Jenny Mosley’s Blog
Happy 2012!
Wed, Jan 18th 2012
Hi Everyone – very, very sorry I have been so quiet! I find the long build up to Christmas and Christmas itself gloriously wonderful ….and desperately exhausting! Partly it’s so tiring because even after all of these years, as some of you know already, I have a very rosy – tinted view of how Christmas should be, based on a childhood addiction to the Waltons. I have worked very hard on every type of formula for Christmas – but I have never met the ideal of calm simplicity, uncomplicated hearts and the deep peace I once observed in ‘them thar mountains’!! I thought I might crack it this year. My elderly warrior - Mum (90 this year) went to my sister and I was freeeeee!! Decided to travel with Meg, my daughter, to younger daughter Sally, who has been living on a tiny Channel Island for 8 years and, (have never done this before) ….stay in a hotel on the beach!! Salt air, sparkly waves and sunlight (yes, it was lovely weather) would weave their magic and tranquillity and calm would ensue. Well, it certainly wasn’t the Waltons, the girls managed to have a blazing row with slamming doors in the genteel decorous hotel. Nevertheless, spending time together, going though the usual ups and downs, restored the balance in each of us. In the end folks – I think the only thing we need for relationships is time, just slopping around, going with the moment, no timetable! Perhaps the biggest gift Christmas gives me, is the fact that our office closes – and I have a proper ‘bubble’ of time!
Anyway - restored by the sparkly mini break – I sprang into New Year, in team harness, happily to help produce our new 2012 catalogue. This year we have lots of new products – loads for lunchtime supervision to make playtimes happy and fun and give children good ‘hanging out’ time. We even have a desktop resource to remind you to have a Golden Moment every day. I will attach their images under this blog so you can see how lovely they are.
So, sorry angels, my life will always be about struggling to achieve the balance. Between trying to be spiritual and ruining a genuine blog with tacky marketing! Between wanting to be kind to Mum and wanting to float her out on an ice floe, between loving spending time with friends and needing to sit quietly on my own, to going out most days all guns blazing on a public stage and being very shy. Its all about achieving delicate balance, and what to do when you are near the tipping point.
So lets plod on with a spring in our step safe in the knowledge that we are lucky to have the luxury of these sort of dilemmas and that having someone to talk to is the biggest luxury of all.
For more information about Jenny's training and resources, please phone 01225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk
Goldn Moments Cards in CD case - perfect for your desk or shelf!
New Playground Games books (pack of 3) - ideal pocket-sized for inspiration in the playground!
New Midday Supervisors Booklets (pack of 3)
New Full colour Playground Games outdoor poster A2
(See online for more of these!)
More Crazes of the Week Cards - inspire your children and create productive playtimes!
For all these and many more exciting new resources, go to www.circle-time.co.uk/shop
India, India - my 2011 visit
Wed, Nov 23rd 2011
Sun dapples through the ‘flame trees’, large butterflies swoop, dragonflies shimmer and hover – am I the luckiest person in the whole wide world!?? I am on an old tiled veranda of a beautiful ancient crumbling house in the centre of Bangalore. It is the noisiest, fastest, most bustling I.T. centre of India. Yet street sellers still hunker next to huge baskets of blazingly coloured spices, jasmine, pomegranates. I have been coming to India for twelve years now in partnership with The Teacher Foundation (TTF) set up and led by Maya Menon to support the personal and professional development of Indian teachers. India is lots of countries rolled into one, and many schools are still rooted in rote, regimented learning and steeped in repressive teaching approaches.
