To complain to the school.

[runforthesun]

Dd has had a letter from school to say that they will be having an hour long session in mindfulness every week when they return to school. Dd is fairly bright but does struggle a bit with maths. AIBU to complain to school that at this point in her education I would rather she was getting up to speed on academic subjects ? I don't think IABU but am prepared to be told I am. If it makes a difference they are 8 and 9 year olds.

[GilMartin]

allow

1. It's value is unproven, especially in relation to children.
   
   
2. It will eat into a significant portion of the school day and will be delivered by teachers who are untrained and unwilling.
   
   3.) Teachers are trained and qualified in teaching children and should spend their time doing what they are expert in, not becoming new age therapists.

[hanban89]

Our school introduced a new thing this year for all primary 4 children, and they are taken to our local country park for a full day every week! To learn about nature. It's one and a half hours walk each way and they do it in all weather. I think this is horrendous. Fair enough once a month or something, but a full day every week! Poor kids must be freezing and soggy. They are told to weR waterproofs but still.
I wouldn't mind an hour of mindfulness. They also do a daily mile every day where they have a run/walk round a set route in the playground. That's a good policy also.

[notangelinajolie]

My daughter's secondary school has a new head and is introducing all sorts of stuff like this and non of them have anything remotely academic about them. They have an hour every morning with their form tutor, several free lessons where they can choose the library or form room to catch up on homework or revise and enrichment 'activities' all afternoon on Wednesday and he's now introduced a Friday morning church service the whole school attends which is a 15 minute walk before they even start. I don't object to any of these things but I do wonder in practice how they find the time to fit in the maths and other educational stuff as well?

She is leaving soon so it won't really affect her but I do hope the new ones coming in get the same academic opportunities she had. Call me old fashioned but shouldn't a schools main responsibility be to send pupils out into the world with a good set of GCSE results? Surely parents should be doing all the other ie mindfulness stuff?

[CannotEvenDeal]

Surely parents should be doing all the other ie mindfulness stuff?

In an ideal world, yes.

[CauliflowerSqueeze]

runforthesun "hello I'd like to complain that you are putting on mindfulness and I would prefer minirun to do extra maths instead"

school - "No problem! We will magic a maths teacher up out of nowhere or add on an extra hour from her teacher's no free time and sort that out for you straightaway."

Otherparent "hello I'd prefer my son to do extra English please - he's a bit weak in that area and I'd prefer he had extra tuition there - his maths is fine!"

school "Of course, Mrs Other. We have a spare English teacher and we were just this morning wondering how we could deploy her as she has loads of spare time on her hands"

YetAnotherParent "hello, yes I'm reasonably happy with the idea of mindfulness, although I'd really rather every decision about curriculum and staffing was run past my husband and I for consideration first, but what I would like to have please is the full CV of the person who is delivering this, along with recommendations from other parents. Once I have got this, I would then like a minute-by-minute run through of what will be covered in every session so I can analyse its suitability with my friends."

[Bitofacow]

There has been a lot of stuff in the news about 'toxic childhood' and how today's teenagers are more stressed and miserable than previous generations. More MH issues, self harming, depression etc.

Experts suggest to prevent this children and young people need to spend more time outside and parents need to be less pushy in relation to education.

Interesting thread in relation to these findings.

[MistresssIggi]

If it is a teacher delivering this they will be one who most likely has this as a pet project and is interested and keen.
I've known it to be delivered in secondary only, there it wasn't a teacher but a mindfulness person from outside who came in to do it.
The hour is likely to include ten minutes at the start and end to move the children to the relevant hall and wait for johnny to come back from the bathroom etc.
Why is the OP worrying about this at midnight in the middle of the school holidays anyway?

[DoItTooJulia]

I'm all for schools being creative and being nurturing, which I suppose bringing mindfulness classes into the school could be seen as.

