The plan to teach challenging postures, supportive group work, heaps of positive praise, certificates and masses of encouragement helped change Sinclair’s attitude and behaviour.


Background

Sinclair is a Year 4 pupil child in a primary school in Redbridge.

 

His class teacher described him as having a low self image, often moody, having a short attention span; often disrupting the class with silly noises or swearing.

 

Sinclair was aggressive to other children and found group work difficult.

 

Sinclair enjoyed PE and loved football, was sharp and incredibly flexible.

  

Individual Aims for Sinclair

The main focus of our work with children centres on the social and emotional aspects of learning.

 

Our main aim in every lesson is to enhance children’s self esteem.

 

Other benefits like improved flexibility, fitness, better concentration and calmness, for example, are natural when you practice yoga, yet contribute to the overall sense of a child’s self worth.

We designed specific aims that included:

Our Approach

Our approach was to build on Sinclair’s strengths:

  

Sinclair the demonstrator

Sinclair was a natural yogi and we quickly realised that he was excelling at the posture work.

 

We decided to use Sinclair as much as fairly possible to demonstrate new postures and reinforce old ones to the whole class.

 

Before the lesson class teacher would remind Sinclair that he was being given responsibility of showing the other children postures and it meant that he had to show responsible behaviour too.

Sinclair the ‘helpful teacher’

Groupwork proved successful in achieving our aims.

 

The children worked in groups of six. Each group was to work as a team to find a way to perform a specific posture in an interesting way that also supported and connected with each other.

 

We said we were looking to reward group skills which included listening and making decisions.

 

Above all there was an emphasis on group members helping each other in a kind and encouraging way. In other words children were given the responsibility of looking out for each other.

Sinclair’s expertise at the postures set him up as a natural leader and his attention to detail meant that he could spot ways to help children in his group.

 

We had given some input on how to change an aspect of the posture in an encouraging way, and Sinclair learnt and applied the skills with ease and a gentleness that his teacher had not seen before.

 

He was also very keen to be the group spokesperson, yet always agreed to let someone else have a turn.

  

Sinclair the 'star ' at school and at home

Sinclair performed the most challenging postures to whole school at two achievement assemblies, where he was encouraged to explain how yoga had helped him to be calmer and more focused.

 

We discovered that his family eagerly awaited his return from school on yoga day when he would teach them new postures and play yoga games with his two brothers.

  

Sinclair, certificates and stickers

Sinclair worked hard to get the special certificates that were awarded to children who could show:

He also earned his fair share of stickers for good listening, learning to be still in calming postures and games and relaxation, as well as increasing concentration and being well mannered.

  

Summary

The combination of our behavioural approach and the yoga improved Sinclair’s self esteem and consequently improved his behaviour because:

 

He tried hard to overcome his disruptive behaviours in order to win the special certificates and stickers that were an incentive for him to change.
    
Sinclair’s parents were able to celebrate his success at home and give lots of genuine praise.

 

The combined effect of rewards and praise from me, class teacher, peers and parents had a very powerful and positive effect on Sinclair’s self esteem.

 

Copyright Yoga at School and Michael Chissick 2010. Not to be reproduced or distributed without permission.