By Chivonne Preston This week, I attended the launch of the seminal discussion paper “Mindfulness: Developing Agency in Urgent Times” by the UK’s policy institute, the Mindfulness Initiative. For those of us worried that mindfulness is at risk of being erroneously perceived as promoting passivity and compliance, this paper expertly outlines the progression from individual […]
Some ideas and support for .b, Paws b and .breathe teachers As schools begin to re-open in this strange, post-lockdown period, we are aware that those who have trained with us to teach MiSP curricula will have a good deal to navigate as they move back into the classroom. What follows is hopefully helpful guidance […]
Our focus this week is on teacher wellbeing, so we asked the charity Education Support to provide some extra insights and advice… Teachers’ mental health and wellbeing is under pressure as never before, with many school staff feeling more stressed and anxious than usual. It’s a completely natural reaction to the higher levels of distress […]
Over the past century our understanding of how children learn has developed considerably, and whilst research continues and experts debate the mechanisms there is one unifying factor: the interactions that children have with others (‘relationships’) are key. From Sigmund Freud’s focus on childhood experiences, to John Bowlby’s attachment theory, to Albert Bandura’s proposition that learning […]
Did you know that MiSP curricula are already available in 12 languages with more translations on the way? We are grateful for the international interest in our work and honoured that our organisation is recognised for leading the global effort to bring evidence-based mindfulness to schools. It is heartwarming to watch the increasing interest in […]
MYRIAD involves a range of studies, including a seven-year randomised control trial and research project funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is investigating whether and how mindfulness training (MiSP’s .b) can be used to prevent depression and build resilience during early adolescence, to establish whether mindfulness can be an effective and cost-effective approach to promoting […]
Teaching is a challenging profession and work-related stress is a serious problem in schools. Whilst there is a large body of research on the mental and physical health benefits of mindfulness for adults generally, this 2015 study specifically investigates the impact of mindfulness on teachers in schools. Non-Randomised Feasibility Trial Assessing The Efficacy Of A […]
Research into the impacts of mindfulness programmes in schools has tended to focus on older children of secondary school age. There are, happily, a growing number of research projects investigating the impacts on younger, pre-adolescent, children of primary school age. We launched our curriculum for 7-11 year olds, Paws b, in 2013 and in 2015 […]
There have been a number of studies conducted to investigate the impact of our curriculum for 11-18 year olds, .b, on young people. One of the earliest was undertaken in 2013 to assess the acceptability of .b as a universal mindfulness intervention to enhance mental health and well-being in secondary schools. This was a non-randomised […]
This week we will dip in to some of the key research into mindfulness in education. The number of research projects investigating mindfulness has grown exponentially over the last decade, and there is now good evidence demonstrating its benefits and applications. In February 2018 Katherine Weare produced a meta-analysis of evidence – a summary document […]