Indian Influences: Yoga

A visit to India inspires two primary teachers from Leeds to start yoga clubs in their school in order to improve concentration and promote a calmer atmosphere.

Kate Bowen and Jane Sanders from Leeds decided to introduce yoga and record the outcomes on video after discovering that it improved the focus of the Indian pupils.

From the start, the enthusiasm of their own pupils is evident, as is their desire to learn more about how their Indian counterparts practice yoga. They begin to communicate with the Indian pupils via email, and hope soon to be swapping the video they have shot.

Throughout the project we see how Kate and Jane encourage the pupils to take ownership of the project, including teaching yoga to children in other Leeds schools.

In the discussion that follows, Rittika Chanda Parruck from the British Council in India talks about the project with the pair as well as Gillian Sherrif, from another school in Leeds. Rittika asks whether yoga should be introduced more widely and how its effects could be measured.