MINERVA BC NEWMAN
MANDAUE CITY – The Children’s Paradise Montessori School celebrated its 18th founding year anniversary with the theme “Spark Joy! GRIT Together” on January 28 with various activities and performances from its students, faculty and alumni and workshops on education inclusion and mental health.
Marivic Bathan, CPMS president, in a press conference on January 28, said that they used the words CPMS Debut to signify the school’s coming out in the world. The celebration’s opening program will feature original songs, one of which is “Stronger Together” to mark our coming out.
According to her GRIT is an acronym for Grow, Reconnect, Ignite and Thrive. GRIT is popularized by author Angela Duckworth who wrote the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
Bathan said the CPMS community has established the culture of collaboration even from the construction of its school building, the cost, its architectural design, its advocacy for organic farming and “green-minded” environment and climate change, have all been because of collaboration among the parents, alumni and other outside sponsors who felt connected with the school’s program and advocacy.
“The pandemic has taught us so many lessons. The parents are the primary teachers and that they must also be trained for coaching spaces and other services. We have tapped Mark Saballa, the co-founder of Coach Services to help us in the school,” Bathan added.
Saballa conducts various coaching services for those children who have challenges and also coaching parents, teachers and children with workshops and giving them tools to empower everyone to help and support the child with challenges. These are workshops for inclusion and mental health, Bathan shared.
There will be four breakout workshops to be conducted by renowned coaches. The main thrust of the workshops, which Bathan said, is a mini-summit that has something to do with the well-being and a touch of education.
Learning Session 1A tackled the subject “A Strength-based Living: Our Natural Gifts” with Coach May Soriano who is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, a Pioneer of Life and Corporate Coaching in the Philippines, a 2019 World Women Leadership Awardee and has been recognized as among the 2017 Best 100 Global Coaching Leaders.
Learning Session 1B, which was held simultaneously focused on “The Spirituality of Joy: Youth and the Path to Love” with Fr. Loreto Jaque as the speaker. Fr. Jaque is the 1st Biodanza Practitioner from the Philippines trained in Play and Expressive Arts Therapy and a member of the Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA) and was a Missionary Priest in Lima, Peru.
Following these, two more workshops were also conducted simultaneously. The topic for the Learning Session 2A was “Education for a New World: Relevance of Inclusion.” The speaker was Mark Saballa, co-founder of Coaching Space Inclusion, Specialist and Consultant as well as a sought-after trainer and resource person.
On the other hand, Coach Ricky Jhon “RJ” Goyeneche discussed the topic “Learning Session 2B Emotional Mastery 101: How to Fight Negative Thoughts and Live a Happier Life.” He is the 1st certified Brain Health Coach and Trainer in the Philippines, the founder of Prodeuz Training and Tools for Personal Development, a Neuro Linguistic Programming Trainer and a Neuro Semantics Genius.