TTF, alongside many other enlightened Indian organisations, is engaged in the Herculean task of trying to inspire government and private schools towards a totally different path, more joy, creativity and imagination. I was delighted to be contributing to their 2011 three-day conference entitled: "Excellence in School Education Conclave: Leveraging Joy, Imagination and Innovation" which began on Saturday, 11 November 2011 (see TTF links below for further details and also links to their Safe and Sensitive Schools Project ). My presentation, titled ‘Happy Schools for a more Humane Society’, was really well received – mainly, I think, because I was brave! Even though there were about 300 principals, higher education directors, illustrious academics and philanthropists observing in a massive university hall, their glorious sarees lit by neon spotlights, after setting the scene I put the theory into practice by bringing in a class of 35 ‘untutored’ 11/12 year olds. So that everyone could see, I ran the ‘circle time’ with the pupils on stage. Even though normally the Indian way of 'being in the now’ is to endlessly whisper and chatter – you could have heard a pin drop! The young people, who had never participated in circle time before, moved everyone beyond words! They were all lit up with enthusiasm, responsive, articulate (in English too), funny and unbelievably wise. My long held rallying cry has always been that the biggest untapped resource in all the schools is the children’s minds! We opened up a whole range of school issues – and then forged a vision of how they would like teachers to be and what ‘exciting-learning’ would feel like. But what floored all participants was their deep empathy with the problems teachers feel – their stress and tiredness caused by the children’s own low-level disruptive behaviours!! The engagement of these children made the future of India look wonderful!
I’m flying onto Nagpur tonight – 350 teachers for two days on how to move the model into secondary school; given that I am still pushing that huge boulder up mountains in the UK, I feel a deep sigh coming on!!
Notes
1. Jenny Mosley attended and contributed to the three-day ‘Excellence in School Education Conclave in India entitled ‘Leveraging Joy, Imagination and Innovation’ which began on Saturday, 11 November 2011 in Bangalore. Maya Menon, Director of The Teacher Foundation, led the inauguration of the event along with Syed Sultan Ahmed, Director of EduExcellence, Prof. Harish Chaudry, IIT Delhi and Grace Pinto, Managing Director the Ryan International Schools. To find out more about The Teacher Foundation, their research, teacher training, conferences and events, visit: http://www.teacherfoundation.org/
2. Jenny stayed in a lovely hotel in Bangalore called Villa Pottipati and would recommend staying here to anyone and also to any of the other Neemrana hotels – which are run by wonderful staff and are really lovey and a little quirky (see the suit of armour photo!). (http://archive.neemranahotels.com/villapottipati/index.html.htm?)
3. The Teacher Foundation is carrying out research on Safe and Sensitive Schools (See http://www.teacherfoundation.org/index.php/special-projects.html) which is a project based on the Whole School Eco-systemic Model developed by Jenny Mosley.
The objective of the SASS intervention is to make schools safe and sensitive through embedding policies, spaces and interactions that are positive, constructive, nurturing and collaborative for all - students and staff alike. The project puts clear listening and appreciation systems in place and contributes to a Whole School Behaviour Policy that is inclusive, positive, caring and assertive. In the UK the equivalent status for schools is to become a Golden School. Any school can apply to become a Golden School and use Jenny Mosley's Golden Grail to work towards becoming a better learning environment for everyone .To find out more about the benefits of becoming a Golden School and how to become one, phone 01225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk www.circle-time.co.uk
4. Following the conference days, Jenny worked in ground-breaking sister organisations Centre Point School and Mothers' Pet Nursery in Nagpur with over 300 teachers for 3 days. The numbers of teachers involved made this training incredibly cost-effective. To find out how Jenny can help your school with cost-effective training just phone +44())1225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk www.circle-time.co.uk
5. Jenny is available for UK and International training. She will bring her whole-school model to your establishment and help you to develop a more respectful and effective learning community with an ethos of listening to each other and based on a set of firm moral values. circletime@jennymosley.co.uk +44 (0)1225 767157
Training the Trainers in New Zealand 2011
Tue, Aug 30th 2011
Oh….Where do I start?
…..What I am really thrilled about though is that I am slowly building up a relationship with a cluster of small rural primary schools in low socio-economic area which has a cultural mix that is predominantly New Zealand European, Maori and an increasing number of Samoan families. Last year I ran a Train the Trainers there (do any of you remember that on that blog, August 2010, there was a photo of me with Hector the Harley Davison pig who I went to visit again this time at Billy Black’s wonderfully eccentric Hobbit accommodation!!) ….what a shearer of sheep and leader of men and wool that man is!! If you are ever in the Waitomo area….make sure to visit. The Train the Trainers was organised by two lovely ‘Soul Sisters’ – Marion Gauntlett and Jenny Whitehead. Raewyn, another warm bright flame, and a principal of one of the schools and manager of that RTLB group attended for a week as well.
