Breath Coach Community Catch-Up
Thursday 29 October 2026Hello everyone!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Breath Coach community catch-up last night. It was lovely to see some familiar faces and welcome new members to our growing School Breathe community.
We had a few technical hiccups with Kajabi, which meant moving our meeting over to Zoom at the last minute. As this was an informal community check-in rather than a formal training session or guest Q&A, we hadn't arranged a recording.
For those who couldn't make it, here's a round-up of the main topics, exciting developments and opportunities we shared.
A warm welcome to our new Breath Coaches
A big welcome to everyone who has recently joined our Breath Coach Training for Teaching Children.
We're delighted to have you with us and hope you're enjoying exploring the course, developing your own breathwork practice and discovering creative ways to bring breathing techniques to children.
Our community catch-ups are an opportunity to connect, share experiences, ask questions and hear about what's happening within School Breathe.
Whether you're just starting out or are already a certified coach, you're very much part of our growing community.
Revisiting the School Breathe 5 Pillars of Breathwork
We spent some time revisiting our 5 Pillars of Breathwork, the framework that underpins our approach to teaching children how to breathe well.
The five pillars give us different ways to introduce breathwork, recognising that children learn through understanding, movement, creativity, storytelling and experience.
Understanding the Breath
Helping children understand why breathing well matters.
Through simple, age-appropriate explanations and activities, we explore how we breathe, what healthy breathing looks and feels like, and how our breathing patterns can influence our physical and emotional wellbeing.
The aim is to give children an understanding of their breath and why developing healthy breathing habits is so important.
Breathing Through Movement
Exploring the relationship between breathing, movement and nervous system regulation.
This pillar brings the breath into the body through gentle movement, helping children release tension, become more aware of physical sensations and discover ways to support their own regulation.
Movement can be a particularly accessible way for children to connect with their breathing, especially those who find sitting still more challenging.
Breathing Through Creativity
Using drawing, shapes, art, imagination and playful activities to make breathwork engaging and memorable.
Creative breathing activities allow children to explore their breath without it feeling like a formal exercise.
Our Halloween Witches' Spells for Calm resource is a lovely example of this pillar in action, combining drawing, tracing, imagination and gentle breathing practices.
Breathing Through Words and Awareness
Using guided body scans, breathing poems, storytelling and descriptive language to help children connect with their breath and body.
This pillar encourages children to slow down, notice sensations and develop greater body awareness through words, rhythm and imagination.
Bringing Breathwork into Everyday Life
Bringing everything together through deep relaxation and finding simple, meaningful ways to weave breathwork into the school day and home life.
The aim is to help children develop a toolkit of breathing practices they can return to naturally, whether they need to settle, refocus, rest or reconnect.
The beauty of the five pillars is that they offer different ways into breathwork.
Not every child will connect with the same approach, and not every session needs to include all five. Some children respond beautifully to movement, others to drawing or storytelling, while others enjoy quieter relaxation practices.
As Breath Coaches, we can draw on these approaches to create sessions that are inclusive, playful, engaging and appropriate for the children we're working with.
Ultimately, we're not simply teaching children breathing exercises. We're helping them understand their breath, develop awareness of their bodies and build skills they can carry into everyday life.
Aberdeen Investments' Global Breathwork Initiative
We are excited to share a new opportunity for our Breath Coach community!
School Breathe is looking for Breath Coaches interested in supporting a global online breathwork initiative with Aberdeen Investments, offering accessible and engaging breathwork sessions for children, parents, carers, school staff and other professionals.
We've developed a proposed calendar of monthly themed webinars for 2027, with sessions tailored to different audiences and their changing needs throughout the year. The programme will explore a range of themes, including:
Concentration, emotional regulation, managing big emotions and building confidence.
Managing stress, improving sleep, emotional regulation, resilience and connection.
Finding calm, managing compassion fatigue, reducing stress and anxiety, and resetting energy.
Each webinar will introduce simple, practical, evidence-informed breathing techniques that participants can take away and use in everyday life.
As this is a global online initiative, there is an opportunity for Breath Coaches to get involved wherever they are based. We're particularly interested in hearing from coaches who feel confident facilitating engaging online sessions for different audiences, especially those with experience working with children, families or educators.
The proposed 2027 webinar calendar outlines the monthly themes and audiences. View the proposed 2027 webinar calendar
Interested in getting involved? Please get in touch with Aimee or Mel. This is an exciting opportunity to bring breathwork to a wider international community and share the skills you've developed through your training.
Exciting news: A Little Breathing Space
We were also delighted to share the soft launch of our new School Breathe initiative:
Our vision is simple: what if every primary school had a dedicated space where children could pause, breathe, regulate and refocus?
