We will be practising mindfulness with Erica and Ren each Tuesday in Term 2 and Term 3.

Kia ora Parents/Guardians:

I’m excited to share with you that this year Lyttelton Primary School will be learning and practicing mindfulness. We will be implementing a twenty class mindfulness programme called Mindfuli to all students. Mindfuli is run by the charitable organisation Mindfulness in Schools Ōtautahi and is gratefully sponsored by the Lyttelton Port Company.

Mindfulness is a research-based approach that supports students in building skills for attention regulation (focus and concentration) and emotional regulation. Mindfulness means paying attention in the present moment to our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, or surrounding environment. For the sake of simplicity, we can define it as noticing what’s happening right now. It also includes the intentional nurturing of positive states of mind such as empathy and kindness.

This program will be taught by Erica Viedma, who has been trained to teach mindfulness to students by Mindful Schools and Mindfulness Training Institute Australia/NZ. Erica will be joined by Renata Hopkins who is an experienced facilitator, writer and mindfulness teacher in training.

We will be practising mindfulness with Erica and Ren each Tuesday in Term 2 and Term 3. Mindfuli will be providing follow up resources including short practice videos for teachers and whānau - so keep a look out!

Studies find that learning mindfulness benefits students in terms of improved attention, emotion regulation, behaviour in school, empathy and understanding of others, social skills, test anxiety, and stress. Mindfulness helps students learn to take a pause when they feel upset or overwhelmed, during which thoughtful responses can replace impulsive reactions.

Some examples of how we will use mindfulness in our class are noticing and naming our emotions, using mindfulness of breathing before test taking to calm anxiety and improve focus, or pausing when feeling frustrated or impatient.

If you have any questions about our mindfulness program this year do not hesitate to contact me. I am happy to be in touch with you.

Warmly,

Erica Viedma

CEO/Head Teacher

Mindfuli

erica@mindfuli.org.nz