Schools have had so much to grapple with recently I decided would not send a September eNewsletter this year! So, welcome to our October 2021 edition. I hope you have settled in to your new school year and are able to breathe again!
I also hope that by now you have started back with meditation in your classroom and across the school because  children need it more than ever now. I appreciate that the pandemic severely interrupted your regular school routines and perhaps meditation has not been fully re-established just yet across the school . My appeal to you is to restart now if you haven't managed to do so already. In the next article I outline ways in which we can help you get restarted.
We have just come to the end of Mental Health Week which ran from 06 October to 13 October 2021. Meditation makes a significant contribution to children's mental health. It helps them physically, mentally, cognitively and emotionally.
Children say that meditation helps them ' to let go of all the drama' and that it relaxes and restores them. It will be very helpful if you will spend a few minutes this week making that connection for the children in your class, and encourage them to practice meditation at home as well as in school.
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The pandemic restrictions were (and continue to be) disruptive of regular school routines. This newsletter is aimed at teachers in schools which had introduced meditation across the school and it seeks to support teachers and schools to maintain the practice of whole-school meditation. If the practice of meditation has been disrupted in your school, we hope you will take steps as soon as you can to get it started again.
 We can help you in a number of ways. For example, we can offer you an online refresher session for all staff during a staff meeting which will cover the basics of meditation with children and how to renew the practice in your school.
Or, if you have some teachers (e.g. perhaps they joined your staff after you had introduced meditation to the school) who might benefit from a longer introduction to the practice I intend to arrange, subject to demand, a number of online training sessions after school hours, allowing teachers to choose which timing suits them best. You will need to indicate your interest by emailing me (or asking the relevant teachers to do so) and I will get back to you with dates and times.
And, thirdly, for teachers new to the practice who wish to introduce meditation to the children in their classroom but would like help doing so, I will be happy to arrange a 15 minute online Zoom or Google Meet session where I would get them started on the meditation path.
If you would like to avail of any of these options, then please email me by clicking here.
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We have entered our Meditation with Children Project in the Charity Impact Awards this year. The awards are organised by The Wheel, a hub for the charity sector in Ireland. Our entry can be viewed by clicking on the image above or by clicking here. here. Voting begins today (13 October 2021) so please visit the site and vote for our video and project – the prize fund of €1,000 will be enormously helpful if we win. Remember, our in-service is free! So, please, do click this link right now and vote for us! |
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As we get stuck in to the new school-year, why not look again at episode 1 in the Meditation for Children series of short videos. These videos were designed for teachers to help them introduce children to meditation.
There is also a set of meditation-timer videos to help children to meditate after watching the video or independently.- click here. |
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Anita (12) described meditation as follows: 'Meditation is letting go of the past and not worrying about the future; you just let yourself be in the present. Meditation is the best part of my day.'
Gabby (7) told me 'I feel peaceful and calm when I meditate and that stays with me after the meditation.' And, Ken (11) said 'When you meditate you experience something you never experienced before. You realise you are not alone when you meditate.'
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