Mindfulness in education

As children across the country start making their way back to the classroom, the effects of the recent upheaval will no doubt make themselves known. While kids are renowned for being resilient, there’s been a lot of change to deal with lately, putting mental health on the radar for many parents and teachers.

According to ReachOut, an online resource developed specifically for students, schools and parents, practising mindfulness might be the key to finding a sense of normality and getting everyone back into the swing of things. The school-focused arm of the site provides resources, teaching programs and teacher wellbeing support.

According to ReachOut, there are many physical and psychological benefits to practicing mindfulness — training your attention to be in the present moment rather than worrying about the past or future. It can deliver a range of benefits including increases or improvements in coping skills, problem management, learning, memory and emotional stability, and is known to decrease anxiety and depression — many of which will have relevance for returning students, particularly those due to face major exams.

Though often achieved through mediation to bring about awareness, mindfulness describes a state in which the individual is paying attention to some stimuli and disregarding others. The ReachOut site offers simple exercises that can be used to illustrate the concept for students, showing how shifting perception can deliver a completely different view of a situation.

As well as info on mindfulness, the site has a tonne of information on building positivity and resilience skills in students including small chunk five-minute activities that can be built into any lesson plan.

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