Training FAQs

Full attendance on all days of the training (including formal practices at the beginning and end of each day) is required for full certification and access to teacher materials as a dots/ Paws b / .b teacher. While we appreciate that unavoidable situations might occur resulting in a participant missing part of a training course, e.g. serious injury or a family member being taken ill, whether or not the participant is then allowed to continue with the course will be at the trainer’s discretion. If a participant is going to miss one session, e.g. one lesson, it is at the lead trainer’s discretion whether or not they feel able to spend time with them helping them to catch up on what they have missed.

However, if a large section, or a whole day or more is missed, the participant will be asked to attend the equivalent day(s) in question on a future Teach Paws b / .b/ dots training course and will incur an additional fee.

Although .b / Paws b/ dots materials have suggested time frames in which the lessons/ sessions can be taught, the curricula can be broken down into smaller chunks or extended through more opportunities for discussion, longer practices and enquiry, more use of worksheets if applicable etc. If you are in any doubt about how this can work, please feel free to email support@mindfulnessinschools.org.

In some schools, trained .b and Paws b teachers have offered the course to fellow staff or parents of students at the school or organisation where it is taught. This can be a wonderful way of informing the adults in question about what the students are learning, developing a shared language and understanding of what mindfulness involves. What we ask is that it is made clear that .b and Paws b are not intended as training courses for adults. While they may be an excellent opportunity to ‘dip toes’ into some of the key ideas and practices, if parents or colleagues want to experience the full potential benefits of mindfulness, they should go on to take part in a recognised adult mindfulness courses, e.g. MBSR, MBCT, .b Foundations etc.

It is acceptable to teach the course to colleagues within your own work place as an opportunity for them to understand the content and terminology of the course students are following. The course should not be advertised or taught to adults outside of your workplace and it is not a course designed for delivery to adults in a public setting. .b is for young people, and not specifically designed for adults. However it can be a fantastic introduction to mindfulness for colleagues and parents, giving them a sense of what you are teaching to students.

This course does NOT qualify you to train others to deliver the curriculum. Nor may you share the teaching resources with others. If your place on a Teach Paws b or Teach .b course is going to be funded by your school or other organisation, we recommend you make this clear to them before enrolling for this course.

NO! Paws b, dots and .b must not be run as public courses, ie outside the context of a school, sports club or other educational or youth-related organisation. This is clearly explained on the MiSP website: Within the context of established organisations, there are safeguarding processes in place, and staff trained in safeguarding who support you and the children should any issues can arise. These staff should know the students well, and be able to inform you of any difficulties a student might be experiencing/have experienced (e.g. trauma, physical or mental illness, behaviour management issues, or bereavement) which could affect how they receive and respond to the materials. They can also be on hand in the classes themselves should any of these issues arise.

When running a public course with young people, consent and disclosure forms are required from parents. Parents signing a consent or disclosure form may not always be honest or able to give a full picture of their child’s needs.

Children attending a public course will often be there because their parents believe they ‘need’ mindfulness. This may not be how the young person feels. They could therefore be a particularly tough group to work with.

Such a parental perception could then also frame the .b, Paws b or dots teacher very much as someone providing an ‘intervention’ or ‘treatment’ for any of the issues believed to exist. This is not what these curricula are intended to be. The hope is that our curricula are for ALL young people – not just those experiencing difficulty.

If the course is taught outside schools but within another organised context such as sports clubs or scout groups, where safeguarding policies and procedures are already in place, then that should be fine but the .b / Paws b teacher should meet with the organisation and ensure that they have everything in pace to allow for a safe and supported course to run.

The roots of the MiSP classroom-based curricula are MBSR (Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Therapy), the two most well-researched and evidence-based mindfulness programmes available. However, the curricula are not therapeutic interventions; they are designed to introduce young people to the potential benefits of mindfulness in the safety of the school classroom. Taught by well-trained teachers. they offer a toolkit of practices which aim to dip children’s toes into mindfulness in ways which they find helpful and enjoyable. To have a significant impact these curricula should sit within a school’s broader frameworks of social and emotional learning, safeguarding and pastoral support. There is certainly no evidence to suggest that any harm is caused by this relatively low exposure to simple, secular mindfulness practices. Indeed, early research suggests that mindfulness may provide young people with a valuable life skill by supporting them in number of areas: to feel calmer and more fulfilled; to get on better with others; to concentrate and learn; to manage stress and anxiety; to perform well in music and sport. However, it is certainly not a panacea and, as with adult groups, there are some young people for whom mindfulness training is not advisable, namely those in very severe distress, or at the extreme end of clinically diagnosed anxiety or depression. Further research is needed to deepen and test our understanding of this. MiSP is therefore committed to further research into the effects of mindfulness for both staff and pupils in schools.