But because it's got a spiritual element I'm not sure that everybody should be unilaterally opted in. Religion and spiritual-ness isn't something that I think institutions of education should be practicing. Teaching RE is fine, and teaching the children about it all (in a fairly neutral way) is fine. But expecting kids to practice it isn't fine imo. But then I don't agree with Faith schools, so I guess it figures.

[LockedOutOfMN]

Hello OP, I'm a teacher and have two children. I don't like mindfulness but would not have a problem with my children doing an hour a week at school. Like any other subject or activity, if they came home saying they'd been doing something odd, I would investigate further. I would imagine that your son's hour will probably include things like breathing, peer massage, maybe even some yoga, as well as pure "mindfulness".

I'd also venture so far as to say that the mindfulness could help him with maths/other areas of school and life by making him feel more relaxed and confident. It's also nice to have parts of the school day that aren't academic at that age (yes, I know there's playtime, P.E., etc.) When I was a kid back in the 80s we did country dancing which provided a similar function - in my opinion. Happy to state that this is all just my opinion and I realise others will have alternative points of view and that I may well be wrong.

If you're unhappy I would say ask the school for more details of what the mindfulness course will entail.

[brasty]

www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/mindfulness-for-kids-magic-pill-or-a-parenting-fad-too-far/

[MrsWhiteWash]

have dyslexia so while brilliant at mental arthmatic I was awful at essay type questions but especially in maths). I don't know how to stress that enough. By focussing on the present (sometimes one word at a time) I was able to suddenly concentrate enough to attempt a question.

Shows how different we all are.

I'm dyslexic - can't do mental maths as short term memory drastically hampers me - but can do essay questions as I was taught techniques - underlining keys words - key words and what they meant - I automatically make sort of notes writing out important facts noticed this as my kids commented as they somehow haven't been taught this.

Result is I'm shit at mental arithmetic but well above average in maths.

We didn't do mindfullness but did lot lots of relaxation stuff at school - I hated it made me feel physically sick absolutely no idea why.

If you object OP is the school actually going to pay any attention at all - or just go ahead anyway? I'd go in and ask some more questions - but if it's a decided policy I'm not sure how much luck a complaint would be plus it could be 10 minutes at start of a assembly so not actually take from actual teaching time.

For our children we turned to outside help for maths - mathsfactor. Got sick of being told our kids weren't mathematically minded - given how many good mathematians in family including DH seemed unlikely - two years in 20 minuets most days and lots more practise it was all how gifted our kids are mathematically .

[LatteLady]

It is an hour a week, which is probably 10 mins a day. The national curriculum in Maths and English will be covered come what may. If you are unhappy with the progress your son is making then ask how you can provide further support to him at home.

Any changes in curriculum will have been discussed fully by the Senior Leadership Team and the Curriculum Committee. If you don't like it then consider becoming a school governor so you can help decide on the strategic direction of the school.

[OopsDearyMe]

I think its a wonderful idea, with the amount of stress in school now, its giving these children a set of ways to help them cope, especially at the ages you speak of. It may ultimately increase their abilities all round.

[BIgBagofJelly]

YABU. Our education system produces some of the most stressed out children in the developed world. By the time they reach adolescence there are very high levels of self harm, depression and anxiety. I place a high value on academics (hell I got my PhD) but an hour a week on mental health is too little.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Why if our dc are stressed are we not fixing the problem rather adding more shit to the already over stretched curriculum.

Why considering our dc start school earlier than a lot of other countries are we not doing that well in comparison.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Yabu. I wish they did more. I wouldn't dream of letting the school know my ideals for my particular child though, as that would be absurd.

[Boggisbunceandbean]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill?client=safari No way my children would be doing this. An hours exercise would be a better use of their time.

[brasty]

Boggis I agree. For most children mindfulness will be fine. For a few who have had very traumatic childhoods, it may be harmful.

