When Ma­ia Labastide en­tered Bish­op Anstey High School (BAHS) in Form 1 over five years ago, her new class­mates had nev­er heard about Holis­tic Pri­ma­ry School. As time went by, they ques­tioned not on­ly the lo­ca­tion of the school but the Holis­tic cur­ricu­lum. When her peers queried the source of her knowl­edge, Ma­ia re­spond­ed with one word, "Holis­tic!"

At present, Ma­ia is a low­er Sixth Form stu­dent at BAHS study­ing Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture, So­ci­ol­o­gy, Vi­su­al Art and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies. She sings in the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed BAHS Choir and still main­tains her re­la­tion­ship with Holis­tic as elec­tric bass play­er in the award win­ning Holis­tic Mu­sic School Band. She is a Holis­tic stu­dent who knows her strengths.

Ma­ia and oth­er Holis­tic stu­dents con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit from the pow­er of Holis­tic ed­u­ca­tion from 2002 to present. Holis­tic Mu­sic School, Preschool and Pri­ma­ry School, head­ed by Dr Pat Dar­d­aine, con­tin­ue to of­fer a va­ri­ety of pro­grammes for fam­i­lies who are seek­ing an al­ter­na­tive ed­u­ca­tion for their chil­dren. Par­ents are par­tic­u­lar­ly in­ter­est­ed in the small stu­dent to staff ra­tios.

The pow­er of Holis­tic ed­u­ca­tion to date has in­clud­ed over 90 per cent SEA place­ment in sev­en-year schools, top 200 SEA stu­dents, mul­ti­ple awards in mu­sic, swim­ming, Triathlon and Vi­su­al Art in ad­di­tion to sev­er­al na­tion­al open and ad­di­tion­al schol­ar­ship win­ners from the Holis­tic Mu­sic School Band. More im­por­tant­ly, Holis­tic de­vel­ops growth and skills that will last a life­time.

The pre-school cur­ricu­lum fol­lows a com­bi­na­tion of the Ear­ly Years Foun­da­tion Stage UK pro­gramme sup­port­ed by Nu­mi­con Math­e­mat­ics and Read, Write Inc. The pri­ma­ry school cur­ricu­lum in­cludes Math­e­mat­ics, Eng­lish Lan­guage Arts, Sci­ence, So­cial Stud­ies, Vi­su­al & Per­form­ing Arts (In­stru­men­tal & Vo­cal Mu­sic, Dra­ma, Dance), Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion, Val­ues, Char­ac­ter & Cit­i­zen­ship Ed­u­ca­tion, Agri­cul­tur­al Sci­ence and Span­ish–Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, Pri­ma­ry Cur­ricu­lum Re­vi­sion 2014. Ad­di­tion­al op­tion­al co-cur­ric­u­lar ar­eas in­clude swim­ming, yo­ga, crick­et, foot­ball, chess, craft, Car­ni­val arts, choir and in­stru­men­tal en­sem­bles –string, brass, steel­pan, African and snare drums.

A ma­jor com­po­nent of Holis­tic ed­u­ca­tion is a nu­tri­tious ve­g­an lunch and fruit or whole grain snacks, sus­tain­ing healthy bod­ies and healthy minds. From 2005 to 2016, meals were pre­pared by the Holis­tic kitchen staff un­der the guid­ance of Chef Valarey Boulan. Dur­ing this cur­rent aca­d­e­m­ic year Boulan is es­tab­lish­ing a food and nu­tri­tion pro­gramme at Holis­tic. Ve­g­an lunch­es are now catered dai­ly by L'ag­niappe Bak­ery and Caf�.

The Holis­tic Af­ter-school Mu­sic Pro­gramme in­cludes in­struc­tion on pi­ano, recorder, gui­tar, drums, steel­pan, vi­o­lin, clar­inet, trum­pet, trom­bone, sax­o­phone and voice. Theme-based va­ca­tion work­shops–Ate­lier–are al­so of­fered in Ju­ly and De­cem­ber. This Christ­mas va­ca­tion, stu­dents will con­tin­ue to ex­plore Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy, En­gi­neer­ing, Art, and Math­e­mat­ics (STEAM).

In Sep­tem­ber, 18 Holis­tic pri­ma­ry school stu­dents en­tered sec­ondary school. Like 2011 grad­u­ate Ma­ia Labastide they are 18 holis­tic in­di­vid­u­als who con­tin­ue to de­vel­op the pow­er of Holis­tic ed­u­ca­tion with­in.

Par­ents in­ter­est­ed in learn­ing more about Holis­tic ed­u­ca­tion and at­tend­ing the Holis­tic Open House next month can call 621-1659 or 621-0428.