At the chalkface Into the mystic


EurEka! I’vE just had major pedagogical breakthrough. Let me share it with you. Pranayama Yoga. Wassat? Cosmic breathing. I’ve gone Newage in my Old age. Out goes fuddy-duddy negativity. In comes doe-eyed positivity. I’d always thought hippy whimsy wouldn’t cut it in the realpolitik of the inner city classroom. Well, more fool me. My conversion


came with a visit to Senora Fabregas’s class. Her pupils came in, sat down, closed mouths, closed eyes and then, guided by her soft Spanish tones, began to breathe deeply in the Pranayana fashion. “From your toes up. In. Out. In. Out.” Magic. The toxins of anxiety vanished, the hush of contemplation fell. Then – ole! She clicked her fingers and they came out of their mystic trance ready for conditional tenses. Pupils like the shrill Decibelle and the antic Dervish.a deep calm was everywhere – an ambience I’ve hitherto achieved only by shutting all the windows and turning up the radiators. So I gave it a go in Pastoral. Would it work my 10th years for most of whom inner peace is another country? In they dawdle, twitchy and


giddy from the inner city – from gridlocks, family rows, Coca- Cola and crisps – joshing and nattering about Big Fat Gypsy Weddings or thatarshavin goal. Off message. Off trolley. Time for the old Pranayama Yoga. I kick them out, line them up, sit


them down and shut them up: “right.” Pause. “Look at me!” “Do we have to?” “Like you do with Senora


Fabregas!” “Yeah, but she’s better look...” “Shut up!” I go into guru mystic mode. I


wish I had a beard. “You alright, sir?” “Close your eyes.” Most do.amazing.


We’re away. “Empty your


minds!” “Easy for Sid!”


observes Luke wittily.


Sidney is not amused. “right. Breathe deeply


...from your toes up!” “Eh. sir?” “Just do it!”


Most do. “In... out... in... out...” The girls are immediately


on task. Some boys, of course, feel compelled to go into sexual extremis mode.


“Whey Hey!” “Oh do grow up!” sighs


rhapsody strictly. Indeed. “Good. Breathe. Deeply.” Decibelle has never shut up


for so long. She looks close to spontaneous combustion. Plum blinks and tries too hard, Shaka negotiates inner space, as usual. Sidney still seems in outer space. But the rest seem well gone. I click fingers. Ole! They wake up and are ready for some pretty rigorous grammar. Marvellous. Ditch those dull Behaviour Workshops. Go Prayanama breathing – where once there was distraction, there now will be contemplation. Will it last?


• Ian Whitwham is a former secondary school teacher.


by Emma Lee-Potter


Buying textbooks can be a costly business for students. But two go-ahead 6th-formers have come up with an ingenious idea to lighten the load – and in the process have won £65,000 of business backing in a competition for young entrepreneurs. Tom Williams, 18, and James


Seear, 17, hit on the idea of setting up an online company to resell used textbooks to school and university students. Their idea was so ingenious that


it recently won them first prize in the Young Start-up Talent competi-


tion, a Dragon’s Den style contest to encourage entrepreneurship among 16 to 21-year-olds from Surrey and West Sussex. Tom, a pupil at Christ’s


Hospital in Horsham, West Sussex, and James, who attends nearby Collyer’s Sixth Form College, will officially launch recyclabook next month. Students using the service will


be able to post their used textbooks to Tom and James or drop them off if they live locally. The pair will pay senders a fee, then resell the books to next year’s students at competi- tive, but profitable prices. “We got the idea when the maths department at my college


said they had 30 used textbooks which they’d sell to my year on a first-come, first-served basis,” said James, who is studying fora levels in mathematics, business studies and economics. “There was a huge queue keen


to save money by buying the books second-hand and it struck us that it was a great business idea. We did a pilot test with 6th-form students last year and it proved very successful.” James and Tom, who is tak-


ing a levels in maths, history and economics this summer, have been friends since they were 11. This is not their first business venture either. at 14 they set up their own babysitting service, advertising it


Young Dragons: James Seear and Tom Williams


(second and third left) with the judges of the Young Start-up Talent prize


in local primary schools. as well as winning accountancy and mar- keting help in the Young Start-up Talent competition, the pair have also been offered a year’s free office space by Basepoint Business Centres. “The prize package is tremen-


dous for Tom and James and is sure to get recyclabook off on a very steady and progressive footing,” said karen Osborne, area manager for Basepoint. For more on the Young Start-


up Talent competition, visit www.youngstartuptalent.co.uk and the recyclabook website launch- es in april and can be found at http://recyclabook.co.uk


News


Teens survive the Dragon’s Den to claim business prize


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