This term your child will be learning about mindfulness once a week as part of a 10-week classroom-based curriculum called .b (pronounced ‘dot-be’).

You may have heard of mindfulness or read some of the recent media coverage about it. A great deal of this media interest has arisen as a result of the growing body of rigorous research evidence regarding the potential benefits of mindfulness for young people. These include randomised control trials and neuroscientific studies.

As Professor Katherine Weare observed in her award-winning research summary: Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People, schools who engage in mindfulness are likely to see ‘beneficial results on the emotional wellbeing, mental health, ability to learn and even the physical health of their students.’

At its most simple .b is an awareness-raising exercise to give all students a taste of mindfulness so that they know about it and can return to it later in life if they choose to do so.

 b aims to help young people:

• To improve their concentration and focus

classes, in exams and tests, on the sports field, when playing games, when paying attention and listening to others.   fulfil their potential   

• greater well-being (e.g. feel happier, calmer, more fulfilled).
• To work with difficult mental states such as anxious thoughts and low moods. 
• To cope with the everyday stresses. 

The feedback from students who take part in .b is very positive. I would encourage you to follow the link to the page of the Mindfulness in Schools Project website where you where you can read comments from over 1400 students, having taken part in the .b programme: https://mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WebsiteFeedback-for-.b-NP-1.pdf

Should you be interested in reading further about the body of research evidence around the potential benefits of
mindfulness for young people, please do have a look at the following page on https://mindfulnessinschools.org/mindfulness-in-education/why-do-it/