Yoga has been part of learning at Henry Hill School for years. Recently the school won an excellence in wellbeing education award. Video / Warren Buckland
Every day, every hour, kids at Henry Hill take a 10- to 15-minute "brain break".
It's common for New Zealand schools to implement one or two brain breaks during the school day.
Henry Hill is doing things a bit differently.
Four years ago, the school introduced morning yoga and regularbrain breaks as part of its trauma-informed approach to learning.
Henry Hill School's trauma-informed approach won it the Excellence in Wellbeing Education award at this year's Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards.
A trauma-informed approach to learning means Henry Hill has an awareness and understanding of what trauma is, and how it affects students from a neurological and scientific perspective.
In turn, that allows the school to support students who are triggered or reliving their trauma, and teach them how to cope and self-regulate.
Henry Hill School students take regular brain breaks to reset their brains. Photo / Warren Buckland
Henry Hill principal Jase Williams said the time allowed students' brains to ''take stock of what's in there and empty a bit of it''.
During brain breaks, teachers use activities that involve students physically crossing their bodies' midline, such as stepping out and touching their toes.
This engages both sides of the brain.
The 10- to 15-minute brain break activity "actually resets the brain so it is empty and ready for more learning, because there is only so much learning the brain can take", Williams says.
The day starts at Henry Hill with student-led yoga and karakia. This helps students calm their minds and connect with their learning.
Henry Hill teacher Axe Isherwood says "the yoga is great, it levels the playing field, everyone comes in and we all get a chance to start the day fresh''.
Using Dr Bruce Perry's study on the neuro-sequential Model of Education, teachers at Henry Hill understand the brain science behind why children behave the way they do.
Isherwood said, "The trauma-informed stuff has broadened our understanding of behaviour and why some of these kids have been through stuff kids should not have to go through and that affects their brain.
"Why didn't they teach us the brain science at teachers' college, that would have saved me 30 years of misunderstanding students behaviour."
Williams says, "We know when some of our kids come in the morning are already upset, angry or frustrated depending on how the morning drop-off went, what happened at home in the morning or what happened the night before."
The school hopes to create generational change by giving students tools to cope with anger or frustration through self-regulation and self-management, Williams says.
Williams is one of only three certified trainers in the neuro-sequential Model of Education that he knows of in New Zealand.
The principal has been instrumental in setting up a group of 50 educators that meet monthly and share neuroscience information.
