“Every Y7 should do this!”
“It calms me down.”
“It really helps with school work if you’re not so stressed.”
That’s the verdict of pupils at Llangatwg Community School in Neath where the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) .b (pronounced dot bee) programme has been introduced, first as part of PSE or PE and now as a contribution to Curriculum for Wales. All the MiSP curricula have been mapped to show how and where they contribute to the Health and Well-being AoLE as well as underpinning the four purposes https://mindfulnessinschools.org/train/mapping-our-curricula/curriculum-for-wales/
Several staff at Llangatwg are trained to teach .b and Nicola Paddison as a Head of Year and Head of PE talked to Mindfulness Wales about how the programme has been rolled out through the school over several years. The link to the full video is below.
Nicola describes how mindfulness helps her stay steady and regulated when dealing with challenging pupils which helps calm the situation and enables her to deal more compassionately and effectively with the issues. She has shared mindfulness with the Teaching Assistants and canteen staff who have really embraced the sessions. Now she plans to involve more teaching staff, senior management, office staff, governors and parents. There is significant evidence that mindfulness in schools can enhance the learning environment and help create a calm, compassionate, kinder atmosphere. Involving as many staff as possible is part of that process for their own wellbeing and for the learning environment.
She also described how the pupils involved are “nicer human beings” with noticeably better behaviour amongst many of them. They openly looked forward to the lessons and to the opportunities for putting mindfulness to practical use.
Nicola was one of several teachers at Llangatwg trained to teach .b to pupils and Kirstie Brown has now taken over the lead role to ensure mindfulness is sustained as part of the curriculum and learning environment in the school.
Watch the whole video here: https://youtu.be/yT22apdX3gI