Take a Look Inside the “Happiest School on Earth”
[This story is written by Mike McGalliard, Global Executive Director of MindUP | The Goldie Hawn Foundation]
Three Bridges Primary School, sitting just outside London, proclaims itself “the happiest school on earth.” In a recent phone interview, I asked Principal Jeremy Hannay how that particular slogan came about. “It’s how the school looks to people,” Jeremy tells me. “I was revising the school’s website and sent a mock up with photos to a friend who commented that, ‘this looks like the happiest school on earth’.”
The school certainly photographs well. The walls and ceilings boast bright, colorful samples of student learning. Children and adults greet each other with contagious smiles. The positive energy is palpable. Three Bridges is a showcase school for MindUP, the signature program of The Goldie Hawn Foundation. That’s why Goldie and I visited on a recent trip to the UK.
The idea of “the happiest school” resonates with Jeremy because it’s aligned with his own beliefs about what’s important about education: “that the work should be fun, that school should be fun. Happy kids are kids that will learn.”
It’s a bit ironic and sad that happiness isn’t often a quality that we (adults and children) associate with schools. I discussed this point with Jeremy, and shared my obsession with a quote that’s guided my entire career as an educator. It’s in a book by Bronx-born teacher, Ira Schor, in which he reflects about his youth, sharing that: “like many kids, I loved learning, but not schooling” (Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change). This sentiment is at once commonplace and alarming.
“Schools should be the beating heart of the community… for everyone. A great place to be,” Jeremy replied.
Adults First
With a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention in the UK and US, it seems a lot of young adults think that becoming a teacher is a terrible idea. Jeremy’s keen on this point, so his pathway to creating “the happiest school” was first about taking care of the teachers and staff. “Adults must flourish for kids to flourish. Teachers should be happy to come to work,” he said.
I find it an interesting and bold move that with the pervasive school rhetoric of “kids first,” Jeremy first made the work about the adults. “When I originally learned of MindUP, my first thought was, ‘wow, what an impact this would have on our staff’.” He wanted the adults to be happy and develop mindful practice in their own lives first.
Though MindUP’s core curriculum is focused on children (ages three to fourteen years old), Jeremy’s comment about using MindUP for his teachers isn’t the first time I’ve heard adults wanting to adopt the practices of MindUP to support their own mental well-being. The “Brain Break” for example, is a focused, disciplined breathing exercise that promotes healthy stress management (research has shown that Brain Breaks, among other factors, increases stress regulation in children). It’s a core MindUP practice and many might argue it’s completely age-agnostic. (In schools that implement MindUP, teachers lead Brain Breaks with their students for three minutes, three times a day.)
“Leaning In”
What does Three Bridges do, exactly, to set itself apart as the happiest school? “One of our big ideas this year is about leaning in,” Jeremy emphasizes, “about how we need to lean in to relationships, families, children, each other.”
“Because when things get crazy we are always thinking about what’s next. What we end up doing is that we don’t lean in, we lean away. We don’t engage, we isolate ourselves.”
This practice of “leaning in” reminded me of Lesson Four of the MindUP program, “Mindful Listening.” Through this lesson, MindUP helps children train their brains and ears to better regulate their attention, focus and hear more carefully. (You can see a video of a teacher demonstrating this lesson here: https://vimeo.com/200040261.) The first thing Jeremy did to turn around Three Bridges was to carefully listen, and then to make this practice a core value of the school.
Jeremy introduced MindUP to Three Bridges three years ago. He first learned about it in Canada, where he did his principal training (MindUP was actually born in Vancouver nearly fifteen years ago). When Jeremy first began working at Three Bridges, a program like MindUP would have been more challenging to integrate because the staff weren’t “in that space.” But when he finally introduced it, it felt familiar because it gave a framework and language to something that the adults at Three Bridges had been talking about in more abstract terms for years.
“Inspirational messages laminated on walls, but not lived.”
Success at Three Bridges
Three Bridges is a diverse school. 65% of the children come from the highest level of deprivation. 80% speak English as an additional language. Yet, over the last few years, the school went from trailing national performance to exceeding it by as much as 20% on some indicators.
Since Jeremy took the helm two years ago, Three Bridges’ measures are in the top 3%. It’s qualified as a “London School for Success” (awarded to the top 1% of schools serving disadvantaged kids).
As my conversation with Jeremy concluded, we reflected together on the secret sauce of Three Bridges’ transformation. I asked him about the things to which he most attributes this success:
“Leaning In… it all began there.”
About MindUP
MindUP™ | The Goldie Hawn Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded to help children develop the mental fitness necessary to thrive in school, work and life. MindUP was created in response to the global epidemic of childhood aggression, anxiety, depression and suicide. Based firmly in neuroscience, MindUP gives children the knowledge and tools they need to manage stress, regulate emotions and face the challenges of the 21st century with resilience.
For more information on MindUP, and how it can support the schools, teachers and children in your community, say hello at hello@mindup.org.
For more information on Three Bridges Primary School, visit http://www.threebridgesprimary.co.uk.
