If you're a primary school head teacher or PSHE coordinator, you'll know the pressure of ticking all those curriculum boxes while actually making a real difference to children's wellbeing. The good news? Yoga and mindfulness aren't just nice extras anymore. They're genuinely practical ways to meet your statutory PSHE requirements, and the children actually enjoy them.

What the DfE Actually Expects

Since 2020, Relationships Education and Health Education have been compulsory in primary schools. The guidance is clear: schools must teach children about mental wellbeing, how to recognise their emotions, and strategies for managing difficult feelings.

That's a big ask when you're also juggling maths, literacy, and everything else. But here's where yoga and mindfulness come in properly useful.

Mental Wellbeing (Without the Worksheets)

The PSHE framework says children should learn that mental wellbeing is as important as physical health. They need to know how to look after their own mental health and recognise when something doesn't feel right.

In practice, this looks like a Year 3 class doing "balloon breathing" when they're getting wound up before lunch. Or a Year 5 child using the "5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique" you taught them when they're worried about their spelling test.

These aren't abstract concepts on a worksheet. They're real tools children can grab hold of in the moment.

We worked with a school in Manchester where a Year 4 teacher introduced a simple body scan practice (just 3 minutes, lying on the floor). Within two weeks, children were asking for it by name when they felt overwhelmed. One boy told his mum he used it at home when his older brother was annoying him. That's mental wellbeing education that actually sticks.

Self-Regulation and Managing Feelings

The curriculum requires that children learn how to manage and communicate their feelings appropriately. Anyone who's worked in primary schools knows this is easier said than done, especially with younger children who can go from fine to meltdown in about 30 seconds.

Yoga gives children a physical outlet for big emotions. When you're angry, doing strong poses like Warrior or Mountain helps channel that energy. When you're anxious, gentle forward folds and Child's Pose activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the calm-down system).

A school in Bristol we work with uses "emotion yoga cards". If a child is struggling, they can pick a card that matches how they're feeling (angry, sad, worried, excited) and it shows them 2-3 poses that help with that emotion. The children love having something concrete to do rather than just being told to "calm down".

Building Healthy Relationships

PSHE includes teaching children about respectful relationships, cooperation and how to treat others with kindness. Partner yoga activities are brilliant for this.

When two Year 2 children do "seesaw breathing" together (one breathes in while the other breathes out, finding a rhythm), they have to pay attention to each other. When a group makes a "yoga circle" where everyone's pose connects, they have to work together and support each other literally.

One head teacher told us that after introducing partner yoga in Year 6, she noticed fewer friendship fallouts in the playground. The children had practised listening to each other's bodies, taking turns, and communicating clearly. Those skills transferred.

Physical Health and Fitness

This one's obvious but worth saying: yoga counts towards your PE requirements. It develops strength, flexibility, balance and coordination. But unlike competitive sports (which some children hate), nearly every child can access yoga at their own level.

The child who struggles in football? They might discover they're amazing at tree pose. The child with low muscle tone can build strength without feeling embarrassed. It's inclusive in a way that really matters.

Internet Safety and Body Image

This might surprise you, but mindfulness activities can support your internet safety and body image teaching too. When children learn to notice their thoughts without judging them, they're better equipped to question what they see online.

A Year 5 class we worked with did a session on "thoughts aren't facts". We talked about how our minds sometimes tell us things that aren't true (like "everyone's better than me" or "I look weird"). Then we practised noticing thoughts and letting them go, like clouds passing by.

Their teacher later said this gave the children a framework for thinking critically about social media messages and comparison culture, even though we never mentioned phones or apps.

How to Actually Make This Work

The key is not adding yoga and mindfulness on top of everything else. It's weaving them into your existing PSHE curriculum.

You might start your weekly PSHE lesson with 5 minutes of mindful breathing to help children settle and focus. When you're teaching about emotions, you could include yoga poses that help with different feelings. When covering friendship skills, use partner poses.

Some schools we work with have a "mindful Monday" where every class does 10 minutes of yoga or breathing exercises first thing. Others use it for transition times between lessons. One school has a dedicated "calm corner" in each classroom with yoga cards and mindfulness prompts that children can use independently.

What About Ofsted?

Inspectors want to see that you're delivering your statutory PSHE curriculum effectively and that children are actually learning and applying what you teach them. They're interested in impact, not just what's on paper.

If an inspector asks a child "What do you do when you feel worried?" and that child can tell them about using their breathing or doing a calming yoga pose, that's evidence. If they can explain that everyone has mental health and they know ways to look after theirs, that's your PSHE provision working.

The Honest Truth

Look, yoga and mindfulness aren't magic. They won't solve every behaviour issue or anxiety problem in your school. But they give children practical strategies that many of them will genuinely use.

And from a leadership perspective? They help you meet your statutory requirements in a way that feels meaningful rather than box-ticking. That's worth something when you're drowning in paperwork and Ofsted frameworks.

The children who need these skills most (the anxious ones, the explosive ones, the ones who struggle to sit still) often respond really well to physical, practical approaches. It gives them something to do with their bodies and minds, not just more words about feelings.

Getting Started

You don't need to be a yoga expert or meditation guru to introduce this in your school. Many teachers feel nervous about it at first, which is completely normal.

External providers (like us) can come in to deliver sessions, train your staff, or help you build it into your curriculum planning. Some schools start with just one class or year group as a trial, see what works, then roll it out more widely.

The most important thing is that it's done regularly and consistently. Ten minutes twice a week is better than an hour once a term. Children need time to learn the techniques and practise them enough that they become automatic.

Your PSHE curriculum is supposed to prepare children for life, not just exams. Yoga and mindfulness give them practical life skills: how to calm their bodies, notice their thoughts, manage stress, and treat themselves and others with kindness.

Those skills matter in Year 3. They'll matter even more when those children are navigating secondary school, exams, social media, and everything else life throws at them.

And in the meantime, you've got evidence for Ofsted, happy parents, and maybe even a slightly calmer staffroom. Everyone wins.