - Sun 12th Jul 30th May 1
31th May 2
7th Jun 3
27th Jun 4
28th Jun 5
4th Jul 6
11th Jul 7
12th Jul 8
TBA Presentation
Pinner, Middlesex - 2009 August SSEHV Introductory Course 1: Fri 1st Aug - Sat 9th Aug 1st Aug 1
2nd Aug 2
3rd Aug 3
4th Aug 4
5th Aug 5
6th Aug 6
7th Aug 7
8th Aug 8
TBA Presentation

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Opportunities to convert your existing Foundation Level Training:

Dear SSEHV enthusiasts!

If you have previously done the Foundation Level training, you will be pleased to know that you have the opportunity to upgrade to the new Level 1 training by attending a two day conversion course.

Attendance at the two day event will also entitle you to re-apply for OCN Level 3 accreditation in case you did your foundation training more than two years ago. Just to remind you, a level 3 OCN accreditation is worth an "A" Level and is recognised as such for University entrance points through the UCAS scheme.

The conversion course will be available only for a limited time and the next available date is 17th and 18th October 2009.

The location has not yet been finalised, but will be in the location from which we get the highest number of requests.

For more information, please contact Jiten Patel at training@bisse.org.uk.

The training team are looking forward to seeing you in at the conversion course!

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Come along…. Get involved…. Drop us a line….. Tell us what you think….

Happy First Anniversary!

The new BISSE structure has now been in place for just over a year and we feel we have made good progress and have had some very good successes.

One of the highlights for the new management team has been the involvement of members and friends at the monthly management meetings. We have valued their contributions and enjoyed some fun and laughter together, along with the more mundane affairs of keeping the business of BISSE ticking over. Now we would like to open the meetings further, so that anyone with a genuine interest in the progress of BISSE can come along and join in the discussions, or send in their contributions.

So if you are interested in helping out, or interested in sharing your ideas for improvements, or indeed just interested , then we would be delighted if you would like to join us at one of our future meetings. And if you are unable to travel then please do drop us a line.

We hope to encourage everyone to contribute and listen to each others’ views. In this way every meeting is an attempt to put the values into practise, and is a positive and rewarding experience.

You can receive dates of the meetings and the matters that will be open for discussion through future newsletters under the heading of BISSE Management Group (BMG) Meetings…Come along, or drop us a line.

June 2009: The matters that are in progress are...

1. Formal recognition of the partnership status of Abbey Primary School through the agreement of a memorandum of understanding between the school and BISSE.

2. Arrangements for a second Conversion Course.

3. Arrangements for a get together of all trainees on 22nd August.

4. Detailed plans for the National Day at Abbey Primary School on 3rd October.

5. Ongoing technical improvements to our information systems.

6. The development of a brochure/flyer for BISSE to include info about the institute itself, the training courses it offers and the possibilities/outcomes that the training opens up... e.g. SSEHV activities in the community.

7. Discussion of the role of Regional Coordinators and the responsibilities involved.

8. Presentation of the Communication Team Action Plan.



The next meeting will be on Sunday 21st June.

We are looking forward to welcoming you and would love to hear from you if you are interested and have any ideas or can offer help of any kind. Also we would like to be in touch with your feelings and needs when matters are still in the planning stage. Please keep in contact with us (and check times and venue) at secretariat@bisse.org.uk.

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Maedrim School Wales

SSEHV at Maedrim School has been going well. The infants and juniors are both responding enthusiastically as are the teachers. The teachers of the junior section have been astonished to see the way that the children can joyfully practice silent sitting. All of the class sat motionless for at least five minutes last week, except for one girl who was not feeling well. It was astounding and their feedback was great ~ they are really starting to appreciate how much it helps them release stuff.

Both Junior and Infants enjoy the singing and the juniors are teaching the infants the hand actions on the songs that they make up. Each half line is volunteered by a child ~ they stand up when it comes to that bit and mime it.

They are developing much more of a bond and an awareness of each other. Particularly touching was the way many of them support those with learning difficulties or the Statemented kids.

Discipline is improving and also they are showing more confidence. Many of the children taking part are apparently children who usually used to stay in the background.

By Zita Starkie

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Four Days in Heaven

What does Sathya Sai Education in Human Values have to offer? Four days with thirty children aged from 5 to 13 soon answered that question.

On the surface, the Values Alive event held in a Croydon school was little different to any school play scheme. We played games, sang songs, drew pictures, listened to stories all the things that children love to do. So what makes SSEHV so special? The values: The values underpin every activity, both the content and the way they are delivered.

The day starts with a teachers' meeting and silent sitting based upon the value and theme of the day. This sets the tone and reminds us of that quiet strength within that we can draw upon at any time during the day.

From 9.00am we have circle time with the children, where we set ground rules and play games to get to know each other. This is followed by a short assembly where we discuss the value of the day.

After the assembly we have silent sitting. Imagine pin-drop silence in a circle of 30 children. You wouldn't believe it possible, but even children who have never experienced anything like it before, get so much from the guided visualisations. Surprisingly, many of them even say it is the best part of the day.

To give you an idea of how powerful these silent sitting exercises can be, take the experience of one 11 year-old girl. She was going through family problems that were clearly upsetting her. On the first day, in front of everyone, she had an emotional melt-down and at one point, wrote on a flipchart in big letters for all to see 'I HATE MYSELF'.

The next day, after a silent sitting exercise, the group were asked to express how they felt. This same girl who had just the previous day been seeing red with anger said, "I feel loved". If you ever needed proof of miracles, there you have it.

After silent sitting, we split into two groups, 5 - 8 years and 8 – 13 years. In our smaller groups we discussed the theme for the day. Example, under Non-Violence, the theme was 'Every living creature has the right to respect and kindness'.

Then we had a story based on the value, and if time permitted, the children would act out the story. Every day would also include sports, group singing and arts & crafts. Although the activities are extremely important, it seems to me that the love and patience with which they are delivered plays an equally vital role. One parent couldn't believe that so much time and energy was being devoted by a bunch of volunteers. In his words, he felt that "this should be part of the curriculum" and said that in the future, he would like to help in any way he could. He added that after attending school for a whole year, his little boy had never talked about anything that he had learned. After the first day at the Values Alive event, he had returned home and said "Daddy, today I learned to say please and thank you and I learned to be kind to everyone".

Sathya Sai Education in Human Values touches the hearts of so many children and of course the teachers and helpers that are privileged to be a part of it.

It can be challenging, exhausting, inspiring and amazing. For anyone who wants to experience a little bit of heaven on earth, look no further than SSEHV.

By Jonathan Wilcock

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Copyright © 2009 British Institute of Sathya Sai Education (BISSE Ltd).
BISSE Ltd is a non-profit organisation committed to promoting human values in education.
Registered Charity No. 1118625
Registered address: The Glen, Cuckoo Hill, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 2BE United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8429 2677   Email: newsletter@bisse.org.uk