THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23 2000 - The Times

Children practice their t'ai chi before lessons at Broad Town school near Swindon 

Relax and learn 

JOHN LAWRENCE 

Can alternative therapy help to erase bad behaviour in schools? Emma Burns reports 

It is 8.50am and, in the windswept playgrounds of most primary schools in Britain, children rush around frenetically while their mothers chat or stand mute and exhausted. 
Not so at Broad Town Church of England School near Swindon, Wiltshire. Here, something like a scene from a Honda corporate video is being enacted. Children, members of staff and some parents are performing the stretches and intensely focused movements of t’ai chi, led by a teacher, Anne D’Souza. 

As pupils arrive at the small village school they slip into the workout (which is devoid of any martial content) until it is time to enter the classroom. To most of the 49 children, aged between four and 11, it is simply fun. Lynn Macindoe, the mother of six-year-old Alex, says: “He loves it. He knows all the moves and he is teaching them to his granny. I have been trying it too — it gets oxygen to your brain in the morning and wakes you up.” 

But the brief t’ai chi session is credited with a more significant role. Broad Town has been a school in special measures since an Ofsted inspection in March, which highlighted bad behaviour, among other problems, as a cause for concern. 

D’Souza, one of several members of staff appointed over the past six months, already practised t’ai chi. She felt that daily sessions of the exercise might help to calm the pupils while instilling a sense of community. 

“It does exactly what she thought it would do,” says the new head teacher, Sue Ellis. “We find the children are focused and ready to start work as soon as they sit down in class. It is something all the children can do and succeed at, raising their selfesteem at the start of the day.” 

The most recent school inspection, four weeks into this autumn term, found that poor behaviour was no longer an issue. “I would attribute much of that change to the t’ai chi, as well as to the simple reward scheme we have put in place,” says Ellis. 

Broad Town is one of scores of schools across Britain using complementary therapies. Having become widely practised by adults, they are now filtering through to children. Often, as at Broad Town, it is the result of a member of staff’s enthusiasm. 

But there are larger initiatives. In West Yorkshire, Kirklees education authority is experimenting with teaching children self-hypnosis to help them to relax during examinations. Dr Phil Jones, the authority’s senior educational psychologist and a trained hypnotist, will supervise the trials. Dr Jones says that the children will not be put in a trance but will experience an “altered state” which he believes will aid their concentration. 

“People get the wrong impression about hypnosis from stage performers. Hypnosis used by qualified psychologists is very safe and has a proven track record of effectiveness,” he says. 

The Quiet Place Project is an established scheme that began in Liverpool and is now being taken up by schools in Blackpool, Croydon and Northern Ireland. Each school sets aside a room to be used for face, foot and hand massage, psychotherapy and the teaching of relaxation and breathing techniques. The pupils, most of whom come from deprived communities where unemployment is as high as 30 per cent, are referred by their teachers (after consultation with their families) for a six-week programme of three 40-minute one-to-one sessions a week. 

Some have problems controlling their temper, others have been affected by bereavement or family breakdown. There are bullies, the bullied and children who lack confidence. Most are so undermined by their experiences that their ability to learn is impaired; a few are at risk of exclusion. In the rooms, which are decorated to feel both cosy and magical — one is a dragon’s cave, another a dolphin grotto and a third an oriental palace — they find an environment in which they can talk safely to qualified therapists. The lighting is dim, colours are muted and, apart from occasional classical music, the rooms are quiet. Teachers can also use them for massages or as refuges. 

Children, parents and staff value the Quiet Places. One boy remarks: “I used to get into fights with other boys. This has helped me to calm down. I don’t get as worked up about things as I used to.” A girl says: “There are lots of things to do to help you out with horrible things you don’t like — like name-calling, splits with your mum and dad, bullying.” 

One parent who attended Quiet Place sessions says: “I feel I am gaining more insight: I couldn’t see any solutions before. It is good to have someone to talk it through with.” 

Elva Boutflower is the head of Hope Valley School in Liverpool, the third in the city to establish a Quiet Place. “It gives the children strategies to help to deal with situations in a different way,” she says. “I don’t think children are more difficult nowadays than in the past, but we are better at spotting it and we don’t just label them naughty: we look for the reasons for their behaviour. Of course, we still have our challenging children, but this gives us something else to use with them.” 

Each Quiet Place costs between £2,000 and £5,000 to set up and £20,000 to £25,000 a year to run — money that often comes out of school budgets. 

Is the scheme effective? Bob Spalding, a senior lecturer in education at the University of Liverpool, canvassed teachers about the project. “They said it had a significant effect on the emotional needs of the children through the opportunity it provided for more contact on a one-to-one basis,” he says. “It combines an opportunity for them to gain a greater understanding of themselves with fulfilling their need for more attention.” 

Jeremy Swinson, an educational psychologist, believes that it is the giving of attention that is significant. “I would argue that the improvements in behaviour are the result of giving the children extra attention, rather than alternative therapy,” he says.