We are developing a campaign to bring beautiful, practical breathing spaces into primary schools across the UK, creating calm, welcoming environments where children can develop emotional awareness and access simple self-regulation tools.
The initiative will seek support from businesses and community partners to sponsor these spaces. Each sponsored programme is designed to include:
We are beginning to introduce the concept now, ahead of a wider launch in 2027. This is an exciting step towards making breathwork a more accessible and familiar part of everyday school life.
It's also an opportunity to extend the reach of School Breathe and help create a culture where children are encouraged to pause, notice how they're feeling and understand how their breath can support them.
We would love your support in spreading the word. If you have connections with primary schools, local businesses or organisations that might be interested in sponsoring a breathing space, please do let us know. View the A Little Breathing Space flyer
Halloween: Witches' Spells for Calm
With Halloween upon us, we also shared some seasonal inspiration for our certified Breath Coaches looking to bring a little creativity and fun into their children's sessions.
Our Witches' Spells for Calm resource is a playful breathing adventure designed for children aged approximately 4–9. Part of our Create pillar, it combines drawing, tracing, imagination, movement and gentle breathing. There are four magical breathing spells:
Children draw or trace the gentle humps of a wiggly worm, breathing in as they travel up and out as they travel down.
A simple drawing and tracing exercise, breathing in along the top of a bone and out along the bottom.
A playful introduction to gentle alternate-nostril breathing, bringing a little silliness and laughter into the session.
Children draw or trace a pumpkin, breathing in as they travel up one side and out as they travel down the other.
The full workshop lasts approximately 25–35 minutes, and individual spells can easily be adapted into short breathing breaks.
Lesson plan, spell cards, flashcards, printable templates, creative activities and a Certificate of Calm Magic.
It's a lovely example of how we can use imagination and play to help children develop a positive relationship with their breath.
As always, we encourage a gentle, inclusive approach, with no forcing or breath-holding, and plenty of opportunities for children to participate in their own way.
We'd love to hear if you try any of these activities with your groups! View the Witches' Spells for Calm preview
Goodwood Health Summit
We were also delighted to attend the Goodwood Health Summit, which this year explored breathing and the microbiome. The day featured inspiring presentations from James Nestor, author of Breath, Dr Louise Oliver, NHS GP and Functional Breathing Practitioner, and Mr James Kinross of Imperial College London, with Dr Chris van Tulleken moderating the sessions.
During the Q&A, we asked a question about "tech apnea": older children holding their breath while absorbed in gaming, phones and other technology. Dr Chris van Tulleken was very interested in this, and we hope to continue the conversation.
It was a day full of inspiring connections, and we met so many people who were excited to hear about School Breathe. We'll share more updates soon!
Watch the presentations: the live stream from the day is available on the Goodwood website.
Watch the Goodwood Health Summit 2026 live stream
Growing our Breath Coach community
There's lots happening behind the scenes at School Breathe, and we're excited about the opportunities developing for our community.
Alongside our training programmes, we're continuing to explore ways to bring breathwork into schools, homes, workplaces and wider communities. Our aim is to make simple, accessible and effective breathing practices part of everyday life, while creating meaningful opportunities for trained Breath Coaches to share their skills.
As our community grows, we'd love to hear more about what you're doing with your training, the children and groups you're working with, and any ideas or connections that might help us reach more people.
Please keep sharing your experiences, questions and successes. It's through this exchange of ideas that we can continue to learn from one another.
A few things to take away
Following our catch-up, we'd love to encourage you to:
- ✓Revisit the 5 Pillars of Breathwork and think about how you might weave them into your own sessions.
- ✓Explore the Aberdeen Investments opportunity and let us know if you'd be interested in facilitating online webinars for children or adults.
- ✓Spread the word about A Little Breathing Space, particularly if you have connections with schools or potential sponsors.
- ✓Watch the Goodwood Health Summit presentations from James Nestor, Dr Louise Oliver and Mr James Kinross.
- ✓Have fun with the Halloween resources and experiment with bringing more creativity and imagination into your teaching.
- ✓Stay connected with the School Breathe community and keep sharing your experiences and ideas.
Thank you!
A big thank you to everyone who joined us, alongside Aimee and Mel:
We know not everyone can attend our live community sessions, so we'll continue to share important updates, resources and opportunities with the wider group.
Thank you all for being part of School Breathe and for the energy, enthusiasm and care you bring to this work. It's wonderful to see our community growing, and we're excited about what lies ahead as we continue working towards our shared vision of helping the next generation breathe well.
Aimee & Mel
Aimee, Founder · Mel, Co-Director
School Breathe
Helping the next generation breathe well.
