Laois primary school teachers training in Italy

The staff from Portlaoise Educate Together NS with their yoga teacher in Italy.

placeholder image — The staff from Portlaoise Educate Together NS with their yoga teacher in Italy.

Lucky teachers at a Laois primary school took the opportunity to improve their mindfulness knowledge, by travelling to Florence in Italy.

Portlaoise Educate Together NS is involved in a project that offers their staff chances to travel to other schools in the EU and take part in training courses.

Six staff members recently travelled to Florence to attend a module about Mindfulness in the Europass Teachers Academy, wherein they completed a course on “Mindfulness for Teachers: a Hands-on Approach and Happy Schools: Positive Education for Well-being and Life Skills Development”.

The week long course taught practices and theory about mindfulness and how it can benefit both students and teachers at Portlaoise Educate Together NS.

The mindfulness practices learned are expected to have a positive effect on the moods of children and staff, as well as ability to focus, stress levels, anxiety, communication, awareness and confidence.

The staff developed new techniques to help students to overcome everyday stresses and to enhance their self-management of attention for more successful learning.

They learned the science of Mindfulness, awareness of food and what is and is not Mindfulness. They were introduced to yoga and meditation and its usefulness on a daily basis.

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The Portlaoise school is looking forward to completing more projects in future. The KA1 project funded by Erasmus Plus and Leargas.