Autumn meetings of our new Inclusion and Support Groups

Chair: Adrian Bethune        Secretary: Chivonne Preston

The Chair welcomed everyone and led a short practice. Members introduced themselves and said a few words about why what had brought them here:

• To share experience and to get inspiration
• Curiosity and interest – in this group, its members and their experience
• Concern about inclusivity and ensuring that mindfulness can be accessible to all schools

We talked about our experiences in schools, and noted that:

• Large institutions can be anxiety-inducing and young people need to be taught how to navigate that
• For some, their experience is that their institution does not ‘have their back’
• For some, it seems that within school institutions, especially where senior leaders are not representative, if feels like people of colour are an afterthought
• There is a long term impact of micro-aggressions, which alter the course of your life even if you don’t recognise it until later
• Sometimes the word ‘mindfulness’ is not helpful or feels like a difficult word
• That whether we are people of colour or not, we all share common humanity

We shared ideas about how we are making mindfulness more inclusive and accessible for our CYP:

• Using poetry and music appropriate to young people to get them to engage – also for teachers to bring their own authentic self to the teaching and to each lesson
• Introducing the idea of mindfulness with physical activity to engage all young people – movement, breath, running, walking in nature – before delivering formal lessons which are often taught sitting down (and may not immediately engage all young people)
• Using the mindfulness ‘game’ (‘what did you notice?’) throughout other activities

And we had some ideas about things MiSP could do to help:

• Offer recordings of the curricula practices using voices of different accents and genders
• Share examples of good practice and additional activities used in other schools
• Curate relevant poetry and other resources

There was some suggested reading:

• Poems by Benjamin Zephaniah
• Poems by Lemn Sissay
• A book by Ian Morris ‘Teaching happiness and wellbeing in schools’

The next meeting is on Tuesday 9^th March 2021, 19.00-20.30

Chair: Clare Winter             Secretary: Claire Kelly

The Chair welcomed everyone and led a short practice. After initial introductions we went into breakout rooms to consider what the challenges and opportunities are when teaching mindfulness to SEND/SEMH groups of young people. We discussed:

• The importance of the adult’s ability to be non-reactive around difficult situations through their own mindfulness practice
• The importance of having an additional adult to support the sessions
• The value of not shaming students in these moments of tension or conflict (see Paul Dix book below)
• The importance of getting to know the children or pre-knowing them re. the dynamics they bring with them
• The need to support the support staff
• That the regulatory strategy of one child may be the disrupter for the rest of the group
• That COVID-19 involves some different layers of complexity
• The need to educate staff and communities about what mindfulness is and isn’t – addressing stigmas and misconceptions (e.g. ‘brainwashing’) – sharing the neuroscience is very important
• That compassion fatigue is a real issue and it can be difficult to engage colleagues
• The difficulties in teaching mindfulness to hearing impaired students
• The importance of having a class teacher in with you if you are an independent teacher, and having them really understand what is being taught and why.
• The challenges to continue practice for students beyond the Paws b / .b course
• That some colleagues / SLT will expect immediate impact on the children
• The risk of trauma – triggering and holding emotions in a safe way – leaving lessons and what support is available and informed beyond each lesson
• That some struggle with language issues and find it hard to express their experience, with language and communication needs representing the highest % of SEN (7%)

We thought about things that MiSP could do to help:

• Strip things back so that students can access the learning without losing the intentions of practice and theory
• Give ideas for more movement-based practices to make the curricula more accessible to SEND and ADHD children
• Provide more concrete metaphors e.g. glitter jars
• Provide alternatives:
  • To ‘mindfulness’
  • To the breath
  • To any abstract concepts in the curricula which are particularly difficult to connect with
• Advise on how to keep the curricula alive beyond the actual lessons
• Advise on how to shorten or lengthen the lessons

There was some suggested reading:

• When the Adults Change, Everything Changes – Paul Dix
• Beyond Behaviours – Mona Delahooke
• Barry Carpenter Recovery Curriculum – working with the DfE and mindfulness

The next meeting is on Thursday 11^th March 2021, 19.00-20.30

Chair: Nicola Beattie           Secretary: Chivonne Preston

The Chair welcomed everyone and led a short practice. We introduced ourselves and the group included members who:

• Had taught MiSP curricula in schools already, others had not
• Had previously been full-time schoolteachers, and others who came to this from other professional backgrounds
• Were finding it a challenge to get into schools, or to find time in the curriculum
• Had contacted local schools extensively but not been invited in to teach
• Had introduced mindfulness when providing supply teaching (‘by the back door’)
• Had worked with others to teach whole year groups in successive years
• Had specialised in teaching .b Foundations to staff