It would also be a good idea to read the article – Is Mindfulness Safe? – published by the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.

This is usually decision made by the school/senior leadership team. Some schools offer information sessions about what the course involves; others simply run the course as part of the school’s curriculum, and may or may not inform parents. At the end of the day, each school’s relationship with their parent body differs, so this is one to discuss with senior leadership. Certainly there are lots of resources on the Teacher’s Network that could be sent out to parents if needed (flyers and posters etc). There is also a template for a letter to parents in your resources folder. Often, informing parents beforehand about what the course involves reduces the likelihood of any parental concerns about the course.

Our curricula are intended as courses that all students can and should be able to access. Having said that, some timetabling or other logistical issues might mean that not all classes in a year group are able to attend sessions. This might also be the case if the course is offered as an extra-curricular activity. If the school feels the need to inform parents about the course, some may (due to misapprehensions about what the course involves/intends to achieve) wish to withdraw their son or daughter. This is their prerogative, but shouldn’t happen, provided the parents are informed beforehand about what the course is actually all about.

It is very rare for children to be withdrawn from the .b / Paws b/ dots course, but if you find this happens, do feel free to contact us support@mindfulnessinschools.org.

One word of warning: in some cases, a school might decide to ‘give’ you a group of students who they believe ‘need’ mindfulness training because of emotional, behavioural or social issues. If you are trained in some form of intervention, e.g. as a school counsellor or therapist, this may not be a problem. However, you need to make it very clear to the school that the curricula are not designed to be therapeutic interventions. They are classroom-based curricula for all students to experience.

MiSP is currently working on further lessons to allow the .b course to spiral through schools and across year groups, and hopes to do the same with Paws b in the future. These probably won’t be ready for a year or two. Needless to say, it takes time to establish mindfulness within a school culture, but there are several schools who have now begun to do this in a variety of ways:

For example, some begin teaching Paws b in Year 3, or .b in Year 7, and then re-visit some of the lessons the following year. In Year 5/9 they may offer mindfulness as a lunchtime or after-school activity, and in Year 6/10-11 continue to do this while offering one-off sessions in assembly or PSHE slots around specific issues – particularly as exams approach, or specific issues arise within the year group as a whole.

A similar approach has been used schools teaching Paws b. Indeed, here, the students have taken on an ambassadorial role, teaching their younger peers some of the practices, and speaking at assemblies and other school events about their experiences.

MiSP is currently working on providing some case studies about how schools have begun to roll out mindfulness – what has worked well, what they would do differently next time. When ready, these will be available on the Teachers’ Network.

MiSP’s Group Mentoring sessions are opportunities to join together with other .b, Paws b and dots teachers and share ideas around exactly these issues. Please find out more about this here: Group Mentoring.

Yes. .b as also been taught to undergraduate students in a few universities, and is an ongoing programme for students at Edinburgh University.
Meanwhile, .b Foundations (the eight-week training for teachers and those working in education who wish to learn the foundations of mindfulness) has been delivered very successfully to staff in a variety of educational settings, but also to 16-18 year-olds at 6th form level in the UK. However, these are exceptional circumstances and it should be emphasised that .b was developed with 11-16 year-olds in mind.

If you are not currently working in the school where you hope to teach Paws b or .b, the prospect of getting a foot in the door may feel daunting. Firstly, within the resources in the Trained Teacher Hub you will find ‘Letters to Parents and School Senior Leaders’. This is a template for a letter you might like to use when approaching school.

When you do so, please bear in mind that schools are inundated with unsolicited emails and post on a daily basis. At best, they may drop to the bottom on an inbox or in-tray never to be seen again. At worst, they will simply be binned / deleted before even being read. To avoid this happening, you need to be clear about the person to whom you’re writing and. If possible, address your letter to the person by name and also mention their position, e.g. ‘Deputy Head (Pastoral)’, ‘Head of Year 7’, etc.

