Here are some suggestions to help you find the right MiSP trained teacher using our website maps. All these teachers successfully completed an MiSP training course and now operate as independent practitioners. They are not employed by MiSP. It is your responsibility to ensure they are the right teacher for you and have the necessary insurance and safeguarding/prevent training to meet your needs.
Always speak to the teacher and ideally meet them before you engage them. Trust your instinct. If you are looking for somebody to run a Teach .b Foundations Taster, do you think this person will be confident enough to stand up in front of all your staff and inspire/persuade/reassure them? An 8-week course teacher doesn’t need to be such a confident public speaker, but they still need to carry themselves in a way which you think will inspire.
Get a reference, even if it is just a quick phone call. Unless you are the first school they’ve been to, they should be able to tell you where they have presented/taught before. Be honest with them and say that as good practice you would like a reference from someone at that school. Everyone needs to start somewhere, if they have never taught at a school before, where have they taught? Have they taught mindfulness to pupils in schools? Who can provide a reference?
Check out their training and experience. There are people who have got lots of training and retreat experience but might be hopeless teachers (which is why meeting them or at least getting a reference is so important). You might also get people who haven’t had as much training but are a potentially fantastic find. However, any mindfulness teacher should be able to answer the following questions.
When did they begin practising mindfulness meditation? (as a rule of thumb don’t go with anybody who has been practising for less than two years)
What other qualifications or trainings do they hold in mindfulness?
What is their experience of working in schools? How many courses have they taught? (Again, everybody needs a first course, but if somebody has taught 10 courses locally in your community then you might know somebody they’ve taught)
The cost of the course All MiSP trained teachers are self-employed, so we are not in a position to set a fee structure. Of course, it will vary from region to region and according to the size of group, type of school, etc, all we ask is that the fee they 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’
To go to the ‘Bring Mindfulness to Your School’ overview page, please click below: