Pausing, breathing, smiling in schools
Pause . . . breathe . . . smile.
That’s the mantra behind a new programme being adopted by collective of school teachers in Horowhenua, aimed at recognising and helping ease anxiety in the classroom, as anxiety, anger and stress were recognised as major barriers to learning and absorbing information.
Horowhenua Community of Learners — Ka¯hui Ako is a collective group of principals, teachers and community leaders that began collborating in 2014 to “partner with local iwi to create a community of learners in which learning is engaging, empowering and successmaking for our diverse learners.”
Holistic well-being in the classroom was identified as one of the key ingredients to learning so the question was asked: “how can we improve student emotional wellbeing and resilience?”
The Pause Breathe Smile programme was trialled at Foxton Beach School in 2019, who after seeing good results shared it with other schools and kura in the rohe through Ka¯hui Ako.
Through sponsorship from Southern Cross, the programme had been rolled out at schools in Shannon, Foxton, Koputaroa, Levin North, O¯ hau, Taitoko, St Joseph’s, Levin, Levin Intermediate and Manakau School.
Pause Breathe Smile facilitator George Johnson spent the day with teachers at Fairfield School during the recent holiday break, explaining how the wellness programme worked and how it could impact in the classroom.
Johnston said while it could be difficult for children to make sense
of their emotions there were many tools that could be used to help ease anxiety, and one of those was as simple as concentrating on breath and breathing.
“It can be as easy as feeling the breath in your body and paying attention to the breath in your body,” he said.
While there was no magic wand and it was impossible for anyone to feel perfect all of the time, it was about being aware of techniques that can help to improve mental health and awareness “most of the time”. “To say mindfulness is an important part of my life is an understatement,” he said. Johnston said the mind had the capacity to run all over the show, to dwell on the past and stress about the future. “You are where your feet are.” Anyone that made a decision or was reacting in anger had less judgement and the ability to take time to pause and breathe meant you could then choose how best to respond to a situation.
Fairfield School teacher Gerard Joyce, who joined the Ka¯hui Ako with fellow teacher Sally Rollinson a few years ago, was a strong advocate for the Pause Breath Smile concept. Joyce said many people experienced heightened anxiety and stress during the Covid-19 lockdown period, and schoolchildren were no different. It was about taking time to create awareness. “When students are aware of their moods and behaviours they are less likely to react in a negative way,” he said. The programme had the backing of wellknown psychologist Nigel Latta. “I have seen kids using the Pause Breathe Smile programme first hand, and it was amazing. It gave me hope that maybe we really could do something to turn the tide.”