Because both .b and Paws b sit so well within a broader PSHE curriculum, it is often wise to start with the person responsible for the PSHE course within the school, as well as they person responsible for the year groups you are most interested in teaching – ‘Head of Year…’

If you are able, suggest a free taster session to senior leadership, the staff or a group of students. This will often reassure schools that you are well trained and that the curriculum is suitable.

A .b Foundations Teachers’ Map is available which enables schools and other organisations to contact .b Foundations teachers in their area. As you will be self-employed, we are not in a position to instruct you on what to charge. Of course, it will vary from region to region and according to the size of group, type of school, travel time and experience etc, all we ask is that the fee you charge is reasonable and affordable for all schools. This is key to the integrity of the work we do, and our aim to increase the accessibility and sustainability of mindfulness provision within schools.

If you are self-employed, or going into schools from another organisation, you will need to consider a whole range of issues before approaching a school. For example:DBS Checks/Safeguarding training: When working in any context involving young people, you will be required to have a Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) check in place, and may be asked by the school to attend additional safeguarding training.

Only schools and other employers can request a DBS check. You as a visiting teacher can’t do a criminal records check on yourself. Instead, you can request a basic disclosure from Disclosure Scotland (you don’t have to be from Scotland to do this).

For more information, see the Government website overview.

Indemnity insurance: When employed by a school, your employer will have insurance policies in place to protect you, but as a self-employed person, you would be wise to have your own indemnity insurance in place. Insurance companies should be able to advise you on what you need.

Finding and approaching schools: As a self-employed .b / Paws b teacher, MiSP is not able to find you work. However, you can request to appear on the .b or Paws b Teachers’ Map on the MiSP website. This is where we signpost anyone enquiring about how to find a trained .b / Paws b teacher.

Also, in the Trained Teacher Hub, there are suggested letters to send to schools and/or parents, as well as useful flyers and summaries of research findings around the benefits of mindfulness for both adults and children.

If you will be acting as a self-employed teacher of .b / Paws b, MiSP is not in a position to instruct you on what to charge. Of course, it will vary from region to region and according to the size of group, type of school, etc, all we would ask is that the fee you charge is reasonable and affordable for all schools. This is key to the integrity of the work we do, and our aim to increase the accessibility and sustainability of mindfulness provision within schools’

Logos: The MiSP, .b, Paws b, .b Foundations and any other logos you may see on the MiSP website and other documents are trademarked logos and are for MiSP’s exclusive use only. As a trained .b / Paws b / .b Foundations teacher you have access to your own ‘Trained to Teach’ logo to use on your own website/for marketing and advertising purposes.

This is for your use only as a MiSP-trained teacher and must not be passed on to anyone who has not completed the appropriate training with MiSP or MiSP-approved training partners. It can be downloaded from the Teachers’ Network, along with posters and other resources containing approved images and logos.

Images, Text and Other Materials: As a MiSP-trained teacher, you have access to a series of images such as posters and flyers through the Teachers’ Network which you are free to use on your website.

As these materials have been created by MiSP. If you do use these on promotional materials, we would ask for acknowledgement of where the images come from or, better still, that you provide a link from them directly to the MiSP website.

If there is something specific you would like to use that can be found in any MiSP materials, please do contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org to discuss your needs. If we are unable to give you access to certain materials, we may be able to recommend an alternative.

As someone who has trained with MiSP to teach a MiSP curriculum, you can describe yourself as a ‘Trained .b / Paws b / .b Foundations Teacher’ (delete as applicable). You are not a ‘member of MiSP’, a ‘MiSP Teacher’ or ‘MiSP Trainer’.The key is to make it clear that you are an independent teacher as opposed to an employee of MiSP.

There are a few lovely examples of websites created by MiSP – trained teachers, and we would be happy to share the links to these with you if of interest. If you have any further questions, please contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org

Within three working days of the end of the course you should receive an email from support@mindfulnessinschools.org providing you with access to an online form through which you can provide feedback on your experience of the training and information on how to access your teaching materials. Please note that this email can sometimes end up in ‘Junk’/’Spam’ folders, so if you haven’t received your email after three days, please check your folders. If you still can’t see the email, please contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org who are there to help you if you need any help registering and logging in.

MiSP greatly values participant feedback and, where possible, factor any suggestions you have into future developments of our training and curriculum. Please be honest and open and take the time to provide this for us. You will be able to access your teaching materials via The Hub section on the MiSP website, but first you will have to set up your account.

