Newly appointed Mindfulness Ambassadors lead the way.

Just two weeks into the new academic year, eleven King’s St Alban’s pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 have completed their Mindful Ambassadors training and are ready, raring to go and lead the way on mindfulness in their classrooms. The group of super enthusiastic pupils ran through meditation and breathing exercise scripts before practising on each other. Next week the group will have just one more training session before they ‘go live’ in their classrooms. Keen ambassadors, each and every one of them is really excited to be running these sessions.

In each class across the Prep School, the King’s St Alban’s Mindfulness Ambassadors start each morning’s lessons with a meditation/breathing exercise. Their role is to make sure their individual classes do at least five minutes of meditation at some point during the course of the school day. The Mindful Ambassadors have a script, an egg-timer to time the sessions and a triangle to signal the beginning and end of the breathing practice. It’s a lovely, calm way to start or end a lesson and the children really enjoy it. Year 3 have not been forgotten and will get an opportunity to take part once they have settled into their new class and routines.

At King’s St Alban’s we take well-being and mindfulness seriously. We teach Paws.b, designed by the Mindfulness in Schools Project. A well-thought-through mindfulness programme, pupils in Year 5 will be embarking on their mindfulness journey later this term whilst Year 3 will complete the course in the summer term. The children are encouraged to practise the breathing techniques both at school and home, as it improves focus and concentration and lowers stress and anxiety. Towards the end of Year 6 the . Breathe programme offers an opportunity for the pupils to ‘dip their toes in mindfulness’, again exploring the ways in which this might support them through the highs and lows of adolescent life.

We look forward to hearing more from our Mindful Ambassadors as the Autumn term progresses.