During this last week of term, Year 8 students have been busy preparing for and delivering their STEAM Presentation of Learning, as well as going on fieldwork to Leeds University where they attended seminars and presented to medical students there. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we don’t wind down at the end of term, we wind up!
However, we took the opportunity in Crew to explore ways in which we could ‘wind down’ a little bit by having a yoga session. We began with a discussion about why yoga is beneficial. We are quite a sporty crew – we are a mix of runners, dancers, footballers, MMA fighters, rugby and basketball players! – so we all appreciate the physical benefits of stretching, strengthening and improving our flexibility. However, yoga also helps us to improve our focus and to persevere, as well as encouraging us to practice compassion to others and to ourselves.
We worked through a simple Sun Salutation flow (with a cheeky Warrior pose thrown in for those who wanted a bit more of a challenge!) ending with a 5 minute guided relaxation. We then circled up and discussed how yoga had made us feel. The boys especially enjoyed it, with Thomas and Mackenzie both commenting that yoga was actually a lot harder than they thought it would be (the grunts and moans I heard from them whilst getting into poses confirmed this!) Aden particularly enjoyed the relaxation at the end, saying that he loved the bit where he was instructed to breathe in peace and relaxation, and breathe out anything that was bothering him. He felt “hypnotised” by the end of it.
We will be doing more yoga and mindfulness activities next term, and I’ve already had a request to do a Warrior sequence – seems to be a favourite pose!