Mindfulness in Schools Project is delighted to have agreements with a small number of organisations to run our courses outside of the UK. We have worked closely with these international organisations to ensure that they are able to maintain the integrity and quality of our courses and that they have a suitably qualified, professional local training team. Whilst we retain a close relationship with all our international partners, they run courses independently from MiSP.
Guest blog by Eva Kam
For the last seven years, Cathri Verkleij, Ernst Koeleveld and I (Eva Kam) have been teaching the .b curriculum in Dutch Schools. All three of us are teachers in different High Schools and each of us has been ‘caught’ by the power of mindfulness in our personal lives and experienced how powerful and joyful this can be with students.
We were all trained by MiSP-approved b Teacher Trainer, George Langeberg. George has been a Trainer in the Netherlands since 2012, and was one of the founders of the Centre of Mindfulness in Amsterdam. Involved in the training of many teachers, George helped to create a sustainable teaching community here in the Netherlands.
Back in around 2018, George began looking for someone who could continue the relationship between MiSP and the Centre of Mindfulness – taking care of the .b teacher training in the Netherlands and its community (as he was focusing primarily at that point on his separate acupuncture activities). This was the beginning of us forming a team at the Centre of Mindfulness, and we joined the MiSP .b Trainer Pathway so that we could start delivering the .b Teacher Training in the Netherlands. We are thankful for the great support and guidance that MiSP has given us to support our learning.
In the years that followed, we became more aware of the needs of the Dutch .b teacher community and wanted to support them in any way we could. We thought the best way to do this is by starting a foundation in the Netherlands. In the autumn of 2022, the three of us started the foundation Stichting Mindfulness Based Trainingen voor het Onderwijs.
What are the Foundation’s Goals?
The Foundation has three main goals:
- educate
- connect
- support.
Educate teachers who want to bring mindfulness in their schools; connect the mindfulness community of teachers in the Netherlands; and support the teachers that bring mindfulness to their schools.
Bringing mindfulness into schools has its challenges, of course, including in the Netherlands. We are thus particularly grateful for the international mindfulness community to share, inspire and support us.
How can you find out more?
If you would like to see more information about the foundation, please visit their website, and if you or anyone you know would like to apply for Train to Teach .b course in Dutch, please see here.
