Bishopston Primary School in Gower, South Wales began their mindfulness journey in 2021 in response to needs identified by the pupils themselves and observations of the impact of the disruption of lockdown. As they developed their mindfulness provision they have been able to build the practice and programmes into their schemes of work, helped by the mapping of the programmes to the Health and Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience in Curriculum for Wales.
Deputy Head Naomi Beynon says,
“We wanted to respond to pupil voice feedback that told us that our pupils wanted help with dealing with ‘big emotions’. Post-lockdown we had a system where the children were putting a lollipop stick with their name on in an emotion pot in order to indicate how they were feeling. The pupils fed back that they wanted something more that could help them deal with their emotions and to help their friends when they were emotionally dysregulated. We started doing bite size mindfulness sessions with the children which proved successful. When I saw an advert for Paws b, I realised that it would help to boost staff confidence in practising mindfulness with their classes and also take the pupils understanding of it to a deeper level. All classes from Y3-Y6 received 12 week of Paws b training.”
You can listen to Naomi talking about the provision at Bishopston here.
“Following the Paws b training we integrated mindfulness into our Health and Wellbeing curriculum by ensuring that the skills, knowledge and experiences of mindfulness were included in an age-appropriate way across every phase of our school. Our youngest pupils learn how to be still and concentrate on their breath, while our oldest children learn about the role of the amygdala and how it affects our emotions. Our pupils also use mindfulness as part of assemblies as a tool to help them create a ‘mindful moment’ to reflect on our values.
“The use of mindfulness has now developed so that it is an integral part of a wider toolkit of emotional regulation including zones of regulation, rings of resilience and growth mindset. We have posters up around the school reminding children of the most commonly used mindfulness breathing techniques and their benefits. We try to use mindfulness in our daily activities. We’re fortunate to be near the sea and you can see us using mindfulness at the beach here.
“Lots of our pupils have reported sharing their mindfulness practices at home with their parents, they often report using them at bedtime in order to help them get to sleep. We have held coffee mornings to share with parents the benefits of mindfulness and shared our journey with other schools.”
Bishopston has been keen to track the impact of mindfulness on their pupils. Questionnaire data following our Paws b training showed that a high percentage of children found mindfulness helped them emotionally regulate and they used it at home as well in school. Pupils who are involved in sport at a high level also reported using mindfulness before important competitions or when they experienced failure. Using the Paws b approach of explaining why we experience different emotions and what is happening physically in our brains at that time has proved very beneficial to pupils. It helps children to understand there is a physiological aspect to their feelings and that they can learn to control them.
Naomi says,
“We will continue to build on the excellent foundations that Paws b provide us with. We will regularly review the emotional regulation toolkit we provide our children with and add to it as appropriate. Mindfulness will remain a central component to this.
“We’re always happy to make connections with other schools who have placed emphasis on the wellbeing of their pupils and want to share strategies to help them emotionally.”
Email: BeynonN27@hwbcymru.net
Website: bishopstonprimaryschool.wales
Facebook: Bish Primary
Instagram: @bishprimary
Key Words
#Mindfulness, #wellbeing #emotionalregulation #resilience #education #primary #formal mindfulness #Pawsb #Wales #Gower