This is where I glided through on a canoe – it was only minutes from my hotel.
Well, the exciting brave thing is that Raewyn and her school decided to take on our bronze, silver or gold challenge, where we award schools a special status if they manage to embed a range of the key features of our model. We have firm suggestions for how to raise staff and parent morale, set up three listening systems and six golden values, a firm golden time incentives and sanctions system, ten playground imperatives and circles of support for children and teachers needing extra help. Any school can apply – currently, we have thirty with a gold award and many others with bronze and silver status. It was great to visit Raewyn’s school, talk to all her teachers and children and go out into the playground….currently the school is hovering on the bronze/silver cusp and it won’t take much to tweak it the right way.
Napier – the Art Deco town
This is where my training was and I cycled around it every evening - a lively and exotic feast for the eyes.
Notes:
Jenny Mosley ran a 5-day Train the Trainers course in New Zealand during August 2011. Jenny also contributed to a conference in New Zealand and Australia earlier in the year. If you are interested in attending a Train the Trainers course in the UK or in finding out about booking Jenny to run a Train the Trainers course in the UK or abroad then phone 01225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk
"Help the Aged, one time they were just like you"
Mon, Aug 22nd 2011
Following on from my last blog about "Adopting and Older Person's Home" I am reproducing here my own daughter's blog - she went to an intergenerational circle time project, joined in and took photographs. Later she was inspired to write her own blog. Do read here what Meg says:
"Help the aged, one time they were just like you.”
“Help the aged,
one time they were just like you,
drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue.
Help the aged, don’t just put them in a
home,
can’t have much fun in there all on their
own.”
(Pulp Lyrics “Help The Aged”)
Well ok…ok… I don’t think most elderly residents in our care homes used to sniff glue back in the day!…as the lovely Jarvis Coker sings in his enigmatic indie classic “Help The Aged.” BUT I do think there’s something to be said for remembering older people were once younger people too! I think you’d be surprised how similar we all still are no matter what age we are…we all still want some fun and we all still need to be needed.
But it’s a fact that many of us will one day move into older people’s accommodation and homes for the elderly can be dreary places. Many residents have lost loved ones and lost confidence and any sense of being part of a meaningful community.
The homes I have visited as part of the project ‘Adopt an Elderly Care Home’ were wonderful – the staff there were involved and caring and the facilities were great. However, frankly, I was overwhelmed - many residents slumped asleep, unfamiliar smells and a feeling of the loss that many of the residents had experienced.
As an artist who takes inspiration from my Glamorous Granny, my intergenerational work is particularly poignant for me as I remember as a child my Granny converted her Beauty School into a residential home which she ran in Surrey. She cared for older people in the way she requires help herself today. She always made everything she did magically lovely and glamorous for her residents. I mean, her care home like everything she has ever done was rather jazzy and posh but the interesting thing is despite that extra care and glamour she brought to the home, it was me and my siblings that made the residents really light up. It seems the young and old have a great affinity for one another. I was only 12 years old but I made friends with the residents. 90 year old Ruby was wonderful and had the most amazing life but had outlived her son and her husband so was very sad …she showed me all her old photos in a trunk and taught me knitting. Another favourite was Brian, an ex colonel in the war, we became pen pals and I still have one of his war medals he gave me. They had the best stories to tell. I was fascinated – I still love a good story! A keen artist even then I was fascinated by their faces and I used to ask draw them! As a child I was always very sensitive to the passing of time, I used to keep EVERYTHING and carefully date and archive things! I later cunningly developed this habit into my practice as a documentary artist. You can see in my sketch of Brian I have not only signed and dated it, but then written my own date of birth underneath and to further clarify the the portal of time to which I sketched Brian I have also added my date of birth!
