WVCSD Expands Student Mindfulness Program to Staff & Families

For those wanting to learn how to reduce stress, enhance their ability to focus, and create new ways of controlling their breathing, the Warwick Valley Central School District (WVCSD) has brought mindfulness to the community. Mindfulness started in physical education classes across the District and has been growing over the past couple years to reach more students.

This year, the District has expanded its student-oriented program of mindfulness, meditation and breathing exercises to now include staff, teachers and student families. The evolution of the program is intended to address the need to reduce stress and build inner muscles of the mind to support focus and positive mindsets. The COVID-19 pandemic has made these skills even harder to achieve.

Programs educating staff and families are scheduled throughout the year. For example, Park Avenue, Sanfordville and Pine Island elementary school families have participated in a Virtual Family Yoga Night from Home. Another similar event is scheduled for Mar. 11. Teachers who have learned skills to lead sessions for their students are now involved in training sessions focused on their own mindfulness.

Staff and families engage with one of the District’s partners, Zensational Kids, which partners with the District for mindfulness training and session leadership. Zensational Kids helps educational communities unlock that potential through the implementation of evidence-based yoga and mindfulness practices that build social and emotional learning, coping skills and self-regulation strategies.

“Our program has really been about teaching student’s self-awareness and self-management tools so that they can find compassion for themselves and understand how their brain and body work together,” said Zensational Kids founder Allison Morgan, MA, OTR, E-RYT. “It’s also about having tools that they can use for when they are getting anxious and engaging in negative self-talk.”

In its third year of partnership with the District, Zensational Kids is conducting the program virtually to maintain safety and reduce the spread of the coronavirus during the pandemic. Sessions are streamed into staff training sessions and into classrooms where Zensational Kids trainers work directly with educators and their students to teach them mindfulness tools and into homes, providing group sessions with families and caregivers.

Park Avenue Elementary guidance counselor Jeanette Myrick said the school began supporting families during the shutdown last spring, offering two family yoga nights that involved yoga, meditation and mindfulness.

“The kids participated with their parents, so it was a nice bonding activity for them,” she said. “So, we decided to do it again this year, because it was so well received last year. We really wanted to help support parents and families. We wanted them to see some of the activities and be able to do them with their kids.”