What is Teach Peace?

The vision of Teach Peace is for schools to be beacons of peace and social cohesion.

Peace includes both internal and external processes. Internal peace includes cultivating mental balance. External peace starts when we listen to each other with respect.

Social cohesion is the capacity of a society to ensure the well-being of all its members, minimising disparities and avoiding marginalisation.

Meet the Team

  • Sophie Hardy

    Sophie is a primary school Director (since 2012) and Teacher (since 2001) in Belgium.

    Passionate about pedagogy and well-being, she has ten years experience in introducing mindfulness to children (3 - 13 years old) as well as training her team of teachers. She has witnessed time and again the benefits of establishing a school culture that values peace, self-confidence, clear-thinking, imagination and empathy

  • David Rycroft

    David is the director of Teach Peace.

    He is also a director of Mind With Heart, a UK charity, training teachers and students in sustainable wellbeing, emotional health and social connection.

    David trains mindfulness instructors and school teachers in tools for wellbeing and emotional health and in sharing these with teenagers. Researchers into Mind With Heart's trainings recently concluded that students who had completed their programmes became more respectful and less violent, were less inclined to indoctrination and radicalisation, and more ready to learn.

    Educated at Eton College and Edinburgh University, he taught art in a London secondary school for ten years before co-founding Mind With Heart. With an MA in Art History and an MA is Buddhist Studies, David is also an practising artist and runs retreats combining painting and mindfulness.

  • Victoria Martín-Moreno

    Victoria has been working in the field of peace education in Spain since 2010. She has completed various trainings bringing mindfulness to children including Mindful Schools, Wake Up Schools, Mind with Heart and Awareness Through the Body.

    She has created an educational project CocoTips, whose mission is to provide spaces and materials which help children and adults to know their minds, understand and manage their emotions, and to connect with the best of themselves.

    Her passion is that education includes the cultivation of the compassionate potential that we all have.

    • Montessori Early Childhood Educator

    • University degree in Psychopathology, clinical intervention and health

    • Mindfulness teacher qualified to teach the MBSR programme

Peace Champions: who can apply?

In this pilot phase, we are inviting school teachers who practise mindfulness and compassion exercises to become a Peace Champion. The qualifications that you need are:

  • You are currently a teacher in a school

  • You practise mindfulness / meditation and compassion exercises

  • You are based in Europe (including UK)

What will peace champions do?

The role of a peace champion is to facilitate the setting up of a Teach Peace project in your school. The project itself will have three phases and you will be fully supported by us at each stage:

  • first, you will dialogue with the school's senior managers to decide what is most needed and what is possible

  • second, you will help rally colleagues to participate in a working-group / training, to which we will provide a teacher-trainer

  • third, you will be one of the teachers who introduces peace-tools to students

What is being funded and what is the timeline? 

Funding has been secured for:

  • Six hours support to help you prepare and set up a project. In addition, you will need to spend about 6 hours planning. Timeline: to end of this academic year

  • Teacher-trainers training you and at least 7 of your colleagues in how to introduce peace-tools to students. Timeline: September - December

  • Teacher-trainers to mentor you and your colleagues during delivery to students. Timeline: January - March

  • Treats for you (mini-retreats and other ways to nourish your own path)

 

Getting started

It all begins with an aspiration. Maybe you want to launch a peace project in your school but you need a tool-box. Maybe you already have something going and want support approaching senior management.

Peace comes from within — whatever your situation, let it radiate.

Photo from a Mind With Heart training at Hockerill Anglo-European College, UK

Chat with us

Want to see if becoming a Peace Champion is a good fit for you right now?