|
Welcome to the September 2004 issue of the email newsletter. This month:
If you have any feedback about this newsletter, or if you'd like to share your experiences of SSEHV, please write to us. Kind
Regards, |
|
Around 100 people from all over the UK attended the annual SSEHV National Day in Stanmore, North West London, on September 11th. Heart warming speeches from SSEHV practitioners, educationalists and professional teachers from around the country, combined with uplifting live music, film and images, helped to inspire us all to work even harder in the months ahead to reach out to as many people as possible through SSEHV. Speakers
Many people helped to make the day a success, including a large number who cooked and served a delicious lunch for all the delegates, and who worked behind the scenes to manage the technology and logistics of the event. We would like to thank everyone who helped, attended and contributed, particularly those who travelled long distances. The result of everyone's efforts was a truly uplifting and memorable National Day. As one delegate put it, "When one goes away from an event like this in good heart space and still absorbing some of the thoughts shared - this can only be a good thing." If
you would like to contact any of the speakers at the event, please write
to feedback@ssehv.org.uk and
we will forward your message. |
|
Peaceful Solutions Burnley (PSB) ran a five-day Values Alive Event for local children from 13th to 17th September. The Event was staged in partnership with Burnley Play Association who invited children to attend from two nearby housing estates. Each day the focus was on a different value. In the mornings, activities included silent sitting, stories, drama, role-play and singing. In the afternoons the children played values-based games and participated in art and other activities such as Tai Chi, all relating to the value for that day. On Non-Violence Day, the children were taken on a tour of an organic garden where they heard a talk by the Head Gardener on conservation and non-violence to oneself and the environment. As a thank you to him, they sang the song, 'I am the way I am'. "It really touched him," said Barbara Edmonson, one of the Event's organisers. "The following day the children made him lovely thank you cards." One of the volunteers at the event was Kate Wilkinson, who is studying choral music at Oxford University. Barbara continues, "A most touching moment was when Kate was doing one of her songs. One of the girls, who is 13 but whose sister told us has a mental age of six, started to sing with Kate. Her face lit up and she started to do actions to the song with Kate. It almost brought tears to our eyes." At the end of the week, the children all took home Appreciation Certificates and their journals from the week which contained all their art and written work to remind them of the values. Barbara concludes, "I know from the things they were saying that they felt more special than they did when they arrived on Monday morning. What more can we do? Give them lots of love, balanced with discipline, show them that they already have these values inside of them and make them feel special!" |
|
A primary school in Newcastle has this week decided to teach SSEHV to every class in the school. Dr Madhavi Majmuda, who introduced the programme to the school and has already taught it to three classes in the last week, is said to be "thrilled and overwhelmed" by the response of the children who have responded to it with great enthusiasm. |
|
Families in the Brighton and Hove area are invited to attend an afternoon of values-based activities in Hove on Saturday 30th October from 2.00-5.30pm. As well as storytelling, creative activities, parachute games and silent sitting, visitors will have a chance to hear children singing values songs, and maybe even watch some Scottish dancing. Lark Beecham, one of the event's organisers, writes, "We hope that families will be able to come and enjoy themselves and also have something to take home to remind themselves of the values." For
more information, please contact David Bryant 01273 725143. |
|
New Area Co-ordinator for Wales Cyrano Ugarow is stepping down as Area Co-ordinator for Area 7, which covers Wales. This is to allow him time to more fully concentrate on the final year of his university studies and his forthcoming PGCE year. Zita Starkie (tel 01267 275 424) will be taking over as coordinator for Area 7. Zita is a dedicated and experienced SSEHV teacher and we are delighted she is taking up the baton. We wish Cyrano all the best for his studies and thank him for all his hard and extremely valuable work as Area Co-ordinator. He will be a tremendous asset to any school he teaches in. |
|
SSEHV
Foundation Course, Coventry SSEHV
Parenting Workshop, Croydon SSEHV,
Foundation Course, Oldham SSEHV
Parenting Workshop, West Sussex SSEHV
Parenting Workshop, Eastbourne, Sussex Half
Day SSEHV INSET for professional teachers, Coventry SSEHV
Intensive Foundation Course, Pinner, Middlesex SSEHV
Parenting Workshop, Portsmouth, Hants If there is no course scheduled in your area but you would like there to be one, we can arrange one as long as there are a minimum of ten people who would like to attend. Please contact Pamela Nash for more information. |
|