[yorkshapudding]

Schools really can't win, can they? How often do you see on threads about children who are unhappy/anxious/self-harming "what are the school doing about this?", "the school need to do more!". Here we have a school who have dedicated an hour a week to teaching kids coping strategies that will help them to be more resilient, manage stress, regulate their emotions etc. and it's dismissed as "middle class bollocks". All the psychiatrists, mental health nurses and psychologists I know advocate the use of Mindfulness with children and young people but it seems posters on this thread know better.

Also, several posters have assumed that the sessions will be delivered by unqualified staff and "won't be done well". How do you know? There are plenty of organisations who go into schools to deliver interventions. There are also an increasing number of schools investing in Mindfulness training for their own staff. They may also employ Pastoral workers or qualified school counselors who have a background in mental health and who are experienced in delivering therapeutic interventions, as is the case with many schools I've worked with.

I feel sorry for Schools who take their responsibility to the emotional health of their students seriously when parents are so negative about anything they try to put in place. Makes you realise why many don't bother.

[noblegiraffe]

No, previous posters are entirely right to question how this is being implemented.

Schools have been criticised in the past for jumping wholeheartedly on faddish and unevidenced bandwagons, being sold snake oil with snappy names. Brain Gym. Learning Styles. Growth Mindset. It is reasonable to ask 'where is the evidence for this?'

I've had a scan of the internet and I can see various trials of 'mindfulness' for various things. Fibromyalgia. Chronic neck pain. Anxiety. Depression. I can find very little evidence for its use in, well, what exactly(?) in 8-9 year old children. The trials are also vague and talk of 'mindfulness-type interventions'. Well what is the school planning to do? A bit of deep-breathing? Eating a sandwich in a particular way? Yoga? Talking about stuff? All these things seem to come up under 'mindfulness'.

It's also right to question who will be running these sessions. Primary teachers? How exactly have they been trained to run mental health interventions in young children and was it just a PowerPoint on INSET day? What if something goes wrong?

The internet seems a bit vague as to whether mindfulness is a skilled intervention which requires a regular course of sessions led by an experienced practitioner, or some simple exercises which can be led by an app on your phone. Which version will the children be getting?

I don't think it is ok to simply say 'trust the school' when it comes to a mental health intervention. This is not a new reading scheme or maths project. This is not what schools are in the business of. Have they been sold something common sense with a fancy name by a rip-off merchant? Or have they got genuine experts coming in who will actually know what they are doing? (No, a teacher who has watched a PowerPoint is not a mental health expert).

Parents have to give informed consent when medical practitioners come in and do checks. Where is the informed consent with this therapeutic intervention?

[Ibloodyhatethomasthetankengine]

To learn about nature. It's one and a half hours walk each way and they do it in all weather. I think this is horrendous. Fair enough once a month or something, but a full day every week! Poor kids must be freezing and soggy. They are told to weR waterproofs but still.

Stunned that anyone could have an issue with this....sounds like an amazing school!

[Yoarchie]

both my dc get forced to do this and hate it

[SofiaAmes]

Oliversmummy I agree with you. The lack of SATS tests by the time I was 11 did not stop me from getting an excellent and competitive education. I finished American high school a year early, did a year of A-levels (plus one O level) at Haberdashers Aske's School for Girls in Elstree without being behind. There are way too many tests these days and they are marginalizing bright kids who don't have the executive functioning skills to do well on tests, but who might otherwise be creative and bright and capable and perhaps our future scientists and artists.

[SofiaAmes]

I would agree with noblegiraffe that it's important to understand who is doing the training. Maybe, not so useful if it's a teacher who had a one hour powerpoint training. But maybe quite useful if it's a professional thoroughly trained in delivering mindfulness to young children.

[AmberEars]

YABU to say you'd rather she spent the time doing extra maths - if her school is the same as my DC's school, she already does maths every day. Schools are very focused on results these days, and I'm sure this time isn't coming out of the time allocated to maths.

Personally I think this is could be a good idea. I work at a university and we have seen a massive increase in students suffering from anxiety in the last few years.

However, I do share the comment from previous posters that an hour would be too long if it's all in one chunk.