Mindfulness in Education

Mindfulness has been proven to be effective for young people with school-based interventions having positive outcomes on wellbeing. These include reducing anxiety and distress as well as improving behaviour and performance in exams, sports and the arts.

In the current climate of increased awareness of mental health issues, mindfulness is an upstream intervention. This means it is an inclusive activity which application has been shown to help young people before they reach a stage of crisis.

When mental health provision is so poorly funded and waiting lists are so long, mindfulness is a comparatively affordable option for schools trying to support the wellbeing and coping skills of their students.

The UK's leading advocate of mindfulness for children and young people is the charity The Mindfulness in Schools Project.

It has created courses designed to teach these life-enhancing skills in an accessible, fun and sustainable way. A great deal of evidence is attached to their courses. You can read about it here.

Following the introduction of secular mindfulness to the western world by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s it has mostly been adults who have benefited from courses such as the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). It is fantastic to see that mindfulness has become mainstream enough now that the benefits of its application in education have been recognised.

Dawn Howarth and Laura Howard are two of the few teachers in Cornwall trained and experienced in teaching mindfulness courses specifically designed for schools - .b for secondary pupils and Paws b for primary schools.curricula.