Mindful colouring has always been a very popular activity in the Junior School. Even the youngest pupils clearly benefit from a few minutes of calmness at the beginning of the day. Listening to beautiful, relaxing music adds to the experience. When I did a mindful colouring after school club I could clearly see the positive effect it had on the children, so I decided to find out more about it.

Mindfulness can help children to focus, make good decisions and regulate their emotions. A few minutes of mindfulness activities a day can have many advantages, so we are keen to try some more mindful exercises with our pupils.

The benefits of teaching mindfulness for children is gaining in popularity and is now being taught in most schools. So how can mindfulness support your child?

• Mindfulness can help children to develop the ability to ignore distractions and stay focused on the task at hand. It can teach them to filter out distractions and stray thoughts, helping them to learn.
• Mindfulness activities can help your child to observe and identify their own thoughts and feelings. By developing self-awareness, children can identify and deal with strong emotions more quickly, helping them to regulate their feelings. This will probably help them to stay calm when faced with potentially stressful situations.
• Mindfulness can promote happiness, patience and confidence, by calming the mind and learning to reflect upon and accept thoughts and feelings.
• Mindfulness has been shown that it can benefit cognitive functions in the brain, such as improved working memory.
• The calming effects of mindfulness can help children to develop greater impulse control, allowing them to take the time to think about and question their thoughts before reacting.

We have all been trying new exercises and will see which ones are the most beneficial and work well with the different age groups. The glitter jars (pictured above) have been very popular in Form 1.

Forest school is also a perfect place to practise mindfulness, with the pupils focusing on their senses and the beauty around them and enjoying the surroundings.

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoy all of the activities and I am interested to see how mindfulness will benefit the children.

Amanda Freer, Head of Junior School