Our hope for World Peace

At St Matthew’s, we are proud to be working towards becoming a Peace Mala School.

A Peace Mala is a symbolic double rainbow bracelet that promotes friendship, respect, and peace between people of all cultures, lifestyles, faiths, beliefs, and none.

Peace Mala focuses on the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would wish them to treat you”. Its intention is to educate and remind everyone that this rule is recognised by many scholars, teachers and philosophers.

Each coloured bead represents a spiritual path.

The central bead represents the wearer who may or may not have a spiritual path. The central bead also represents the whole cosmos, emphasising the interconnectedness of everyone and everything.

Running through the Peace Mala is a simple thread which holds all the rainbow beads together. This may be called the Golden Thread of Spirituality which connects us all through the love in our hearts – acknowledging the Golden Rule and our spiritual unity opens up the pathway to peace.

The first and final knots holding the double rainbow together embody lessons about empowerment and responsibility. The final ‘toggle’ bead represents unity, harmony and peace.

More information can be found on the Peace Mala website.

Miss Lynton (Our Headteacher) is the Peace Mala lead for the school and a Peace Mala Ambassador for Greater Manchester. Miss Lynton is supported by the Junior Peace Mala Ambassadors (Six children from Y5 and Y6) who are representatives of the Peace Mala for the whole school. They meet every few weeks and look at ways they can help to build friendships and support pupils during play times and throughout the school day. The ambassadors lead and plan any charity events and have an active role in planning any social action that we participate in. They have regular meetings to discuss the way in which they can use conflict resolution to sort issues and teach acceptance and tolerance too. We are extremely proud of them!

Spreading the message of Peace at Trafford’s Heads Conference, May 2024

Trafford Council Leader, Tom Ross and the Lord Mayor of Trafford with Our Junior Peace Mala Children