Why Dharma School?
Nurturing Minds and Hearts: A Holistic Approach to Education
At Daylesford Dharma School, we cultivate a learning environment where educational excellence meets emotional intelligence, fostering a community of mindful, compassionate, and resilient learners.
Our committment to accessibility and low fees
Accessibility is central to our philosophy, and so we aim to keep our fees low and support all children for whom our school is the right fit, to be able to attend. We are a supportive and engaged community of educators, children and families, who work together to ensure that everyone at our school has an opportunity to learn, grow and flourish.
Read more from our School Principal here
How we Nurture Creativity and Foster Wellbeing
Mindfulness Practices
Compassionate Teaching
Social-Emotional Learning
Programs designed to enhance students’ social skills and emotional intelligence.
Nature-Based Learning
Our Vision
Founded in 2009, Daylesford Dharma School is Australia’s first independent primary school that delivers the Australian Curriculum through the lens of Buddhist philosophy.
As a not-for-profit independent primary school, we infuse the national curriculum with Buddhist practices of kindness, compassion, self-awareness, meditation and mindfulness for our students, offering a unique, heart-led, and experiential learning environment.
At Daylesford Dharma School, our community engenders a tangible sense of belonging and acceptance amongst all our students. We believe that fostering this sense of community is critical during the early years of a child’s development as it strengthens a child’s understanding of themselves in relation to the world.
These social and emotional understandings are based on self-awareness and compassion for themselves and their community, and we see our students and alumni successfully transition into secondary education with resilience, moral character and a deep understanding of themselves and how to self-advocate and communicate.
My greatest hope is that all school systems will teach the four R’s: reading, writing, rhythmatic, and self-regulation. That from K–12 all kids will be taught to experience how they can regulate themselves though their breath, movements, and synchronized interactions with others, and learn how their bodies, brains, and minds react to overwhelming stress with recognizable patterns that can be managed through self-regulation practices, more than with drugs or alcohol.
You can read more about Bessel van der Kolk and how his groundbreaking work on the importance of children learning to self-regulate.
Discover Our Inspiring Learning Community
Explore how our unique approach to education nurtures your child’s growth in a supportive and mindful environment. Join us for a tour to experience firsthand the compassionate and holistic learning that sets us apart.
