Sunshine and Light also provide yoga sessions to benefit children and young people by visiting primary and secondary schools as well as colleges in and around Leicester and Leicestershire. We currently hold regular classes at Beauchamp College in Oadby and at Gartree High School as well as at Houghton on the Hill Primary School. Yoga and mindfulness is healthy, fun and accessible, providing many benefits for children and young people. It builds physical and mental strength and flexibility, improves fitness levels, increases social awareness, and aids sleep. Yoga also assists with stress and anxiety management, improving self-regulation and self-efficacy. Research has shown that practicing yoga improves learning, academic achievement and emotional literacy in children and young people.
Feedback from Gartree High School:
“Just to let you know we have been really impressed with the yoga sessions. Claudine is professional & her expertise in this area is great. There is a group of up to 16 YEAR 11 pupils that take part in the session at any time. They enjoy the yoga & it provides them with a time for reflection & rest from their exam work.”
Yoga provides many benefits for children and young people including:
- Helping them to feel better about themselves, encouraging self-control and independence, aiding behavioral regulation
- Increased ability to concentrate and focus
- Builds balance of body and mind, helping with emotional regulation, enabling mood stabilisation
- Improved social interaction
- Better tone in the body and weight management
- Learning to accept wide differences in body shape
- Developing a positive self-image, helping to gain a sense of feeling at home in your own body
- Provides support for the confusion of physical change as children grow and develop
- Creates a safe space to encourage greater social acceptance and understanding with peers
- Enhancing connection with the self and others
- Raises energy levels but also calms
- Greater resilience to stress and anxiety
- Boosts the immune system
- Helps improving sleep patterns
- A structured environment to allow for discharge of energy in a positive way
