Our Story
In 2017-18, we piloted our first three modules with three schools including our development partner, the Dragon School, Oxford. We were delighted with the impact that our learning resources had on the children, teachers, parents and the wider school community. Our learning resources have been developed by leading researchers, teachers, educational researchers and publishers. We have worked to ensure that our materials are driven by schools requirements and are research informed and of the highest quality. You can find out more about the evidence base and rationale for the project here.
Since our wider launch in September 2018, Compassion Matters (CM) has partnered with a wide range of schools in the state, independent, special education needs and international sectors. While being universally available, CM prioritises schools and individuals facing social and/or economic disadvantage.
More than half of the schools participating in CM during 2018-19 record over the national average number of children cohort as in receipt of free school meals or serve communities with significant educational, social or economic disadvantage. By providing our project at no cost to schools; we can bring the project’s benefit to children regardless of their background.
CM works with educational charities and organisations who support the most disadvantaged children in society. Working in partnership allows CM to benefit those in the most need and with fewest opportunities to access learning opportunities.
In January 2019, Dulwich Prep, a school based in South London, worked with the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion to bring the centre’s Compassion Matters ethics and values education project to the school. The following video explores the children and teachers experiences of the project.
We were delighted with feedback we have received from schools receiving high scores for the projects accessibility, relevance and impact. Feedback gathered by an external researcher has shown that the project has positively impacted on children’s social skills while helping to lessen negative behaviour.
We have been fortunate to work with a number of schools who offered us the opportunity to carry out deeper explorations of the projects impact on children, teachers and schools. Below is an extract from a case study developed with two schools in Stoke on Trent who we worked with in early 2019 to support the development of greater social cohesion and pro-social behaviour in the schools.
Sun Academy and Star Academy, Stoke on Trent