Mindfulness in Schools: What Local Programs Are Available

More than 370 state schools across Greater London are now participating in some form of structured mindfulness program, according to figures compiled by the Mindfulness in Schools Project, the Oxfordshire-based charity that has been running teacher training in the capital since 2011. That number has climbed steadily since NHS England flagged youth mental health as a tier-one priority in its 2025-2026 long-term plan, putting new pressure on headteachers to show they are doing something concrete between PSHE lessons and the school counsellor's door.

The timing matters. Referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in London boroughs rose 18 percent between September 2024 and March 2026, according to NHS data published last spring. Waiting lists in Lewisham and Haringey now stretch past 18 weeks for non-urgent cases. Schools have started treating in-class mindfulness as a first-response tool rather than a pastoral afterthought — partly because it costs almost nothing to deliver once staff are trained, and partly because the alternative, waiting for CAMHS, is no longer realistic for most families.

What's Actually Running in London Classrooms

The Mindfulness in Schools Project's flagship secondary curriculum, known as .b (pronounced "dot-be"), is the most widely delivered structured program in the capital. Its nine-lesson course is running in schools including Graveney School in Tooting and La Retraite RC Girls' School in Balham, both in Wandsworth. Teacher training costs around £595 per educator for a two-day residential course, which most schools fund through the Pupil Premium or their mental health support team budgets. The primary equivalent, Paws b, has been adopted by several Southwark primaries, including schools feeding into the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe cluster.

Separate from the Mindfulness in Schools Project, the Anna Freud Centre — based on Belsize Road in Camden — runs a school-based wellbeing program called Schools in Mind, a free network that gives teachers access to evidence-based resources including brief mindfulness practices. More than 8,000 school staff across England had signed up to the network by January 2026. The Centre is also mid-way through a three-year study, due to conclude in late 2027, examining how ten minutes of guided breathing at the start of the school day affects Year 7 attainment and self-reported anxiety scores.

Inner East London has its own initiative worth knowing. Tower Hamlets Council, working with the charity Place2Be, embedded a mindfulness component into its whole-school wellbeing framework across 23 primary schools from September 2025. Place2Be's school counsellors deliver brief body-scan and breath-awareness sessions to classes in schools around Stepney Green and Bow, alongside their existing one-to-one counselling work. The council allocated £1.2 million to the broader wellbeing framework for the 2025-2026 academic year, of which mindfulness delivery formed a small but identified line item.

What Parents Can Do Right Now

If you want to know whether your child's school is running any of these programs, the most direct route is asking the SENCo — the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator — rather than the form tutor. They typically hold the mental health support budget and will know what, if anything, is scheduled. Schools in England are required under the 2017 green paper commitments to name a senior mental health lead; that person, wherever they exist, is also a useful contact.

For parents wanting to supplement whatever the school offers, the Breathing Space app, developed with input from King's College London researchers, has a free teen track with sessions running between four and twelve minutes. It is not a clinical tool, and the app itself is clear on that point — but for kids who respond better to a screen than a teacher-led session, it offers something consistent. Families in areas with active Parkrun junior routes, including Brockwell Park in Lambeth and Gunnersbury Park in Ealing, might also find the post-run cool-down rituals a gentler entry point to breath-focused practice than a classroom setting.

Schools interested in applying to the Mindfulness in Schools Project's subsidised training cohort for January 2027 need to register interest before 1 October 2026. Details are at mindfulnessinschools.org. If you have concerns about a child's mental health that go beyond what a classroom program can address, contact your NHS GP in the first instance — they can refer directly to local CAMHS or to school-linked mental health practitioners where those posts have been filled.