Yoga Club
yoga Club with yoga on the lane, a 60hour course
Contact hours at Yoga on the Lane in-person:
September 14th, 15th 12-7pm
October 12th, 13th 12-7pm
November 9th, 10th 12-7pm
Price:
£850-1200 - sliding scale
Yoga Club aims to address the mental health and wellbeing crisis that faces children and young people in London schools in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. We will support children from the most disadvantaged families to build their resilience and fortitude by developing skills for self-regulation learnt by practicing yoga. We believe that breath-led dynamic yoga which combines body awareness with mindfulness teaches children to recognise how they are feeling and most importantly how to self-regulate is an essential tool for building physical and mental wellbeing. We will work with charities to identify the most under-privileged young people who would otherwise not access yoga.
The Challenge
In 2017 one in nine children were living with a mental disorder; in 2020 this number had risen to one in six according to The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England. Data for other elements affecting children’s wellbeing show a similar decline in levels of wellbeing and resilience. 87% of children in a survey carried out by children’s mental health charity Young Minds reported feeling lonely or isolated and 40% reported that there was no school counsellor available to them during autumn 2020. Children from BAME communities are less likely than their white peers to access traditional mental health services and their mental health needs are regularly overlooked, only being addressed when they come into contact with the criminal justice system with young people finally receiving mental health support via the court system. 32% of children and young people do less than an average of 30 minutes of physical activity a day but 60% of girls don’t meet recommended exercise guidelines; 30% of children aged 2 - 15 are also estimated to be overweight but for children living in the most deprived areas obesity prevalence was more than double those living in the least deprived areas.
A Potential Solution
This snapshot of children’s health and wellbeing gives a clear picture of the complex challenge in the years ahead. Yoga Club offers a remedy that is accessible to all young people and right now is the perfect time to pilot this project. Teaching children these crucial life skills supports them to:
Learn how to self-regulate emotions and to cope with anxiety and stress
Develop the skills to build tolerance and understand paving the way for a more tolerant and cohesive community
Address potential health issues including mental wellbeing and appreciation for physical activity
Develop mindfulness, focus and self-expression
Compassion and Kindness to others and self
Develop and articulate body agency and develop positive body image
Learn practical skills of self-care
Aims and Objectives:
Yoga on the Lane aims to develop a programme of dynamic yoga for children taught by professional teachers - Yoga Club. The programme has already been delivered in UK schools and we hope to expand on this so that all children can experience a safe place within which to explore their emotional health; develop resilience and find a sense of belonging within their own bodies.
Excellent yoga programmes already exist in both formal and informal settings which we acknowledge and applaud. We are planning to offer something complementary yet unique in its flavour.
Yoga Club is for those children who might otherwise not access yoga. Yoga is readily available to middle class children in a plethora of yoga studios across the country. It is also available in schools, often as an elective after-school club or an add-on in PE. Much of children’s yoga has a focus on story-telling and shape-making but we are creating a programme that is child-centred and which foregrounds body agency by empowering the participants to take decisions about their own movement practice.
We focus on the element of yoga concerned with breath-awareness and self-regulation. Many children even at a young age have lost body awareness and our programme addresses this, so that children are able to recognise their mental and emotional states and through physical movement and breath awareness move towards a more healthy attitude to the challenges they face.
Yoga Club is respectful and accessible without narrowing the scope of yoga as it is taught to adults. It honours yoga’s ancient roots and teaches all children in an accessible, inclusive and secular way. Our programme respects children’s concerns, thoughts and emotions and teaches them to meet however they are feeling in a compassionate way and then to respond skillfully. We will equip children with language to describe and articulate how they / their bodies are feeling which is a skill that is absent from current education with its focus on academic attainment.
Who is Yoga Club for?
We will target the children whose parents may not readily select yoga through a lack of awareness or understanding of what yoga is and of its benefits.
We hope to work in partnership with organisations and charities like Magic Breakfast and Place 2 Be to offer Yoga Club alongside existing activities to strengthen the offer and to ensure the most vulnerable young people are being targeted.
Programme Details:
Yoga on the Lane has already trained two cohorts of existing yoga teachers, experienced yoga practitioners and school teachers and assistants, to adapt their teaching for young people. The focus is on teaching children self-soothing; creative breath-work and body awareness techniques for resilience and emotional regulation. The programme we support our trainees to offer also includes an INSET session for school teachers if they are hosting yoga club or ongoing yoga classes alongside the children’s classes so that we can support the amazing school teachers with a yoga tool-kit.
The courses we run enable yoga club teachers to support young people in schools in many ways such as:
Ways to uplift and energise
Ways to calm anxiety
Ways to get ready for sleep
Ways to meet with feelings of anger and frustration
Ways to express joy, compassion and kindness
The Training will cover the following:
Yoga as a Tool for Body Agency and Self-Regulation
How to modify sequences for children at different stages
How to use language and cueing in an inclusive and accessible way
Sequences and options
Understanding how to teach in a trauma informed way
Yoga’s context - history and philosophy
How to present yoga’s history & philosophy to children
How to teach children from different backgrounds in an inclusive way
Will cover myths and ethics
Anatomy
Information on how to teach children about their bodies and look after them
What to expect from children at different stages with regards to motor skills, coordination, body development
Child Development
What to expect at every stage
How to support children at every stage
Safeguarding and Working with Schools
Safeguarding training
Advice on DBS
Working with schools - a practical guide
What’s covered on the curriculum
Training
We believe that children thrive when they develop skills in resilience and self-regulation and are encouraged to express their innate playfulness and creativity. We are facing an unprecedented crisis in children’s mental health and YOTL’s children’s yoga training will give you the skills to support children in a mindful, compassionate and creative way that is rooted in science and shared with you by a team of dedicated and committed practitioners.