Eva Batley was 94 years old, although if you met her, you would have thought she was about twenty years younger. She lived alone in a very comfortable flat in a small Victorian terraced house on the outskirts of a large city. She had lived in the building for over 70 years, having moved in with her beloved husband, John, the day they returned from their honeymoon on the South Coast one sunny July day several years before the outbreak of the Second World War. At that time they lived on the ground floor, and an ageing widower by the name of Peter Siddlethwaite lived upstairs. Peter was rather lonely at times. He missed his wife who had died of flu when she was still young and beautiful. Although they had only been together for three years before her tragic death, and ten times that many years had since passed, he had never thought to remarry because he was still in love with her. Eva and John used to keep an eye out for Peter and try to keep his spirits up. They used to invite him downstairs into their cosy kitchen for cups of tea, and Eva used to bake him a cake on his birthday. Every Christmas they asked him to come and share their dinner. Peter would bring a gift for each of them, and after the meal the three of them would sit round the table contentedly cradling glasses of port and chatting. As time passed, Eva and John had a son. He was born late one night at home, and Peter was the very first person to hear the happy news. The child was called Peter, because Eva and John liked the name, and they knew it would make Mr Siddlethwaite proud and happy, particularly as he had no children of his own. The old widower loved the little baby very much. He delighted in lifting him up and cuddling him, and watching him sleep in his cot by the fire. He spent more and more time with the Batleys so that rarely a day passed without him popping in to see them, and spend some time with little Peter. As the child grew, he began to teach him interesting things about car engines, wild flowers and football. Sometimes, when he had a little extra money to spare, he would buy a few sweets from the local store and give them to him. Eva would say, "Honestly, Mr Siddlethwaite, you shouldn't have!" and tell Peter, "You'd better be a good boy now that Mr Siddlethwaite's been so kind to you. Otherwise you'll have done him a disservice." Little Peter would try very hard to be good for as long as he could, because he loved the old man almost as much as his own mum and dad, and he never wanted to make him unhappy. When the war came, Peter had to leave his home and stay in the country on a farm belonging to some people he didn't know. They were very kind to him, and there were other children there for him to play with, but he missed his mum and dad and Mr Siddlethwaite very badly. He tried not to get too sad though, because he knew that he was better off than lots of other children. At least his dad wasn't in the army, due to the fact that he had a weak heart. Instead he worked in an aircraft factory, which was much safer. The Batley's and Mr Siddlethwaite also missed Peter terribly, but they tried to sound cheerful in the weekly letters they wrote to him, each giving their own account of the week's happenings. They wrote their letters on a Sunday evening, and Eva would put all three of them all in one envelope and take it to the post office on Monday morning. Peter loved to read the same stories from three different view points. Somehow it made him feel as if he was there himself. But there were many things that they never told Peter in their letters. They never spoke of the sickening fear they felt when the air raid sirens sounded, or of the sleepless nights they sat huddled in the underground shelter at the end of the road, listening to the screaming planes overhead and feeling the walls shake as bombs exploded on the ground above them. They never told him of the shock they felt when they emerged from the bomb shelter to find half their street had disappeared under a pile of smoking rubble, with two of their neighbours buried underneath. Their little house was still standing, but it looked so fragile and forlorn, and they wondered what had gone wrong with the world that such terrible things could happen. "Our street looks a little different now, Son, to how you remember it," wrote Eva sadly that Sunday evening. "Old Mr and Mrs Wilson didn't make it to the shelter on time, but everyone else is safe and sound and we've all been mucking in to help people as much as we can. Mrs Gilbert is staying in our front room until she has somewhere else to go, and we've all given what clothes and belongings we can spare so she has the things she needs…" When Peter read that letter he felt very sad, and when he wrote back he included a letter to Mrs Gilbert, saying how sorry he was that she and her family had lost their home and their possessions, and if there was anything they wanted from his own toy box, she was to help herself. When Mrs Gilbert read that letter she cried for a very long time. When the time came for her to leave the Batley's home she didn't take any of Peter's toys with her, but she always kept his letter. Eventually the war ended, and Peter came home. He was so excited to be reunited with his parents and Mr Siddlethwaite, but he knew that things would never be as they were before. All four of them had changed a great deal in the intervening time. He was a big boy now, and the grown ups looked much older and somehow very tired. Mr Siddlethwaite looked like a very old man. His limbs had become stiff and his hair was thin and almost white. He started to find it difficult to get up and down the stairs, so the Batleys offered to swap flats so that he could live downstairs, which would be easier for him. After some protest about the inconvenience he was causing them, Mr Siddlethwaite agreed, and the swap took place. After that, the Batleys would come downstairs to visit him and he would make them tea in their cosy old kitchen. Peter often went in to see him after school, before going upstairs for his supper. To
be continued in next month's newsletter. |
|
|
|
Copyright
© 2004 British Institute of Sathya Sai Education (BISSE). BISSE is
a non-profit organisation committed to promoting human values in education.
Registered address: The Glen, Cuckoo Hill, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 2BE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8429 2677 Email: enquiries@ssehv.org.uk |