0600 The rooks and jackdaws in the woods are wide awake. No-one else is except for those adults doing Dynamic Meditation in Buddha Classroom. The sound effects are: caw caw squawk!!! And that?s just the adults.

0645 Silent phase of the meditation. Somewhere, elsewhere in the school, another adult is waking with a mission: they are on breakfast prep.

0700 The breakfast prep adult is waking an unfortunate teenager in Mandir, with a stern command to wake the third, probably younger, kid also on breakfast.

0710 The breakfast adult is sorting out the kitchen when the younger kid helping appears. Without the teenager. A quest back into the depths of Mandir ensues. The sun is now rising gloriously over the trees by the half-pipe near the football field. The Dynamic adults are enjoying their showers.

0720 All three on breakfast now haul massive bowls of cereal, gallons of milk and crates of bread onto the serving area of the kitchen. The first early-birders are arriving already, bleary-eyed girls in t-shirts, boys in boxer shorts, some teachers fully clothed and ready for the day.

0730 Groups gather in the kitchen and dining room, some noisy and excited, others silent. The science teacher?s table is only for those interested in ghastly anecdotes of forensic medicine. Every shower in the school is being used by someone who may or may not choose to attend breakfast.

0815 Breakfast is officially over. Cue the late-comers who, distraught, argue in vain with the breakfast team who are now clearing everything away. Stragglers remain still eating their toast.

0830 While the breakfast team work on the kitchen and dining room, daily clean-up begins everywhere else. Adults go to the rooms assigned them. The room inhabitants go to the areas assigned them - such as Meera landing, downstairs toilets, backstairs corridor. A few people have been assigned the classrooms, which they check are in order for the lessons to commence.

0855 The school horn - built in the mid-eighties and still functioning - blares out its signal that classes are about to begin. Half a mile away, the people in Chawleigh check their watches to make sure they?re in sync with the horn, it?s that loud.

0900 Classes begin. Standard curricular classes such as Maths, Science and English all take place in one of the five classrooms: Einstein, Bodhidharma, Basho, Bankei and, for the youngest, Buddha. The exception today is French. The French teacher has booked the Meditation Room in the main house in order to show a video to the class. Chaos ensues as half her class go to the classroom block, having not read the instructions on the kitchen blackboard; the other half, correctly sat in the meditation room, having grabbed the best cushions, now go off in search of their missing classmates. The latter now turn up in the Meditation Room to hear that the others are searching for them. They go to get them back. Meanwhile.... and so it goes on for a fun-packed five minutes.

0910 All classes begin properly, including French. A new kitchen crew begins to prepare for tea-break and lunch. This includes two kids who will get notes from their teachers and classmates later in order to not miss out on anything. The rota changes every day, with those in an exam year being exempt from Domestic Science in the mornings. In the office email is being checked, phone messages answered and files filed.

0945 First lesson ends. There is no horn alerting everyone to this but everyone knows. Double periods simply continue while the single period classes change over. French now decamps to Bodhidharma classroom, while the GCSE Science class move from Einstein to the Meditation Room in order to see a video about chaos theory - not strictly curriculum but somehow very fitting. There is a fight about who deserves the best cushions.

1030 One of the kids on Domestic Science blasts the horn for tea-break. All those who missed breakfast shoot out of their classes and head straight to the bread and spreads. Undaunted by the bowls of jam-margarine-marmite (once labelled appropriately ?spread?n?go?) they dive in. The ages mix and mingle around the Aga, making toast in the kitchen, tea and coffee in the dining room, some start kicking balls around outside; while the unlucky few who have assignments they haven?t done for the next lessons, run back to their rooms for last desperate attempts. Those old enough to know better gather in the Smoking Temple to exchange cigarettes and gossip.

1100 The horn blares for the next lesson. People run in various - often wrong - directions - until five minutes later all is calm. Relatively. For the next one and a half hours the classrooms, the office and the kitchen are all centres of activity, only slightly calmer than Mandir Hall where a drama class is taking place.

