About YogaBeez Children’s Yoga School
Bryony Duckitt, Founder of YogaBeez Children’s Yoga School, has been teaching children for over 20 years.
The YogaBeez mission is to enable more children to benefit from the teachings of yoga and mindfulness. Bryony has had the privilege of training over 500 teachers, who are now actively teaching yoga to children of all ages. So many wonderful children, young people, parents and teachers and have joined the YogaBeez Hive – a unique community of like minded people.
YogaBeez offers foundation and advanced level courses in teaching yoga to children of all ages. Details of these course can be found here
A note from Bryony:
“My journey to YogaBeez started in 1996 when I moved to the UK from South Africa. At the time, my passion and driving force was the longing to discover the world.
Listening to my calling to work with children encouraged me to train as a Montessori teacher and at about the same time I started practicing yoga at the Sivananda Centre in Putney. About five years into my Montessori teaching I started incorporating little bits of my own yoga practice into the classroom and noticed what a profound affect it was having on the children. The Montessori philosophy and traditional yoga merged so naturally into each other. I knew I wanted to explore this further so that I could teach yoga to more children.
I travelled to the USA and trained as a children’s yoga teacher and trainer with the wonderful Marsha Wennig. Whilst setting up YogaBeez I completed a 250hr Hatha Yoga training under Rishi Dharmajyoti at Yoga Vidya Gurukul in Nasik, India.
My explorations over the years have led me to Reiki 1 and 2 diplomas and Vipassana meditation retreats. I’ve also been very fortunate to train with incredible teachers, Judith Lasater for restorative yoga, Rod Styker in Para Yoga and Nidra and Shiva Rea sharing her teachings on Soma Prana Vinyasa. Joe Barnett gifting his inspirational knowledge of anatomy whilst we explored Yin Yoga foundation and advanced trainings and recently I spent a wonderful week with Donna Farhi and Melissa Spammer exploring women’s yoga and Ayurveda.
My true mindfulness practice started in 2013 on a 5-day educator’s retreat with Zen Maser Thich Naht Hahn and in 2015 I got to spend seven intense but life-changing days with Jon Kabat-Zinn exploring the MBSR programme. This led me to follow the Paws training with MISP in 2016. As yoga nidra has always been very much a part of my own practice, I have enjoyed exploring this deeper through workshops, retreats and trainings with Rod Stryker, Uma Dinsmore-Thuli and iRest Founder Richard Miller.
I believe we are forever students on this path. I love to gather new knowledge, read, practice, enquire and then share these wonderful discoveries with the children and teachers I works with. My own teacher trainings and practice are constantly evolving.” In gratitude and love, namaste, Bryony
Honey Beez
At the heart of our program are the children themselves! They have indeed been my greatest teachers!
They are the makers of man… the ones that can truly change our future. We can give them seeds and even try our best to provide fertile soil but it is them who will ultimately sow these and grow their own gardens.
So, through the teaching of yoga to children, we try to provide an environment which offers them the tools and equips them to head out into the big wide world.
We don’t only focus on the physical postures in our yoga teaching but largely we focus on breath. In sharing yoga with children we allow them space to recognise and honour all the emotions they are feeling and give them tools to deal with them. Including difficult emotions such as anger, anxiety or depression. As part of our ethos of teaching yoga and mindfulness we focus on community and freedom to express your thoughts and differences.
Our classes are inter-curricular and stimulate all areas of child development. We also include all the limbs of yoga: the philosophy, the poses, the breath, mindfulness, meditation, concentration, learning and relaxation.