Extra Training

If you trained as an adult teacher and want to add children's yoga to your training check out my previous post here.

If you trained as a children's yoga teacher and have no adult training, this one is for you! 
There are a lot of teacher trainings available at the moment, so here are some tips for those who feel overwhelmed with the choice.

Who to train with? - Hopefully you have a regular teacher who can offer you some advice, lots of us are happy to give recommendations as we'll have experience not only with our initial training but with CPDs with various teachers and 'schools'.

What to look for? - Some kind of accreditation, I trained with the British Wheel of Yoga, they are Ofqual accredited but there are others out there. I've trained with a courses accredited by both Yoga Alliance UK and The Independent Yoga Network. Yoga Alliance UK have lots of teacher trainings up and down the country, if you chose that option it may be worth reading reviews of the specific course and leaders you've been looking at. The Independent Yoga Network no longer exists and I'm unaware if another organisation has taken up their members. 

Course Curriculum - Your course may include - Anatomy & Physiology and Yoga Philosophy, as well as the usual Asana (postures), Pranayama (breathing), Meditation & Relaxation and class planning, including teaching and progression. Hopefully there will be a little bit of business in there too, to help guide you if you decide to teach regularly. 

How long? - Intensives can take a few days, other courses can take between 1, 2 and 3 years. Courses can take up to 500+ hours, that can include your time learning and also your experience teaching. Think about how you learn personally, whether you learn better with lots of information all at once or whether you learn better with less information over a longer period.  There are pros and cons to both, I found it better to learn over a longer period of time and that fitted in well with my circumstances, other people will have different time constraints and factors they need to take into consideration. 

How much? - Now this varies... A lot! A face-to-face teaching of around 200 hours can range from £2000-£3000, a 300 - 500 hour course can cost between £3000 - £4500, many course leaders provide payment plans. You also need to factor in the cost of text books - The Bhavagad Gita, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, etc. stationary, and if you don't already own one, a laptop or device to do you work.

Extra courses 
After all that training you may wonder why you would need any further training but... if you are working in schools, you will probably work with students with a diverse range of educational needs, it's better to be overtrained than undertrained!
Special Yoga (others are available) offer trainings to make sure your teachings are as inclusive as they can be, so my advice would be, if you haven't had extra training, get it :)

And finally, finally.. If you don't feel as though you need any further training (well done!) but would like to browse some free courses I can highly recommend the OpenLearn platform provided by the Open University. There you will find information on Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children and Adolescents as well as courses on ADHD and Autism (And I'm gonna put the Menopause in here too, the more we know the better we teach!)