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Spirituality at Alpington

“Notice the wow in yourself, the wow in others and the wow in God’s creation.”

Our approach is best explained though a story

Many years ago, I attended a conference where the speaker was an advocate of slow and deep learning named David Wells.  He told a story of a holiday in Canada when his children were primary school age.  They were staying on the shores of a mountain lake in the Rockies and David arranged for an early morning Canoe trip to watch the sun rise over the mountains.  He arranged canoe rental, organised the safety equipment, set the alarm and got the children out of bed at the crack of dawn.  As they paddled out onto the water, everything was still.  The lake was so smooth there was a perfect reflection of the mountains as the sky turned a thousand shades of red and yellow the sun rose from behind the peaks.  Turning round, he saw both children upended in the bottom of the canoe, paying no attention what so ever!  He was about to explode with “I bring you all the way out here and you can’t even be bothered to look….” When he saw the reason for the distraction.  One of the children had a huge, shimmering blue dragonfly perched perfectly still on his finger and both children were utterly absorbed in the wonder of this little creature.  

At Alpington we make time and space for the dragon fly moments.  We encourage children to notice the details, give them time to pause and reflect and value all their feelings – big and small.  We love the fact that the things they find to notice and celebrate may be very different from our planned lessons and school routines!   

Looking for and valuing the wow takes time and practice!  To help, we link the “wow” to our Alpington Values.

Curious

We value and celebrate curiosity and looking beyond the obvious, whatever form and subject that takes.  We take time to ask questions.

Thoughtful

We take time to be thoughtful and reflective about ourselves, our talents, learning and feelings. We make time to be amazed at the wonders of creation.

Resilient

We talk about how it feels to really stick at something hard – and how it feels when that’s successful! 

Empathetic

We consider others feelings and imagine what the world is like in another’s shoes. We are filled with awe at the diversity in our world.

Courageous

We take pride in trying new things, accepting new challenges and taking brave decisions.  We can do and be more that we imagine.

Aspirational

We dream, big and small. 

Some of our recent “wow” moments are here – there are lots more on the wall near the library.  If you would like to share some “wow” from home, you can share them on Tapesty.  It could be an interesting question, a lightbulb moment, something that made you laugh or something you stopped and noticed together. We would love to hear about them. 

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