Blue Gum School at Hackett provides yoga classes for children. (Front from left), Toby Felton-McMahn, 7, and Lara Barnes 5. (behind from left), Sam Inglis 12, Ruby Martyn 11, Matilda Davies, 5, After School Care Coordinator Ruth Pickard, and Max Barnes, 9. Photo: Jamila Toderas
Canberra students are learning how to reduce anxiety and learn to focus through the teachings of yoga and meditation.
Blue Gum schools in Hackett and Dickson has been offering yoga to their students since 2013.
They are just one of a number of schools that has seen the “transformative” benefits yoga can have on children’s concentration and anxiety levels.
Executive director Maureen Hartung said while many considered yoga “new-age magic”, she found it a very practical way of learning how to relax.
“For students, learning how to relax [is important] because as the pace of life gets faster and faster, people are needing to learn how to slow down at times,” she said.
“Students, as does everyone, need to be able to learn techniques to handle that.”
Student welfare officer Ruth Pickard, who also serves as the yoga teacher at the school, said it was one of the most constructive things to teach children for their mental health and well-being.
She said it particularly helped students manage anxiety – a condition even some of the younger children are being medicated for.
“Sometimes with younger children, to slow them down and to get them to listen and to be present can help them to gain more control and therefore a sense of comfort with the group and themselves,” Ms Pickard said.
“It affects everything, from social anxiety to feeling more at peace with themselves and more comfortable in a group. I think they’re pretty essential skills. I’ve seen those things be quite transformative.”
Despite the benefits the school has seen from teaching yoga, with funding cuts to student welfare programs from the start of this year, Blue Gum has had to reduce the classes from once a week, to now offering it only during after-school care.
An ACT Education and Training directorate spokesman said there were a number of programs public schools could implement to support students’ wellbeing.
He said individual schools could make these decisions based on resources and students’ needs.
“The directorate supports schools to develop a range of whole school approaches to support the wellbeing of all students through initiatives such as Kids Matter Primary and MindMatters,” the spokesman said.