Misty Meadows

Misty Meadows School functions as a non-profit voluntary association. An initial private grant established the school in 2012. Several funders continue to support the school by sponsoring school fees for individual children from disadvantaged backgrounds (we currently have 16 sponsored children), paying for new buildings, or sponsoring IT equipment, workshop and sports equipment.

The majority of our operating costs are covered by school fees, which are kept at a level that is affordable to families in our community. We charge R1,750 per month (approx. £95) for primary school and R1,450 per month (approx. £78) for pre-school. These fees are slightly lower than our nearest government funded private school. We currently receive about R70,000 per month (£3,750 approx.) in school fees and this is our operating budget. 75% of this operating budget pays for teacher salaries, while the rest pays for learning resources. We do not currently pay rent, maintenance (lawn-mowing, road maintenance) or electricity charges as these are sponsored by the private family farm where the school is situated.

Four full-time staff members and six part- time staff members are currently employed. We rely heavily on community volunteers to support these staff members. Eight parents volunteer to run sessions with the children. These parents offer a wide range of opportunities for the children including biomimicry, yoga, music, gardening, art, self-sufficiency and sewing.

By using the skills of our parents and local community members we’re able, at relatively low costs, to provide a wide range of options. These opportunities will inevitably change as our volunteers and school community change.

The pre-school children enjoy a large outdoor area which includes a jungle gym, a tee-pee, a sandpit and Wendy house, trampolines, a yoga dome and two thatched rondavels. Each week, the pre-school has a set theme; themes such as exploring different countries, types of food, words, festivals and events. The teachers create activities for the children including art, cooking, daily storytelling and maths. Alongside these activities, the children take part in weekly sport and yoga sessions. The children also explore the local environment during long forest or farm walks.

The primary school is divided into four classes based roughly on age but self-selected by the children with the freedom for them to move throughout the year: Grade 1, Grade 2-3, Grade 3-4 and Grade 5+. The site, located on a hectare of land, contains two classrooms which are used flexibly for a range of different lessons, a computer lab with WIFI and four school laptops, an outdoor playing field and a woodwork space.

70863108_2367412420046963_9062537872535453696_nThe school day is split up into five: morning circle, activity one, activity two, break time (30 minutes), and activity three. Although the children are encouraged to attend the organised activities, they are free to determine their own learning journey and are not forced to take part. However, we’ve found that most children choose to participate in all lessons and few regularly miss sessions.

Activities change and adapt as different opportunities arise and adults join and leave the ecosystem. At present, activities include gardening lessons, self-sufficiency lessons, biomimicry lessons, woodwork workshop, arts and crafts projects, IT skills, yoga, mixed martial arts, sewing, maths lessons, 1:1 reading, writing lessons, structured word inquiries, learning style and personality explorations, and music lessons. Sports sessions take place after school on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The older children have allocated time each week to undertake one project per term. At the beginning of the term they choose a project, and they present it to a panel of parents and community members at the end of the term. During their weekly project sessions, they are mentored by one of the teachers who supports them in developing their ideas and furthering their project.

“If we change our fundamental metaphor for the education of children from the manufacture of a product to the flowering and fruiting of a plant – then we begin to see that our role is not to rigidly control each step in the process, but to create the conditions – the soil, the water, the light – under which human brilliance may unfold and flourish”. – Carol Black, Schooling the World

“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn”. – Einstein

Misty Meadows School provides a group of children with the best possible conditions to learn and reach their potential, whatever that may look like for each child. We are neither limiting nor prescriptive about what and how children learn. In a beautiful physical environment we’re providing them with access to a diversity of curiosity catalysts, perspectives, experiences, learning resources, support, encouragement and opportunities for collaboration with their peers. We call this “an enabling learning ecosystem”. Just as seeds have the capacity to become flowers, only those that receive sufficient sunlight, water and nutrients actually do. In the same way, all children have the capacity to thrive, but they need the right learning conditions to do so. Not every child has good learning conditions at home but everyone is enriched by the diversity that our learning community offers them.

