There have been initiatives to reinvent the traditional learning space both physically and psychologically to foster a safe and supportive learning environment. Mindfulness and emotion check-in has become a common ritual to start a learning session or a meeting in the school. Morning greeting has been a common practice in all primary schools. Many teachers have utilized tools to resolve conflicts like “buddy chair”, caring circle, watering flowers and deep listening At Duy Tan, in every class meeting, 50% of time is for Happy Schools practice and nurturing class relationship.

Students at Duy Tan have been familiar with the outdoor classroom where they sit in circle and see each other’s face without any obstacle. Happy Schools suggests the rearrangement of how students physically relate to each other in sharing time or class meeting.

A tangible sign of care: classroom’s total cleaning, decoration, and taking care of plants in Nguyen Truong To. Happy Schools has changed the mindset of cleaning: it is the joy of working together, caring for the space together – a chance to nurture class relationships.

A teacher of Tran Cao Van collected what students want to say to their parents, stick the messages on the wall for parental meeting. When practices of empathy and deep listening are promoted, it improves the quality of feedback loop among students, teacher-student, teacher-parent and generally in school community.