Listening Tree

In amongst helping big businesses talk to each other, helping super brainy people make The Big Society happen, re-directing Tim Crouch's The Author at Edinburgh Festival and editing conversations about sex for Latitude Festival, I've quietly this summer continued my work at the best primary school in the world - Educare Small School.

Our Listening Circles are a small but beautiful part of my working life.

And as time goes on and children grow up and leave the school, new small people start to come through. And we realised this term that the Listening Tree we first created three years ago was out of date.

It belonged to people who weren't there any more. And the tree itself had become just something else in the playground. So we decided to renew and refresh.

We looked again at what the current group of children understood to be the Roots and Fruits of listening. And we found some new words. New ideas. New roots. New fruits. So we took down the old ones. Repainted them And put up some new ones. (For more pics click here)

So here's to renewal.

To roots.

To fruits.

And fertile soil.