​Our school operating principles form the pattern that we follow so that children can customise their learning outcomes.

We enable and support children to thrive by:

• Focusing on recognizing whole children with minds, bodies and souls
• Providing a wide variety of learning resources for children to use in ways that make sense to them; including books, technology, games, stationery, equipment, people, ideas, tools, time and space​​
• Providing high quality mentoring and support from a diverse group of kind, committed, reflective adults.
  ​​
• Providing a beautiful, multi-faceted physical space in a gorgeous natural setting to learn in and from.
  ​​
• Offering curiosity catalysts in many forms; including weekly themes, facilitated conversations on a wide range of topics, a wide variety of organised activities to participate in, exposure to experts in different fields, and exposure to cutting edge thinking and ideas in many fields.
  ​​
• Finding and accessing resources to extend specific children’s specific interests on a case-by-case basis.
  Providing a network of friends (a learning community) comprising a variety of ages, races, classes and genders with whom to collaborate
• Facilitating a mutually-agreed democratic process for raising, listening to and addressing grievances, and encouraging children to learn to resolve conflicts without always relying on adult intervention
• Modelling good communication and conflict-resolution skills for children to observe and learn from.
• Offering a range of opportunities, physical, mental, emotional for children to grow and achieve self-mastery
• Offering a learning environment in which children are not afraid to make mistakes, learn from the natural consequences of their choices rather than those forced on them by others and develop respect for each other through an understanding of the emotional and real-life consequence of their actions.
• Providing an opportunity for children to learn how to persevere when things get tough, and not to expect instant gratification with everything they do, or to give up too quickly.

School starts each day with a morning circle where all children from all year groups share time together. This time is led by the children who start by sharing their positives from the previous day or evening.  Children sit in a circle on cushions or bean bags in an informal, respectful way. After every child who wishes to has had the opportunity to share their positives, they have the chance to share grievances. The children bring any grievance from home or school to the circle where it’s shared, listened to and resolved. They’re encouraged to raise and share issues they’ve had with other individuals; answer concerns raised against them; offer solutions and resolve issues together. The adults in our circle model useful strategies for resolving grievances. The goal is always to restore group harmony rather than to punish anyone for bad behaviour.

We’re finding that the children’s confidence is enriching over time as, within this safe space, more children are able to share their positives and grievances. We now see children from all grades confidently and eloquently raising concerns, listening to others’ opinions and putting forward solutions leading  to successful resolutions.

Example

B: “When I was playing on the trampoline, I heard Pupil A saying ‘stupid monkey’ and I didn’t like it.”

A: “I don’t like monkeys because they steal all of the fruit which means that we can’t eat it or sell it.”

B: “But nature is important, and we should like all nature.”

A: “I am sorry if I upset you because I didn’t want to upset you, but I do still think monkeys are not very nice animals.”

B: “Thank you. Okay.”

Naomi, 14, Grade 8: The teachers make the teaching work for me. Teachers take time to explain questions I don’t understand and put in effort to really help me. I have made my first friendships ever at Misty Meadows. When you have a problem, you can resolve it in morning circle and usually walk away as friends again. I suffered from bullying before I came here and now I just have really good siblings. I go to school to learn and make myself 100% who I can be, and I get that at Misty Meadows. It is my home away from home.

Dineo, 14, Grade 10: I really like how we get educated at Misty Meadows as we get to communicate with other people and be ourselves. We get to choose what we do rather than people telling us what to do all the time. I go to school to learn and I learn a lot here. In the future, I want to share my learning with others and Misty Meadows gives me the opportunity to do that. This school is a lot different to my old school where I had to sit down, copy, do homework, shut up and write exams which I hated. Misty Meadows is different in a lot of ways as we don’t write exams. As we get to do what we want to do, we experience more because we explore nature and learn all the time in our natural environment.