Why Choose the Dharma School?

Loving Kindness, Awareness and Inter-Being – We’ve developed a new way of Learning.

• We view education holistically. Our school strives to ensure that our students’ hearts and minds are nurtured through a program that seamlessly integrates experiential learning, the Australian Curriculum, and Buddhist principles.
• We are dedicated to keeping our class sizes small, our teacher-to-student ratio is 10 to 1, meaning we are able to be present and attentive to your child’s needs.
• We are the first Australian primary school to develop a school-based on Buddhist principles, ensuring that mindfulness and meditation are at the core of each day.
• As an independent, not-for-profit school our fees are extremely low. We believe that education is a right, not a privilege. We can work with you to provide school fee assistance.
• Our school community is at the heart of how we grow and flourish. While our expansion has been organic and based on the generosity of our benefactors, we are engaged in an inspiring strategy for the next phase of our school’s growth.

The Daylesford Dharma School is the first of its kind in Australia and has been pioneering a unique philosophical and values-based approach to education since 2009. Our education approach draws deeply from the wisdom and teachings of Buddhism to create a learning environment that develops a sense of loving-kindness and universal responsibility. At our school, we support children to learn and play with wisdom and compassion and cultivate an open mind and a generous heart, aware of their own unique abilities to contribute to making their world a better place for all.

The word ‘Dharma’ in our school name, means that which protects the mind and brings about contentment. It is a reminder to focus on how to establish our happiness as a mental quality and bring stability to this from our own side, as we awaken our own wisdom. We bring the Buddha’s teachings as a framework to explore and experience life together. Our students have the opportunity to look deeply at the world they live in, with awareness of all the challenges and opportunities that exist, as they cultivate their innate potential to make a positive difference.

This inner education that explores the world and how we can wisely co-exist is delivered at our school through a graduated and age-appropriate daily program called the Australian Dharma Curriculum. It involves developing essential human qualities such as kindness, compassion, patience, sense of contentment, generosity of spirit, perseverance, and altruism- an attitude of “what I can give versus what I can take”. It includes the development and familiarity with meditation and mindfulness practices as tools that are integrated throughout the school day, to support this inner development. Developing these foundational inner qualities provides a stable base for clarity and engagement that enables a deep exploration of the academic curriculum to flourish.

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.