You will explore how and why children thrive by developing their self-awareness, resilience and creativity. Our training has a focus on enabling children to listen to their bodies. We also embed the importance of resilience, regulation, creativity, play, connection (to nature, self and community), curiosity and rest.
The training will enable you to develop your understanding of the relationship between brain, body and nervous system and how this affects child development. At the same time as understanding the development of the mind, you will develop an understanding of children’s anatomy and physiology and the developmental stages. You will gain a deeper understanding of how to speak to children in ways that are effective and to listen closely to what you are being told. You will learn to adapt Asana for children of different ages and at different stages, explore how to talk to children about their own bodies, about mindfulness, and about their emotions. You will learn how to introduce ideas about ethics and philosophy in a way that is secular and inclusive, and will enable children to connect with nature and with their peers.
Alongside deepening your own understanding of yoga and mindfulness and of learning about child development, our course will also give you an understanding of the practical aspects you need to consider when teaching children including safeguarding; working in schools; classroom management; working with children who require additional support; understanding what is on the curriculum and how to fundraise to support your work in schools.
Requirements:
At least two years yoga practice and experience of teaching children in formal or informal settings OR
Yoga Teacher Training
An interest in teaching children and in working within a school setting
How to Apply:
Please email us and answer the following:
Why do you want to train to teach yoga and mindfulness to children?
What is your experience of working with, supporting or teaching children?
Following the first training, teachers were placed in schools in London for an initial pilot programme in the summer of 2022 to evaluate the programme content. The first pilot was a success and we hope to develop more in 2023. Following the initial pilot, the programme is expanding to more schools nationwide. Other teachers are welcome to work in their local schools and will be offered support to evaluate this programme.
Who is Involved?
Naomi Annand is a yoga teacher and founder and director of east London’s Yoga on the Lane. Since 2002 she has been teaching mindful, compassion-based Vinyasa with a restorative feel. Naomi is passionate about social justice and having taught for https://www.eavesforwomen.org.uk/about-eaves/our-projects/the-poppy-project/ early on in her career learnt a lot. She currently teaches the women https://you-make-it.org and yoga for the kids at Daubeney School: https://www.daubeney.hackney.sch.uk
Naomi believes yoga to be a transformational practice on and off the mat, an ethos that underpins the Yoga on the Lane teacher training program, which she runs in partnership with her brilliant team.
Naomi is the author of Yoga: a Manual for Life and Yoga for Motherhood, published by Bloomsbury.
Rakhee Jasani is a yoga teacher, writer, creative leader and innovator and is an alumnus of the Yoga on the Lane teacher training programme. Prior to teaching yoga, Rakhee co-founded the youth arts and education charity Eastside Educational Trust, which provides creative opportunities to disadvantaged children and young people across London. She served as the charity’s Director for twenty-three years (1994-2017), working in partnership with organisations as varied as Arts Council England, Adobe, the British Film Institute and Disney. She has an MA in English and Modern Languages from Oxford University and a Diploma in Arts Management from Birkbeck College. Her main focus is now on writing and teaching yoga. Her classes combine dynamic breath-led yoga, qigong and meditation with restorative calm; in sequences that help her students to discover their own creative expression and awaken their spirit. She regularly teaches children and young people
Dr Chantell Douglas Chantell has been practising yoga for 10 years - researching and personally experiencing the benefits, she was drawn to develop a deeper understanding and to teach. She is a compassionate and mindful yoga and meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and human. She’s completed trainings across the UK, India and Europe. She teaches from the heart, working with all ages - from children, teens and adults. Sharing her love for the practice and belief in it’s healing and transformational power, she gently interweaves yoga philosophy and psychology throughout her breath-led flows. Her sequences aim to energise, relax and restore with mindful movement, meditation and breath-work. Encouraging us to slow down and be with our experiences, as they are, whatever they are. Guided by her gentle voice and heart-centred approach, she aims to create nurturing and inclusive spaces for self-exploration, strengthening, and self-care - on and off the mat.
Avni Trivedi is an experienced and intuitive practitioner using touch and movement to help people to connect with their bodily wisdom. She is a Women’s Health and Paediatric Osteopath, Birth Doula, Zero Balancer and Non-Linear Movement Teacher. Her podcast, Speak From the Body’ explores themes such as embodiment, stress, trauma, hormones and
pleasure. She has two online courses, ‘The Intuitive Way to Wellness’ and ‘The Embodied Pregnancy Programme’. Avni runs regular workshops called ‘Moving Through Loss’ to gently address grief in the body.
Julia Caird (or Jules) is a London based Yoga Teacher, Accredited Yoga Therapist, and Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. Jules has been practising yoga and meditation since 2010, and qualified as a Yoga Teacher (300 hour accreditation) in 2015 with Senior Teachers Norman Blair and Melanie Cooper. She completed her Yoga Therapy Diploma with The Life Centre Yoga Campus in 2020, over some 550 hours plus intensive training. As a Yoga Teacher, she currently teaches open-level public classes in London studios: Vinyasa Flow and Yin Yoga. She works with businesses teaching yoga in the workplace, providing weekly yoga for all the staff, and one off sessions for companies. She also teaches yoga to school teachers and to children with special needs. She has trained with Special Yoga and sees children in schools for small groups and for 1:1s. She is passionate about ensuring everyone can access yoga, and enjoys teaching 1:1s to support individual growth and development.