Amethyst Learning story: Reflectiveness

Red Pandas love to eat bamboo but sometimes it can be hard to find. Gem was a red panda who loved to eat bamboo but she needed to climb pretty high and with a lot of skill in order to find more in the forest.

It wasn’t long before Gem found lots of tall bamboo trees not too far from her home. Her hunger got the better of her though and she jumped from one tree to another as hard as she could. When she landed on the branch, it snapped under all of her weight and Gem came crashing down to the ground with a huge thud! As soon as the broken bits of bamboo hit the ground the other red pandas grabbed them and took them away to eat. Gem brushed herself off and thought about what had happened. She became curious about how her jump had broken the bamboo but she had ended up with no bamboo to eat. High up above her in the trees, Gem could see some bamboo branches glowing purple. ‘They look good enough to eat’ thought Gem but she didn’t want to jump and fall again. Gem took a long look at herself. ‘I know I am good at jumping’ she said ‘I know have my big tail too so maybe this can help me keep my balance on the branches if I start to fall’. As soon as Gem stopped looking at her tail, the bamboo began glowing purple again.

Gem took a deep breath and began her climb. She took a big leap from her branch towards the delicious bamboo. The branches broke again but this time Gem flicked her tail out to keep her balance against another branch and soon found herself leaping and gliding through the air like an acrobat. Every time a branch snapped, Gem would keep her balance and make another leap, gracefully launching herself from one branch to another with bits of bamboo snapping into her paws.

Soon, Gem found herself with a large helping of bamboo to eat all to herself. The other red pandas came to tell Gem just how amazing they thought her jumping and balancing was. Gem shared how she had managed to figure out the best way of getting the bamboo. She called this ‘Reflectiveness’ as she was curious about how to get the bamboo in the first place without falling. She had also made predictions about how her jumping and her tail could help her keep her balance and had joined up her learning but putting both of these skills together.

As Gem took her final bite of bamboo she began to glow purple herself. Her body transformed from a red panda to a human. Her hair was blonde and covered by a red hood. Gem kept her red panda ears as a reminder that when you listen and see what is going on around you, it helps you to become reflective. Gem looked up into the bamboo trees to find 3 amethysts glowing purple. Each Amethyst gem was a reminder of Gem’s reflectiveness skills.

1. Being curious.
2. Making predictions
3. Joining up your learning.

Gem was keen to share the power of reflectiveness with other humans. ‘I know just the place to start’ she thought. ‘A school in Didcot known as Willowcroft.’