Here is how you set up access to your teaching materials:

• You will need to create your user account by following a link and creating your own username and password.
• You will receive an email saying that we have received your registration request. We will then ‘approve’ your account and notify you by email once you can log into the Hub.
• Just to remind you that this will be complimentary for the first 6 months, in which time you should download all the teaching materials in order to use them whenever you need in the future.

Once you have trained to teach any of our curricula, you have six months of automatic access to The Hub from which you can download all the resources associated with that curriculum to save on your own computer/storage device in perpetuity. They are yours to continue using for as long as you wish. The Hub continues to develop with updated versions of the curricula and additional resources added on a regular basis. But these take time to create and produce. For example, creating a new content can cost several thousand pounds. Providing additional support such as Group Mentoring, Hub Practice Groups and the other opportinuities which are free to Hub members also involve costs to deliver. An ongoing annual fee starting from £25 (depending on circumstances) to continue to access these new materials and updates therefore helps to pay for these developments.

As we write this, the dotbe.org website and all it contains is available to all who visit the site. However, since its launch last year, it has become increasingly clear that some teachers have been using the animations and guided practices as a ‘press and play’ option during school sessions. This is not the intention of dotbe.org, which was designed to support the home practice that sits alongside the .b curriculum. Having completed the .b training, hopefully you will understand the importance and value of group-based classroom teaching of mindfulness. Whilst some of the practices on the dotbe.org website are very brief and straightforward, others – particularly those in later lessons – explore more complex experiences and need the ‘scaffolding’ of the accompanying lesson to help explain the concepts involved and support the student when they come to try the practice themselves. As a result, we will soon be password-protecting the site. As a trained .b teacher you will be sent password information which will allow both you and your students to access the site. Again, for more information about this, please contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org.

Although good teaching and learning is generally acknowledged to involve discovery through a variety of tasks and activities, including physical movement, when teaching mindfulness there is a need for a certain amount of stillness. There is a fine balance to be gained between keeping a class of young people actively engaged through PowerPoint presentations, group work, and movement around the classroom, and the space and time to explore the stillness and quiet that will allow them to connect with present moment awareness. For some groups, it may be necessary to increase the amount of movement involved in the lesson with regular standing for stretching or moving to new chairs/places in the room. Over time, the students tend to find the stillness of a .b / Paws b lesson becomes more familiar, and even pleasant/enjoyable.

As we mention in our Terms and Conditions, while we are always happy to discuss possible minor changes to our materials in order to make sure that they are accessible for specific target groups – e.g. more culturally appropriate images or language – the materials are copyrighted and the intellectual property of MiSP, so any changes MUST be approved by us.If you feel you need to make major changes to the materials in order to help it fit your target group, it is likely that the .b / Paws b curriculum is not an appropriate one for the group in question.

A great deal of the time and experience has gone into creating these materials. .b and Paws b have been used in over 40 countries, translated into 11 languages, and delivered in everything from schools and colleges to adolescent mental health units and young offenders’ institutions. Its integrity lies in the quality of the materials themselves, and the consistency with which they are taught.

This consistency then allows us to compare, in a meaningful way, research evidence from .b studies on a national and international level, building a bigger, more statistically reliable picture of the ways in which .b and Paws b can benefit young people.

Try these lessons as they are to get used to them. They have been extensively trialled and improved. If, having dome this, you still feel you would like to make changes, please contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org who will discuss with you your ideas.

Sometimes the videos won’t play through the power point presentations. This is partly because of issues with software not matching up, or simply because the video files were too large to embed in the PowerPoint Show. This is why we also provide separate versions of the film clips in the ‘Videos’ section of the Teacher Resources for Paws b and .b. We also have Mac versions of the film clips for Mac users.

If you can’t play the film clip directly from the power point show, it’s a good idea to download the film clips you need, then keep the PowerPoint and the film clip open and ready to play on your screen. You can then ‘toggle’ in and out of the film clip by pressing the ‘alt’ and tab keys. Keep pressing at ‘Tab’ key as you hold down the ‘alt’ key, and release it when the framed image stops at the screen you want to use next (PowerPoint or film clip). You can then do the same again to get back to where you were. There is a PDF which explains how to do this in the Hub.