1230 Nobody remembers to blow the horn but everyone knows anyway that classes for the morning are over. A flood of kids and adults makes its way to the main house. This is the time set aside for routine meetings. Some days it?s the School Meeting where everyone gathers in Meera Hall, hurriedly adding items to the agenda which is handled by one of the teenagers. Today though it?s Room Meetings presided over by the ?Room Adult?. Grievances over smelly socks and the morning clean-up rota are aired and hopefully dealt with to everyone?s satisfaction. The general aim of any meeting in the school is that it is not over till everyone is agreed - though not necessarily happy - with the outcomes. This means that some meetings can go on for ages while others are over in just a few minutes. Most though finish magically in the allotted time and are punctuated with a lot of humour. Today only the Buddha meeting - with the seven to nine year olds - in the Barn Dormitory goes on till ten past one (because of allegations of one of the kids keeping pet spiders under their bed).

1300 The horn signals that lunch is ready. Gradually the queue builds up through the laundry into the kitchen where everyone helps themselves to the array of food on offer, taking their plates into the dining room. The school is vegetarian and the cosmopolitan quality of staff and kids ensures that meals are usually tasty and varied, exceptions usually being when the previous day?s food is recycled and disguised as something else. Today they are lucky and it is all fresh salads, leek and potato soup and infinite loaves of white and brown bread.

1315 The Buddhas arrive having decided unanimously that lunch is more important than spiders. The queue now stretches past the washing machines in the laundry, past the Resources Room and into the courtyard. Fortunately it?s not raining.

1345 Lunch is nearly over. The teenager in charge of the lunch clean-up team for the week starts rounding up her team and delegating. Stragglers in the dining room are threatened with a wet mop by the eleven year old boy designated that area, till they get the hint and leave, hurriedly making last-minute cups of tea and coffee. Virtually every area of the school grounds will now be used till the afternoon classes: skaters and spectators at the half-pipe by the football field and swings, bedrooms where more last-minute assignments are being done as well as last-minute sleeping, basketball in Mandir Hall, reading in the classrooms and quick secret dashes (against the rules in lunch time) up the driveway to Chawleigh garage for supplements to lunch.

1420 Teachers go to their classrooms to get them ready and to finish off any prep that?s necessary.

1427 The horn announces that afternoon classes are about to begin. These are the two one-hour lessons, often put together to make a double-period for the lessons that require more time: Science can fit in lengthy experiments, Drama can use Mandir Hall for a full two hours and any excursions outside the school can be done easily. Today is also 5D - Meditation Class - for the teenagers.

1430 5D being one of the more popular classes, the Meditation Room is promptly filled by the younger teenagers without anyone being missing. It is partially the rich variety of ways of ?going inside? that is on offer in 5D that makes it such a successful class. That, with a playful approach guarantees a co-operative and even enthusiastic response. Any hint of dogma and the kids will smell it and reject it, something they have done in the past. Today they are doing Osho?s Kids? Mystic Rose: a combination of gibberish, laughter and silence. In the first half-hour though they will sit in a circle and each draw a Medicine Card from a Native American ?book of symbols? of animal guides. The meanings will be read by the teacher and feedback and ideas given by the rest of the class. Meanwhile, in Mandir Hall the Drama class are doing warm-up exercises and games. Outside, under the tall swaying trees with the rooks? nests, the Buddhas are getting in the mini-bus for their afternoon excursion to a nearby castle.

1530 The classes with just single lessons change over. Those with doubles mostly have a ten minute break. The older teenagers arrive in the Meditation Room - sunlight now streaming in from the western window - whilst the previous class makes its way to the Art Studio. An hour is quite short for an art lesson, usually they?re doubles or even more, but Art is such a popular subject, with the school?s high achievements in exams to show it, that many of the kids will stay on after class today.

1630 The classes start to empty. It?s the end of the school day. Those first in the kitchen take out bread and spreads for afternoon tea-break. Adults are inundated by requests for a quick shopping trip to Chulmleigh but the Buddhas haven?t returned from their excursion so the mini-bus is unavailable; also, a car is being used to take three riders to the nearby stables. One car is always left behind in case of emergencies.

