Mindfulness at Our Lady of the Assumption School

The staff and students at OLA made a new commitment in 2019. Since the start of the year, the entire school practices mindfulness after lunch for about 5-10 minutes every single day.  What is mindfulness? “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn.

In previous years, some of the senior classes were including mindfulness in their morning prayer and hui routines a few times a week. The teachers noticed that the students quite enjoyed this quiet time. So the staff decided to take on daily whole school mindfulness this year. We agreed that it was important to set a regular time each day where the whole school was participating at the same time.

In the beginning, some students found it difficult to stop and be still.  At the start, there was a bit of laughter as the children got used to closing their eyes and just blocking out everything around them.  However, it did not take long for this to become a natural and regular part of their daily routine.

We surveyed our students halfway through the year and the overall response and attitude toward mindfulness was very positive. This is what some students had to say:

“It's very calming and since we do it right after lunch it makes my brain turn on a lot for maths.”

“I like how as soon as we come back from the busy and exciting lunchtime we can just enjoy the quietness and calmness of mindfulness.”

“It relieves my stress and makes me not worry about things”

“It helps you calm down if you have been angry or sad at lunchtime.”

“It helps me to be kind to people”

And my all-time favourite response that a student gave:

“That it takes away your worries like the sea takes the rubbish off the sand!”

Although teachers choose a variety of mindfulness activities, we often use Smiling Mind as our main resource, as it is free and research-based.

Our next goal is to teach our students even more about the science behind mindfulness and what it does for our bodies and the positive long term effects it has on us.