If you are interested in my approach to art with younger and older people, please read on for my blog about the brilliant intergenerational project work I am involved with today!
My 21st
Century Intergenerational Explorations
Let me tell you about my current intergenerational project: Adopt an Elderly Care Home scheme was started by my mother, Jenny Mosley, and one of her senior consultants, Sarah Bentley has been piloting the project locally between a Wiltshire residential home and a local Primary school.
In these times of cost-cutting and austerity, what can we do to bring a little sunshine and vibrancy into such gloomy surroundings? This is my diary of a project that is designed to achieve exactly that.
There are a number of key points that make this project particularly interesting.
- It is interactive. Mum puts it like this, ‘It’s about learning from each other, activities shared, not just going into the care homes and singing at them.’
- It is intergenerational. The care home is paired with a local school and pupils visit regularly to enjoy structured time with the residents.
- It is respectful and empowering. The residents and pupils choose topics that interest them both and share thoughts, recollections and opinions etc.
- Each meeting is structured and time-constrained. This ensures both generations feel secure because their time together passes in a foreseeable way.
- The structure used is Jenny’s Circle Time model which has five distinct sections – meeting up, warming up, opening up, cheering up and calming down.
The project had been running for five weeks when I visited and this is my diary of what I witnessed.
First Impressions
The home I visited was wonderful – the staff were involved and caring and the facilities were great. However, frankly, I was overwhelmed - many residents slumped asleep, unfamiliar smells and a feeling of the loss that many of the residents had experienced.
Having come directly from the office I felt out of place and my usual attempts at banter fell a little flat. I was being given some sympathetic looks from other residents as I had chosen a rather renowned character to break the ice with. One resident told me … “don’t mind her…she’s a shouter” I found out why later! But, I tell you what, the moment the children came into the room it all changed. It was as if they put everything in context and were so sweet, funny and up for a laugh. It was amazing to watch. The key was eye-contact. When the older people looked into the eyes of the youngsters, their faces would light up with a contact that was open and honest, vulnerable but powerfully in the moment. This made me open up too and it felt wonderful.
The Circle Meeting
Our first activity was ‘Meeting Up’ – an ice-breaker which can be a game or a bit of fun. This group all sang a song together and it went like this:
“Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun; oll out the barrel, we’ve got the blues on the run.
Zing boom barrel, ring out a song of good cheer; Now’s the time to roll the barrel, for the gang’s all here.”
Next we did a round and each person was able to share news about their lives. The chosen topic for the meeting was food and during the next stage (called ‘Opening Up’) this was explored through smells, shared memories of wartime rationing, discussion of skills and practices that are no longer used like butter making which meant that we were tapping into the memories, songs, games and ideas of the older people themselves. When it was time for the ‘Cheer Up’ stage, we chose to play a balloon and parachute game and then on to ‘Calm Down’ where we thanked each other for being there and sang ‘Roll out the barrel’ again before bursting into ‘We’ll meet again’ and some other songs they’d learned together.
Reflections
It was amazing how residents were invigorated by a parachute game and a balloon…I suppose sometimes it really is true, actions speak louder than words! My earlier chats had done nothing to lighten one resident’s grumpy mood but when a brightly coloured balloon hurtles toward you its impossible to resist whatever your age! Even “the shouter” got involved!
Yes, there were sad moments too and touching ones. Residents who were sleeping, not involved, would suddenly sit up from their chairs and start singing when we put the music on and slump back over again later.
But the older people just said the most wonderful things “We look forward to seeing you children every week – when are you coming back?” After the Circle Time the whole atmosphere had changed. I felt really at home and we started to have a giggle. They asked me about my work and they got out of me that I was just as pleased to get out of the office as the children were out of school! Then we discussed boozing and sneaking out to the pub and how they met their partners. They were lively and communicative – woken up, you could say.
