We are delighted to announce that from September Faiy Rushton will be stepping into the role of Executive Director of the Mindfulness in Schools Project.
Faiy has had a longstanding relationship with MiSP of over a decade, starting with her own training in 2013, becoming a valued trainer in 2015 and starting her current role as Education and Pathways Development Manager in 2021.
Faiy has worked tirelessly to develop and launch The Pathways. She has also created the current wide-ranging skills workshops and a variety of flexible training models to increase accessibility to MiSP’s work. Her knowledge and skills are key to the fidelity of our trainings, enriching the training experience for everyone who joins the MiSP family and supporting them throughout their implementation journey. Just as MiSP encourages our trained teachers to know their children and young people and meet them where they are, so Faiy has been key in creating the Pathways so that they meet you where you are.
Alongside this work, Faiy initiated and co-developed mapping the MiSP curricula to the PSHE Association’s Programmes of Study and to the Curriculum for Wales. She has also spearheaded the Peace in Mind campaign for bringing mindfulness to all schools in Warrington, working closely with MiSP Ambassador Esther Ghey and Emma Mills.
Many of you will already be familiar with Faiy from trainings, skills workshops and through her representing MiSP in our online Speaker Events and other events across the country and worldwide. Recently she gave a presentation in person, alongside Esther Ghey, at the Mindfulness Initiative’s Westminster Education event, discussing how the work in Warrington meets the MiSP Pathways’ evidence-based framework.
As well as her deep understanding of MiSP’s vision, mission and needs and her commitment to the integrity of what we do, Faiy has a wealth of education, mindfulness and wellbeing experience, which, in combination with her leadership skills made her the natural choice for the role.
Faiy is a secondary teacher with Initial Teacher Training Lead experience, an MBSR-trained adult mindfulness teacher (Bangor CMRP), a mindfulness supervisor and a Specialist Leader of Education for Wellbeing and Inclusion, and in the last sixteen years has trained in a wide range of wellbeing curricula and practices; including mindfulness, trauma-informed practice in schools, positive psychology, growth mindsets, compassion plus emotional and academic resilience. She has also trained as a Forest School Leader and Nature Connection practitioner and has a passion for outdoor learning, both for its wellbeing and learning skills benefits.
Faiy worked in a wellbeing lead role in a secondary school for 6 years and since then peripatetically in primary and secondary schools, teaching mindfulness and other wellbeing modalities to students, educators and senior leaders. This extensive experience and expertise resulted in her working for The Present for Schools, MiSP and LEAP online, delivering training on Wellbeing in Education and Mindfulness around Europe and further afield.
She has a passion for and experience of supporting schools in integrating meaningful wellbeing practice and policy across the whole school that meets Department for Education (DFE) recommendations, recognising that every member of the school community needs to be thriving for a school to perform at its’ best.
We are incredibly grateful to Faiy for taking on this role and excited to see where MiSP will go in her capable hands.
Working alongside Faiy, Elinor Brown will be taking the role of Head of Operations.
Elinor has also been connected with MiSP for over a decade, through her own training, becoming a highly respected trainer for MiSP since 2017 and supporting the charity’s operations on a freelance basis before joining the core team as Strategic Support Coordinator. She has also worked in a lead role with The Present courses CIC in recent years. Many of you will already be familiar with Elinor from trainings and other MiSP events.
Elinor brings extensive experience of mindfulness, education and wellbeing, as an adult MBSR teacher, trained with Bangor University CMRP, and through her work as a Wellbeing Lead in primary education.
As a Wellbeing Lead, she developed whole school approaches which included dots, Paws b, .breathe and The Present curricula, woven in with elements of the PSHE curriculum. She is also familiar with SEL interventions for individuals, including Zones of Regulation. She has experience of working with external agencies and internal wellbeing teams, individual children and small groups, as well as supporting parents, carers and education staff. She has followed the Anna Freud 5 Steps framework and developed school wellbeing policies She has also worked peripatetically, as an external teacher, bringing MiSP curricula to primary schools.
With a clinical psychologist colleague, Elinor has offered mindfulness for adoptive parents through Coram Cambridgeshire Adoption and co-developed and co-led a programme for parents and carers combining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with mindfulness. Elinor has also created and delivered workshops and resources for parents and carers to support children experiencing difficulties with sleep, worry, friendships and emotion regulation, and workshops for education staff to support their wellbeing and help them support children.
Elinor has experience of working in adult education, with the University of Cambridge, delivering mindfulness-based courses and workshops to students and staff.
Elinor trained in trauma-sensitive practice with David Treleaven. She has completed an introduction to counselling and has training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Non-violent Communication and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She has participated in Compassionate Mind Training for education staff and students. She is also trained as a yoga teacher and has a love of mindful movement.
Before teaching mindfulness and working in education, Elinor worked in digital and broadcast media as a producer and managing editor and then ran her own self-employed business. She brings experience in project management, team leadership, marketing, web design, content creation, bookkeeping, maintaining standards and operational efficiency, and working with senior leaders.
She is passionate about maintaining MiSP’s high standards and supporting the charity to nurture individual and whole community wellbeing.
We hope you will join us in wishing them well.