My 5th book dedication: Mindfulness for NQTs: by Alison Laycock

This 5th book, ‘Mindfulness for NQTs: Strategies, techniques and practices for all who work with children and young people’ was self-published in September 2022. To be fair it came as a surprise although I had worked on Mindfulness for NQTs in blogs taking into account my teaching experience in the UK and abroad for years.

The dedication came easily enough as I was writing one day and I jotted it down on a piece of paper next to me and carried on with the day’s task. When you have been a teacher, you know all the hard work which goes into planning, delivering and assessing and then reviewing your lessons not to mention the interactions with students and other staff. I don’t believe anyone else understands that and to be honest, those who don’t teach your subject don’t understand what goes into your subject planning and delivering etc as every subject is different. Teachers deserve so much more money and recognition than they get whether that be from students, parents and/or the Government. They are most definitely superheroes and all school staff are.

‘This book is dedicated to all the teachers out there who are helping, encouraging, and supporting all students in reaching their full potential in education and in life.

Thank you for your service and all that you do!

Not all superheroes wear capes!’

If you are interested in checking this book out, it is very reasonably priced at £1.99 which will remain it’s price as I know that NQTs and teachers in general aren’t paid anywhere near enough! Here is the link for Amazon.

An excerpt from ‘Mindfulness for NQTs’ by Alison Laycock

In September 2022, I self-published my 5th book ‘Mindfulness for NQTs: Strategies, techniques, and practices for all who work with children and young people’. This covers a month of areas of focus for teachers/ school staff to practice themselves every day and/or pass on to students.

Here is an excerpt from the book.

Day 3: Acknowledge and celebrate all the small successes, positives & improvements

Your NQT year is a steep learning curve, and you will experience lots of doubt, feedback which may come across as negative or full of areas of improvement and you will be so tired at times that you won’t know if you are coming or going. The first term and especially the first half will fly by in many ways, however when it feels like a hard slog, the tendency will be to only remember the negative or difficult times.

Make a point from the very first day (or from whenever you are reading this) to make a note of all the positives and even the smallest of successes as these will all build up to be so much more. When you are feeling low or just plain exhausted, remembering the positives and the small achievements will help you through.

Don’t wait for the whole class to demonstrate learning and understanding before you celebrate your role as a teacher, celebrate the first and keep going. Don’t wait for the whole class to behave before you see the lesson as being positive, notice all who quietly behave and get on with the lesson.

If someone pays you a compliment, say ‘thank you’ and store it away. Don’t dismiss it or try to justify what they have said, simply acknowledge it, you are doing a great job.

Acknowledge and celebrate the imperfect as well as the perfect. As long as you have completed it then it is successful, it does not need to be perfect. Don’t delay your bedtime or allow your sleep to be disturbed in the search for perfect. Accept that the lesson is planned, and the resources are ready as the students themselves make the lesson into whatever it will be.

Now do the same with your students: Celebrate and acknowledge the good in them, the good behaviour, the contributions they make in class and through their homework, how they interact with other students and who they are as individuals. Don’t wait for their perfection before you acknowledge all the positives. You can model this to them in the compliments you give and in the way you treat yourself, don’t put yourself down in front of them if something goes wrong, just carry on, laugh it off if necessary and carry on.

Encourage students to celebrate each other: Model this and encourage students to see the good in each other and their work through building it into the lesson. This could be finding the good in each other’s work and sharing what they like and have learnt from it or at the end of the day/ week sharing positives about other students’ acts of kindness towards them or others.

Take all the above into your personal daily life too so you build your confidence and self-esteem both inside and outside of school and your classroom. These positives will help you throughout the year and the more you do it, the easier it will be, the more positive you will be and the more you will enjoy your work. Once your students see how much you enjoy it, they will enjoy being in your lessons too.

You may wish to build in treats for yourself to celebrate each month, half term etc so you have something to look forward to.

‘Mindfulness for NQTs’ can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle for £1.99 at a price for NQTs to be able to afford in their training and/or first years or teaching. This book is also applicable for all working with children and young people no matter what your level of experience is.

This blog is sponsored by http://www.beingthebestyoucanbe.org supporting your mental health and celebrating your true self.

Mindfulness for NQTs: Strategies, techniques and practices for all who work with children and young people

Welcome to my latest book which I self-published on Amazon Kindle on 6th September 2022. It costs only £1.99 and contains an offer of a 25% discount off courses for those who buy the book. There is a link below.

The book contains strategies, techniques and practices for mindfulness and is aimed at NQTs and all who work with children and young people. As a former school teacher and teacher trainer, both in the UK and abroad, I wanted to share mindfulness techniques in a way that I have used them over the past 25+ years of my career in Education.

A lot of the content has come from blogs from this blog as in the previous 2 years, I have posted everyday throughout August with a technique etc for NQTs to try out ahead of starting their new role (as the new academic year starts in September in the UK). Perhaps, you have already read some of these blogs.

This book brings them all together in one place and I have also added some more content either in the monthly format or in the extras/alternatives section. There are also some parts adapted from 2 of my previous books: ‘Being the Best You Can Be’ and ‘Mindful Walks to be in the present moment’. If you are interested in those books too then it’s good to know that Being the Best You Can Be is only 99p and will always be that price as i wish to help as many people as possible access the information shared within it and Mindful Walks is currently priced at £1.99 during the launch of this book and will return to its usual price of £4.99 in January 2023.

There is also a lot of FREE material shared on my social media channels: Being the Best You Can Be on Facebook and You Tube channel, alisonlaycock23 on twitter and Being.best.mindfulness on instagram. I am also happy to answer any questions through email info@beingthebestyoucanbe.org.

If you do purchase the book and wish to use the discount on one of the mindfulness or other courses through my business then please visit http://www.beingthebestyoucanbe.org to check out all the business offers.

Mindfulness for NQTs: Strategies, techniques and practices for all who work with children and young people