Looking at this bowl this morning as it catches and reflects the light in the most beautiful ways, I was reminded of my sojourn in Reggio Emilia about fifteen years ago. People who knew me then will roll their eyes at this point, because I returned from a week’s educational course so full of unbearable enthusiasm that I drove everyone mad.

It was a course to explain the innovative teaching methods they developed in that part of Italy after the war for nursery children. To encapsulate in one word it was about nudging children to take their own next steps in learning. Hundreds of ways of doing this, of course, and I was absolutely convinced. On the last day of the conference I suggested that the Reggio Emilia method could be transferred from nursery children to older ones. There the powers that be pooh poohed the suggestion out of hand, but I was not deterred.

I worked in a school for teenagers with moderate learning diffculties, and my head teacher was very supportive.

One of the ways we worked was using light and noticing things about how light works through the use of windows, stained glass and artificial lighting. One of the projects that we embarked on was a combined art, RE and English project which lasted a year.

We visited many places of worship in London and then on our return we worked with an artist who helped us transform our impressions into physical forms.

We spent a few weeks experimenting with making stained glass out of transparent plastic and various kinds of paint. My classroom windows were transformed into a kind of kaleidoscope which changed patterns all day long, according to the sun.

At the end of the year the kids decided they would build a temple of their own. They wanted to include the features that were common to all the religious centres, churches, temples and mosques that they visited.

In the end most of the school got involved as the hut made from pallets incorporated mosaics, stained glass, artefacts, sculptures and artworks. The only thing they did not manage to construct was a dome. That was disappointing, but nonetheless it became a place where they could sit quietly and reflectively, if they wanted to.

Just as today looking at our beautiful bowl and the colourful reflections it casts, it made me think back to the nature of learning, and how everything that we look at or do connects.