Style: January 08, 2020

STYLE | report 31
“The key thing
is what kind of
behaviours do
you not see?”
They are listening to each other better
and they are caring for each other,”
she says.
“Their empathy is growing because of
it. They are sharing how they are feeling
and offering support to others.”
When some in the class heard of
others struggling to sleep, they decided
to help, she said.
“They’re actually creating a slide show
of tips on how to keep calm and get to
sleep, using mindfulness,” she says.
The school introduced mindfulness
after being shocked by data at an
Australian conference over the rise of
anxiety, depression and suicide in
young people.
It was something Janey had noted
herself, particularly in the last five years.
“We thought we have to start right
down here at this age and start to give
our children the strategies to regulate
themselves and calm themselves and let
go of issues,” she says.
All teachers were trained in the
Pause, Breathe, Smile programme. A
mindfulness practitioner also came in for
an eight-week course to help teachers
with their own personal practice. Janey
has noticed the difference in herself.
“I don’t seem to react to things. I
let them happen and just have a calm
approach. I notice that in my teaching.
It’s been great,” she says.
It should be a case of “all hands on
deck,” says Grant Rix.
Arrowtown School teacher Janey Winders starts the day with a mindfulness exercise with her
pupils. She has noticed changes in the classroom since the school invested in mindfulness.
He knows the bleak data on the
wellbeing of children after co-authoring
academic papers on the effectiveness
of mindfulness in schools.
New Zealand ranked near the
bottom for overall childhood wellbeing
and had the highest adolescent suicide
rate among developed nations, said a
2017 UNICEF report.
“Antidepressants being prescribed
to children under the age of 13 has
significantly increased in the past 10
years – but that could be because
there is far greater awareness,” he says.
“People are on struggle street,
and if we’ve got anything that can
help, then it should be all hands
on deck providing solutions to the
problems we are seeing in modern
society, and certainly mindfulness has
a role to play.”
Psychologists, like Ann, are “all
over” mindfulness, he says, because
it works.
“We’ve really got to be doing
something to help our children to
manage the everyday stressors of
growing up but also to equip them
with the skills to help them to face a
future that is increasingly uncertain.”