If the film clips won’t play, it may be that you will need to download some standard software that recognises most formats. The most reliable one is VLC which you can download from here.

Developing a mindfulness programme in your school can feel like a lonely business, and difficult to make sustainable. There are a number of ways in which MiSP can support you in this:

• We are here to help support you in this process, so please do contact support@mindfulnessinschools.org.
• Convincing senior leadership teams about the benefits of mindfulness for both young people and staff can result in invaluable support for your strategies. We therefore offer Information Events designed to provide a taste of what mindfulness is like, and its potential benefits.
• Being the only member of staff in a school who practices mindfulness or has had any mindfulness training can make it difficult to develop strategies and gain support. The most affordable longer-term path to embed mindfulness in your school or chain of schools is to have a member of staff trained to deliver mindfulness training in-house. The School Mindfulness Lead training is intended to help school staff to develop a more sustainable, in-house model for mindfulness training and development. The course prepares .b, Paws b and dots teachers to lead the .b Foundations taster session and 8-session curriculum, but also to become a ‘mindfulness lead’ within the school or educational organisation where they are employed. Please note: This training will enable you to deliver the .b Foundations course to staff within the safeguarded environment of your school. It is important that you are permanently based in a school so you are on hand to support staff in developing their practice beyond the 8-week course. The course does not equip teachers to become external providers of mindfulness training to schools other than the one in which they are employed.

Teach .b and Teach Paws b and Teach dots courses train you to teach the curriculum to young people. In the Terms and Conditions for attending these courses, it is made clear that: In order to teach the curriculum you must have been granted a Certificate of Training from MiSP or an authorised partner. Hopefully, having been on the journey of meeting prerequisites to attend the course and then the training to teach the curriculum you now understand how intensive this training is, and the skills, knowledge and experience needed to do this safely and skilfully.

MiSP trainers themselves have been through the same process of training, followed by training to teach adult mindfulness courses (.b Foundations, MBSR, MBCT etc), and then followed an extensive trainer pathway with MiSP to become teacher trainers. The reputation of both MiSP and its trained teachers for providing high quality training and materials stems mainly from the depth of experience on all fronts.

We welcome those who are interested in becoming a teacher trainer and who meet the following requirements:

1. Experienced mindfulness practitioner – at least two years of regular personal practice, teacher-led courses and retreats
2. Experienced teacher of .b or Paws b or dots as relevant – at least three full courses taught to classes of children, preferably to different age groups
3. Ideally, but not essentially, formally trained as an adult mindfulness teacher through an accredited training route
4. An experienced classroom teacher who is consistently observed as at least ‘good’ or an experienced teacher of adults in group settings
5. Dynamic and interactive teacher of .b / Paws b/ dots lessons providing models of good teaching practice
6. Willingness to be observed and to receive and act on feedback
7. Willingness to act as part of the training team and to support wherever needed – setting up and clearing away refreshments, liaising with caterers, distributing handouts etc

N.B. Priority will be given to those in areas where we are holding training courses. Those approved will be added to a list of potential future trainers and contacted if an opportunity arises. MiSP can’t guarantee that someone will contacted, and can’t guarantee how many training courses will be offered per year if someone does start on the pathway to becoming a full trainer.

MiSP’s trainer pathway, as with so many things in the world of mindfulness, is a slow and careful process. I should also say that courses happen sporadically throughout the year, many of them in holiday time to allow teachers to attend. As result, being a .b / Paws b/ dots trainer on its own certainly won’t pay the mortgage, so don’t give up the day job yet!

If still interested, please contact .

MiSP are always happy to hear of people and organisations (local health or education authorities, educational trusts and academy groups etc) interested in working on a regional level to introduce mindfulness into schools. However, as a UK charity, any courses we offer need to be financially viable. It is therefore not possible to offer training solely for a specific group of people. What we can do, with a guaranteed minimum number of places paid for in advance, is offer ‘group bookings’ for people who meet the course prerequisites, but who have potentially been funded by the same organisation, e.g. a local health authority, school consortium etc.

We are keen to connect with schools, raising awareness amongst school staff of the potential benefits of mindfulness, but as a small team we don’t have the resources to offer INSET/CPD training sessions in individual schools. What we do offer though are Information Events, to support anyone interested in finding out how to bring mindfulness to their school. All welcome – pupils, teachers, school staff and governors, health care professionals, parents … anyone interested in mindfulness and young people.