We talked about the challenges of being an independent teacher:

• Getting through the front door!
  • Generally…
  • But especially during COVID-19 when many schools have risk assessment prohibiting external visitors or bubbles which make peripatetic teaching impossible.
• Knowing who the best contact is in the school to approach:
  • Headteacher – ultimate decision-maker / budget holder
  • Board of Governors
  • Staff meetings generally
  • SENDCOs
• Needing a range of evidence about the benefits of mindfulness (‘convincers’) depending on who you are talking to and what their main concerns are
• Getting mindfulness on the timetable – this can also be an issue for other subjects (such as music)
• Knowing how much to charge as fees

We discussed some potential solutions to these issues and what has worked well:

• Using MiSP resources to persuade – e.g. Class Impact reports, research
• Being on the MiSP Map so that schools can find you
• Offering a pilot programme for free, so that the school can get to know you and see the quality of the lessons and their impact
• Hooking into other wellbeing programmes in the schools (often run by external ‘professionals’)
• Asking to present to staff during their staff meetings via Zoom or other platforms
• Identifying the SENDCO who may be able to allocate budget to mindfulness
• Identifying alternative local funders – there are often small grants and foundations that operate very locally who are open to applications from schools who you could work with to submit a bid on their behalf. Some businesses may be happy to support local school initiatives to strengthen their CSR credentials.
• Working with regional or local union representatives to present to school staff

We thought of things that MiSP could do to help:

• Provide a summary of Top Tips for Independent Teachers
• Publish mapping of MiSP curricula to Ofsted assessment criteria
• Providing more slides for staff presentations (other than the first lesson in Paws b / .b)

Available resources:

• Where to start as an Independent Teacher
• Getting on the MiSP Maps
• Requesting Class Impact Reports
• Summary of Class Impact Reports 2016-2020
• Research
• Mapping MiSP curricula to School Inspections e.g. Wales
• Funding mindfulness in your school advice

The next meeting is on Tuesday 16^th March 2021, 19.00-20.30

Chair: Richard Burnett        Secretary: Ben Chalwin

The Chair welcomed the group and everyone introduced themselves and spoke about their experience of mindfulness and of teaching mindfulness. Some initial reflections included:

• A sense of gratitude for MiSP offering up this group and an interest in learning from others
• The importance of role modelling
• The journey within school and letting things grow in a more organic fashion, slowly
• The importance of building strong foundations
• The need for mindfulness for children, young people and those who work with/care for them
• Being used to being in the minority – there were not many male faces at MiSP’s 2020 online conference, and as a male in primary school, you might be a child’s first or only male teacher
• Historical messaging from system leadership – “Got to be tough.”
• Not knowing any other men who teach mindfulness
• In recent years, an increased receptiveness from men towards mindfulness (e.g. mindfulness in the workplace)

We then considered why we don’t see more men practicing mindfulness:

• Social conditioning. The cultural context of being a British male – don’t share and don’t be vulnerable – it often takes a point of crisis to recognise that there is an issue
• Large sections of male society appear to have an innate barrier to acknowledging and sharing their feelings
• Wellbeing has become more mainstream in terms of the media. Mindfulness has become more normalized and men more comfortable with it
• The benefit of male role models talking about e.g. depression mindfulness – Freddie Flintoff, Prince William etc. Appearing on mainstream TV and males are buying into this. One male role model can have a massive influence
• Men may have misconceptions around what mindfulness is
• Men do talk to each other in other contexts – e.g. getting together to climb a mountain.

We then had a 15 mins practice and reflected further on our themes:

• Groups of men meeting to discuss mental health can be beneficial as there is a lot carried around beneath the surface without an outlet or forum to express it.
• If mindfulness is introduced by female teachers, it might unintentionally position mindfulness in a certain way
• A male teaching mindfulness and talking about mental health might make an impression and represent something that hasn’t been represented before
• A reflection that many leaders within the mindfulness world are male
• There is a need for a more holistic approach within education, which can be forgotten about (especially in a secondary context)
• The importance of the proximity of role models – not just people on the TV or in social media, but the role model of someone you have an actual relationship with e.g. a teacher
• The importance of the authenticity of a role model – someone we could realistically aspire to be – both for students and staff

We noted that it was unusual to have an all male meeting!

There was some suggested reading:

• Grayson Perry’s The Descent of Man
• Boys Don’t Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools by Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts

The next meeting is on Thursday 18^th March 2021, 19.30-21.00