Yoga in Schools
The benefits that yoga can bring to schools are numerous. Firstly, it is an excellent way of helping pupils tackle stress, and research has shown that it can help to improve behaviour and energy levels in the classroom. It also adds breadth to the school curriculum and will help in getting pupils to do more exercise. Finally, yoga can help students who are already quite athletic to broaden their physical education and may well help in preventing injuries through increased flexibility and body awareness.
Reducing Stress
With constant pressure to perform academically, stresses from home life, and with all the expectations imposed by peers and the media, it can be a very difficult time for teenagers as they undergo the transformation from children to adults. Yoga can help in many ways:
- The movements and visualisations of yoga can help build self esteem and reduce the stress of day to day life.
- Breathing exercises help calm the mind and can be invaluable tools when faced with high pressure situations like exams.
Encouraging exercise
With obesity at an all time high it is essential that we try and encourage children to take up exercise, and help them maintain this through to adulthood. The current objective set by the government is that children have at least 5 hours of physical education a week by 2012 (made up of 2 hours on the curriculum and 3 hours outwith the curriculum). It is therefore important to encourage a broad range of activities that attract all students and not just the ‘sporty’ ones. With its non-competitive approach yoga fits ideally into this category, being more likely to appeal to children that have rejected the more traditional forms of PE. Also yoga really takes the time to promote body awareness, which can help students to overcome negative body images, often a cause for rejecting exercise in the first place.
Yoga for Athletes
Yoga can provide a very useful compliment to other sporting activities: stretching exercises will help build flexibility and muscle tone and will therefore help with performance in other sports and in preventing injuries posture work and breathing exercises help to improve concentration and focus and can have a big impact in improving performance during competition.
How To Get Yoga into Your School
Here are some suggestions on how yoga can be introduced to schools
- during PE lessons
- lessons outside of the curriculum (before or after school club or during lunchtime)
- as part of summer school
- coaching sessions for teachers to give them tools to activate or calm the students teaching
- sessions for the teachers to help them de-stress and relax
Statistics
1.1 million people in UK are affected by eating disorders, virtually all of these are developed during adolescence
1 in 8 adolescents suffer from depression
the 3rd leading cause of death in 10-19 yr olds is suicide
UK has seen a 25% increase in overweight children since 1995
Exam stress has become a recognised medical condition in children as young as 5 yrs old