Update from the BWY Education Chair Leslie Isaacs Autumn 2007

Update from the BWY Education Chair Leslie Isaacs

Dear Friends,

A lot has been happening in the education world of BWY. The most exciting news is that all non-teaching modules are to be made available to any BWY members. These cover a whole range of topics, from ayurveda to meditation. Please see the article by our modules officer, Tara Fraser.

Some of you may have heard about an exciting yoga for back pain trial that is due to start in the autumn. Dr. David Torgerson of the University of York and his team of researchers will be conducting a large-scale trial on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of yoga in improving the quality of life of sufferers with lower back pain. Ten BWY teachers in five centres across the UK, together with ten Iyengar teachers, will be teaching a programme devised by Iyengar teacher, Alison Trewhela and Anna Semlyen, our own BWY teacher in York, who has been central to the development of the trial. Those of us involved in the trial very much hope to be able to demonstrate the usefulness of yoga in the treatment of back pain. I feel this is a very exciting time not only for yoga in general but also for the BWY. It represents a great opportunity for teachers from two of the main teaching organisations in the UK to work together as a team in the true yoga spirit.

Calling all teachers: it is regarded as good practice to carry an Accident Report Form with you at all times and to know the postcode of the venue where you are teaching. In the event of an accident, the ambulance will speedily know where to find you.

I would also like to remind you that you must gain parental consent before any images of children are used and also before you perform any hands-on adjustments on children that you may consider appropriate. The necessary forms can be downloaded from the website.

Accredited Groups - just to remind everyone that the accreditation process is running normally and our accredited groups liaison officer, Wendy Haring, would welcome application from any groups out there who would like to become part of the BWY yoga family.

The education committee, ably assisted by our education and training manager Jenny Knowles, is in the process of reviewing all the qualifications options regarding the BWY Diploma. These will be presented to DCTs at our annual meeting in September for their consideration and developments will be reported in Spectrum.

In yoga

Lesley