As it was the final session Sarah had the lovely idea to give everyone a glow stick bracelet …at one point I thought we looked like the most unlikely rave group! The children helped put them on the residents and we all wore one and cards and gifts were given out from residents to children and children to residents. As I got home I felt all of a sudden very sad about it all, my bracelet in the daylight wasn’t looking as bright as the light wore off…so I took it off and placed on bedside cabinet but when I woke in the middle of the night, I wondered what this orb of light was glowing in the darkness. A little reminder to keep the light alive in our senior citizens!
This blog was written by my daughter, Meg Mosley, and reproduced with her kind permission. Meg's own blog site can be found at: http://www.megmosley.co.uk/blog/
To find out more about Jenny Mosley’s Adopt An Elderly Care Home visit www.circle-time.co.uk or call 01225 767157
“Adopting an old people’s home could soon be a top priority for schools in the UK. Jenny Mosley has started a new and inspirational movement to help bring the generations together to share, educate, empathise and reminisce. Intergenerational work is not a new venture for Jenny, having in the past taken theatre groups of young people into older people’s homes and day care centres, brought older people into the playgrounds to teach traditional games and worked with women from the W.I. and secondary pupils.” Centre for intergenerational practice: (http://www.centreforip.org.uk/news/adopt-an-old-peoples-home)”
Our "Adopting an Older People's Home in Wiltshire" Project 2011
Fri, Aug 19th 2011
Hi, Anyone-Out-There?
Sorry – I’ve not blogged for ages. Sometimes I find it really hard to write anything other than ‘worky’ things which are always staring at me coldly in a tall frigid pile! And if I get out of the habit – I just can’t seem to break back into that cycle that says “get up earlier ‘n blog”!! Anyway, I’m inspired to write to this morning of a wonderful project concerning older and young people together – and if you’ve read my ramblings before you’ll know how dear to my heart this vision is! We set up a charity some time ago ‘All Round Success’ – and its achieved some good things – e.g. research into the efficacy of circle time in secondary schools, some support for teacher education in India, support for a project for young disabled people in African schools, but it needs a lot more energy and attention so it can raise more funds. Meanwhile, we looked at what we still have in the coffers and decided to devote it to one really good in depth project and naturally we chose to build on the passion and rallying call of “Every Primary School to Adopt an Older Peoples’ Home”! (see my previous blog). We invited one of my very senior, experienced consultants, Sarah Bentley to lead the project. Working closely with an older person's home and local primary school in West Wiltshire for six weeks, Sarah wove weekly magical circles of fun and respect, welding the young and the old together through a series of games and activities that built mutual interests, whilst introducing new and challenging things to do together as well. We need to give this project proper ‘air time’ and my daughter, Meg, has said we can post her account of this project as my next blog – as Meg went to do some photos so each person in the project could have a little album to remember it by. So watch this space for Meg's viewpoint and photos fromher work with this project
Meanwhile Sarah has also written up a short account for me so I would love to share this with you here. The reason I’m asking is in the hope a spark of their enthusiasm could light up your own. I know everyone is busy holidaying but maybe you could keep the little spark alight till after the holiday and, refuelled by light, sun and relaxation – it might grow into a steady flame of enthusiasm which can ignite in September a regaining fire of commitment that’ll brook no obstacles!
Sarah Bentley's report.
I have just completed the MOST amazing project. Its called “Adopt An Older Peoples Home” and it involved a residential home in a small Wiltshire market town, 8 year 6 pupils, a super teaching assistant from a local primary school and me! We went into the home once a week for 5 weeks and worked with the residents using Jenny Mosley’s 5 Step, Quality Circle Time Model. The children brought the home alive and we noticed small relationships being formed across the generation gap. One week a resident brought in a picture of the ship he served on in the war and the following week one of the pupils brought in pictures of himself celebrating the recent Armed Forces Day.
Many things collectively touched our hearts, the day the bubbles were blown and one lady wiped the gentle touch from her cheek, a resident doing head, shoulders, knees and toes with the parachute and the trying and tasting of different foods – including butter making – WOW!
This project has touched my heart – we are all getting older and to bring some joy to elderly residents will be something I treasure for ever.
Sarah Bentley, Senior Associate Consultant
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