Some schools have introduced yoga classes into the school day – with dramatic results
AS CHILDREN’S lives seem busier than ever, giving them time to genuinely relax and unwind becomes a challenge. Aware of children’s need for calm, some schools are opting to include yoga classes within school hours.
One such school is Scoil Bhríde in Clara, Co Offaly. The principal, Nora Kavanagh, says the school was searching for modules that would help children cope better with the stresses and emotional upheavals in their lives. “We had used sports-based activities such as karate, which helped them let off steam, and then we came across yoga,” says Kavanagh, whose all-girls schools comes within the category of disadvantaged schools.
“The big thing is getting them to relax,” says yoga teacher Tricia Fleming. “Some of the teachers ask me how I get them to lie down, but the classes are so fun-oriented as well as challenging that the children are keen to participate.”
Apart from learning to relax, the children learn postures that give them energy and help them focus. “Children are capable of using their mind-body connections from a young age. Lying down positions are restorative, while balancing postures improve their strength and concentration. Backward bents energise them.”
Fleming says she has been amazed at how quickly children can lose their body awareness. “Even some sporty children who have strength and aerobic fitness can have very little flexibility,” she says. She has taught yoga in schools in counties Longford, Westmeath, Offaly and Galway over the past year.
“Parents tell me their children are more balanced from doing the classes. And I am fascinated by how they use their imaginations during visualisations I do with them,” she says. Only rarely have parents refused permission for their children to participate in yoga classes.
Geraldine Mansori, a yoga teacher who trained with Yoga Therapy Ireland, gives classes to children at Notre Dame Junior School in Churchtown, Dublin. “Yoga Therapy Ireland has developed a module that can be incorporated in the Social, Personal, Health Education subject in primary schools,” she says. “Through this, yoga is used to deal with subjects such as bullying, self-esteem and friendship. For instance, we would have poems and affirmations linked to the themes alongside the physical yoga.”
Mansori says that, after an eight-week course, the difference in the children is remarkable. “We get great feedback from the parents, who say their children are sleeping better and that they love the visualisations and exercises they do at night,” she says.
The teacher-training for children’s yoga in Ireland varies hugely. Both yoga teachers who speak to me believe that anyone teaching children’s yoga should be already trained as a yoga teacher. Yoga Therapy Ireland is one of the few yoga trainers that offers a children’s yoga module to teachers. “Our concern is that some training programmes don’t insist that children’s yoga teachers are already trained as yoga teachers,” says Mansoni.
So, if more teachers were trained in children’s yoga, more schools would be interested? “A lot depends on the personality and experience of the principal. If she has practised yoga herself, she will know the benefits and be open to it,” says Mansoni.
“I don’t think it will ever be officially on the curriculum,” says Fleming. “It’s more likely that schools will offer it on an individual basis. But I’d like to see it available to children in all schools.”
YOGA IN CLASS: WHAT THE CHILDREN SAY:
It helped me focus
It helped improve my concentration in class
It’s great when you’ve a lot on your mind
It helps clear your head
It’s really fun
It’s relaxing and it taught us to sit up straight and stretch
It’s good for our bodies and taught us a lot about good posture
Comments from children at Scoil Bhríde in Clara, Co Offaly
