MAGPIES sang and cool breezes wafted into the classroom as Delungra schoolchildren lined up their mats for the weekly yoga session last Friday.
“I think it’s very good. I like the part where you’ve got to lay down and have a rest, calm down,” year 2 student Edward Baker said.
The program began under the guidance of local yoga teacher Ainslie Savage in mid-2015, and she had one priority in mind.
“I think the most important thing is to help them deal with stress,” Ainslie said.
“There’s a lot of stress in our society. If you can teach the kids to recognise when they’re feeling stressed and to deal with it, that’s a huge thing.”
The older children have their class first thing on Fridays, and then infants have a session on their own to learn the ropes.
Anna Lyce in year 2 said her favourite part was the tree pose, and demonstrated, standing straight with her foot tucked against her knee.
“It’s relaxing, it calms me down,” she said.
School principal Toni Withers said the yoga program was part of a larger initiative to embed personal wellness and mental and physical health for the children.
“When we first started doing it, they found it very hard to be still,” Toni said.
She said initial yoga sessions were difficult, with children struggling to concentrate and to be alone with their thoughts.
“Once they worked through that, they were able to deal with their issues, because some of them initially they had to be still and be with themselves, because it’s easy to distract yourself from what you’re feeling,” she said.
If you can teach the kids to recognise when they’re feeling stressed and to deal with it, that’s a huge thing. - Ainslie Savage
Taliah Carter was a little shy, but the year 3 student said her favourite part was mountain pose.
“Where you stand up and you stand really, really still,” she said.
“Like you’re a big, tall mountain.”
Toni said the school fosters a calm culture, and weekly yoga feeds into the atmosphere.
“You can really feel the change in their calmness and their ability to deal with things,” she said.