We have been delighted to host meetings of our Inclusion and Support Groups this term. These groups have been set up to facilitate dialogue, learning and development and have provided a wonderful opportunity for mindfulness teachers and practitioners to meet to discuss issues and share experiences. We look forward to the next meetings being held in Spring term, and warmly invite others to join us!
Please find short reports from these meetings below.
Culturally Diverse Group – 16th November 2021
- We talked about the challenges of being from ethnic minorities and the importance of self-care
- We discussed how schools can ensure that the system does not predetermine outcomes for pupils
- We talked about our experience in schools, including the challenges, and discussed experiences of supporting pupils including through:
- Diligence in keeping records and logs to support pupils
- Re-integration when good systems are in place
- We talked about how mindfulness can help with allowing time to respond
- We talked about our interconnectedness and how mindfulness can be part of helping open a dialogue about noticing differences and how we relate to one another
- We discussed when mindfulness lands with children and shared experiences of teaching young children and the benefits including:
- Self-regulation
- Empowering pupils with choices and how this can support them with challenges, including prejudice
- We also discussed self-compassion, mindfulness, the labelling of mental health and recognising our innate potential to heal
- We explored things MiSP could do:
- How this forum could feed into future MiSP curricula
- How we can support parents more and how vital that link is to a pupil’s development
- Resources:
- Ruth King and her work on racial affinity groups
- Fierce Self-Compassion by Kristen Neff
- The next meeting is on Tuesday 8th March 2022, 19.00-20.30
SEND Group – 18th November 2021
- We shared ideas about several themes:
- ADHD and mindfulness including:
- Having to expand the materials / make adjustments
- Using vocabulary that resonates
- Short sessions
- Movement
- Clips and role models
- ADHD and mindfulness including:
- How to get management support for mindfulness including:
- Promoting it and celebrating it
- Staff meetings
- Speaking about what mindfulness has meant to you
- How we are already mindful as teachers and school staff
- Modelling it
- Flexibility in teaching
- Adapting to the group you are working with including vocabulary
- Using movement
- Finding hooks e.g. clips
- .breathe
- Home practice
- Accessing the website. Hard to access the website
- Things MiSP could do:
- Look at how to access the materials. Hard to access the materials/has to be typed in the URL which can put pupils off
- Resources
- The Secretary spoke about free resources/webinars/skills workshops
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWxFfE_mHQ Holly Willoughby
- Actions
- Walk through pupils’ access to website for home practice
- The next meeting is on Thursday 10th March 2022, 19.00-20.30
Independent Teachers’ Group – 15th November 2021
- We shared ideas about how to connect with schools
- Reaching out through Local Educational Directories, Teaching School groups, Cluster groups or networks
- Asking to speak at Wellbeing or Headteacher Conference
- Offering Intro sessions on PSHE or Wellbeing days in schools.
- We discussed getting into independent schools compared with state schools
- Independent schools may have money to experiment which can make it easier
- Faith schools can have a high emphasis on wellbeing and may wish to seek wellbeing training
- Covid Catch Up funding and increased Pupil Premium allowances could be suggested as sources of funding support to pay for courses.
- We talked about perceptions of schools at this time, especially the impact on staff.
- We explored how we can invite schools to create more sustainable models for supporting wellbeing:
- Conversations with SLT about holistic whole school approaches to wellbeing and indicating where mindfulness fits with this
- Suggesting that schools train at least one teacher in mindfulness and consider training more staff to support their wellbeing.
- Resources
- SITT groups were discussed
- The MiSP Hub Practice Group was mentioned as being helpful.
- Actions
- The Chair invited the group to feed back any ideas for topics for future meetings in the session.
- The Secretary also invited the attendees to reflect on their own journey in developing as a mindfulness teacher for CYP or their setting’s journey (one was based in school) and consider if there is anything MiSP don’t currently offer that they would have found supportive.
- The next meeting is on Monday 14th March 2022, 19.00-20.30
Men's Group – 11th November 2021
- We talked about men going into schools to teach mindfulness, safeguarding and how it can help to build connections by word of mouth.
- We discussed male and female voices in the mindfulness community.
- We considered the neuroscientific leads into mindfulness that students might connect with, if it is a way to make mindfulness more attractive to young men and how mindfulness enables teachers to explore how the brain works.
- We discussed learning environments, what is stopping young people from learning and how mindfulness can facilitate learning.
- We explored building a safe environment, trauma sensitivity and alternative practices or activities – if mindfulness is not supportive for a young person at that time.
- The next meeting is on Thursday 17th March 2021, 19.30-21.00