1700 Two kids on ?tea-break? start to clean up. One of the adults in charge of dinner prep arrives to check what?s available in the store room. Mandir Hall starts to fill with the participants of a basketball game, the half-pipe with skaters and attendees, the office with requests for deposits for shopping on the Saturday trip to Exeter, the Art Studio with Leonardo da Vincis and their fans, the tennis court with - appropriately enough - tennis players and the dormitories and bedrooms with hangers-out.

1705 The Buddhas return and promptly head off into the woods, convinced there must be a castle there, somewhere. The mini-bus is promptly commandeered by the adult good-natured enough to volunteer, whilst the horn is sounded with yells of ?Chulmleigh trip!? echoing around the school.

1715 The two adults on dinner prep meet with the teenager who is assisting and volunteers to search for the other three kids. The teenager soon returns with two of them, the youngest having gone AWOL in the woods. One of those now present volunteers to go and find the missing Buddha - yes, insist the adults, an eight-year old is an important part of the team; and no, you don?t need a compass to go into the woods. The adventurer leaves those remaining to discuss what they?re going to cook for the evening.

1800 The sun is now low in the sky, scattering red and golden light over the tree tops and the school rooves. Outside sports and games are finishing for the day. The riders have also returned. Dinner prep is in full flow. The Chulmleigh trip has returned and activities are taking place inside nearly every school building.

1930 One sweating participant from dinner prep sounds the horn. Already there is a line through the laundry whilst two Meera girls, whose turn it is on the rota, pile their clothes in and out of the machines. There is a short delay while people search for the adult on Early Bedtimes, whose job it is to serve dinner with one of the older kids assisting. Meanwhile those on Dinner Prep help themselves and move on into the dining room.

2015 Those on dinner clean-up start to gather. The dining room is started slowly as many people wish to indulge in after-dinner conversation and sharing and laughing and singing; they are eventually moved all to one table until the rest of the dining room is cleaned and then they have to, finally, vacate that table too and disperse elsewhere, the clunk-clunk sound of benches being lifted onto tables lingering in their ears as they leave.

2030 The adult on Buddha bedtimes, along with one of the older kids assisting, starts to gather the younger kids and shepherd them towards the Barn Dormitory. This is not an easy task. As soon as you find one Buddha another one disappears. Eventually they are all rounded up with the promise of hot chocolate before they brush their teeth. Once they are all showered, teeth brushed and in their bedclothes, a story begins. The official Lights Out is nine-thirty but everyone knows the talking and sharing will continue long after the story is over and the adult leaves.

2100 The adult on Late Bedtimes, along with two teenagers assisting, starts to round up the Meeras. The bribery in this case is simply a ghost story. This is enough to have them all ready for bed and gathered in one of the bedrooms, the Step-Down Room on the first floor landing of the main house.

2130 The story begins, a long and convoluted plot involving past misdeeds and horrifying spectres of conscience, with a final revelatory twist at the end.

2210 The lights are officially out in all the Meera rooms, with the allowance of individual lights for reading. Again, it is known that the talking will not really cease, but at the risk of such a telling-off (plus the added threat of long drawn-out meetings) that the general aim of ?quiet time? will actually be effective.

2230 The school is now quiet except for in Mandir where the party goes on. A couple of teenagers decide they want Late Night Snacks, an optional event, and they go to search for whichever Mandir is responsible. Soon the store room is re-opened with the assistance of the Late Bedtimes adult and a mini-crowd gathers in the kitchen.

2300 It is now officially Mandir bedtime. The adult ushers everyone out of the kitchen towards Mandir, apart from the person clearing up, then does the rounds, making sure all unnecessary lights are out in the school and doors are locked.

2315 A few more adults gather, back from any evening excursions - usually a pub as there isn?t a lot of nightlife on offer in the middle of the Devon countryside. The Late Bedtimes adult checks the kitchen is in okay order for the morning. Then, finally, they prepare to go to bed too, having rounded up any refugees from Mandir or elsewhere (?I only wanted a glass of water!?).

2330 There is the distant sound of music from Mandir, but the teenagers respect the quiet time and will do their best to keep it down and not disturb the smaller kids. The teenagers tend to work out their own times for bed - as long as they appear in an okay state for class the next day there is no problem.

2400 The Ko Hsuan day is now officially over.



by Anu
2004