Articles

Twenty-six workshops for the body, mind and soul

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Oct 10, 2016

Garden International School held a two day conference for Secondary students and parents on well-being and personal skills development.

The deep and long ringing tone resonated through the classroom as Bill Cael played the Tibetan Singing Bowls during a student group healing session held at Garden International School.

Also known as Sound Healing, the Tibetan Singing Bowls are bowl-shaped bells containing seven to 14 different metals including meteorite that originated from Tibet and India. They are a hand-made, hand-hammered musical instrument that helps people to connect with their own body and mind.

“People experience deep relaxation and coherence with one’s own body mind connection. Bowls are extremely fast in connecting an individual to this state. Many have had profound experiences mentally, emotionally and physically,” said Bill.

The Music and Mindfulness session was part of the GIS Personal Skills Development Conference focused on personal skills development and well-being for Year 11 to Year 13 students. The two-day conference comprised 26 workshops ranging from drawing therapy and relaxation to music and mindfulness. These workshops were facilitated by invited speakers and GIS teachers.

The conference allowed students to choose workshops based on their specific needs and also provided opportunities for students to work together, hence encouraging the formation of new skills and new friendships.

“The ethos of the conference was student well-being. We truly believe that if students’ well-being is high, then they will flourish at GIS,” said the Assistant Secondary Headteacher, Laura McGregor.

Garden International School also invited three other experienced international speakers to share their expertise with students of Year 11 to Year 13 and parents.

Dannielle Miller and Ben Barber gave a talk to parents and visitors highlighting the challenges of raising teens while Clive Leach focused his presentation on mental toughness.

“Children are exposed to far more images and information than we think. I’ll try to chat more with my children about what they read and see on the Internet,” commented a parent of GIS, Karen Ho Warren.

“It was a good reminder that having mental toughness is more than just building your mental limits but also making sure you restore your resources such as sleep and exercise so that you have energy to keep going when things get tough,” said another parent, Lee Shen-Li.