Do we need more Stillness and Silence in schools?

Along with our Head of Religious Education, Miss Mary Ryan, I attended  a discussion today in St Martins in the Fields on the relevance and importance of Silence and Stillness in schools. The event wast hosted by Just This Day, an organization which seeks to promote stillness and meditation in schools irrespective of faith or belief, if only for one day of the year (the 23rd of November being this year's chosen date). Amid the noise and bustle of Trafalgar Square, the calm and tranquility of St Martins in the Fields proved an apt venue in which to hold such a debate.
We heard from 4 speakers: Dr Helen Lees, an education researcher from Stirling University, Laura Hyde, Headmistress of St James Senior Girls School, Kim Nataraja, an ambassador for Christian Meditation for Children and her daughter, Shanida Nataraja, a neuro-scientist who explained to us what happens in the brain during meditation.
Having taught before for 4 years at St James Boys school I have already witnessed first hand the benefits that meditation can have on a child's development but I was particulatrly curious to find out today how meditation might be applied in a school with a specifically Christian ethos, such as St Catherine's.
According to Kim Nataraja the practice of Christian meditation focuses on a single Aramaic word, Maranatha. The process of focusing attention on a single word in this way provides a vivid contrast to the constantly changing and diverting life of today's children. Like every other skill we learn, this simple practice improves with repetition and dedication, with remarkable results in all walks of a child's life, including her education, relationships and spiritual life:
In learning to maintain focus for longer a child can then sustain attention, helping her to study more effectively and absorb more material whilst at school. It is also clear that meditation helps children become calmer and more balanced emotionally and to gain  greater compassion and empathy for her friends and family. In feeling a greater degree of calmness a child is then far less likely to be susceptible to the 'contagion' of stress; rather she is likely to demonstrate a more mature perspective on the world around her and articulate her thoughts with integrity and clarity.
In having helped introduce Christian Meditation to hundreds of schools around the globe, Kim Nataraja has had the opportunity to speak to countless students about their experiences and for many of them perhaps the deepest and most personal affect of meditation has been a sense of getting closer to their spiritual source or God.
I wonder if the girls at St Catherine's receive enough of these true gifts that are stillness and silence, both at school or at home.
Angus Pearson