“Just thought I'd let you know that following their TKD class this evening, both of my boys were completely hyped and acting like total fools-i was dreading trying to get them settled. As I've already spoken about in group, we are having real difficulties with my youngest at the moment but the eldest is a handful too.
After virtually wrestling them into having their showers, I asked them to get settled into bed so that they were comfortable and I used the book and technique from this evening's class as a long shot at getting them to wind down.
I cannot remember the last time we had such a peaceful and relaxed bed time. I haven't heard a peep from them since and we actually had some really weird and wonderful things come from it. Their magical gardens sound wild!
I'm now wondering if it will work on husbands.
The boys didn't move all night and have said they want to do it everyday. One of my sons said he dreamt about his garden and the animals in it and the other said that he had the "best sleep ever". And, things were peaceful this morning too!”
-Sarah Parker
“All the ideas in the book are a great vehicle for visualisation so that it gives then an emotional tool and strategy, for the children, the parents and for teachers to use to help them be in a calmer space. For the little ones it was lovely for them to have a pausing moment where they could just stop and make a picture in their head. It put the children in a really calm place.”
-Peasdown St John reception
“My Kids responded, they were engaged and fascinated, and they had incredible imagination. Definitely a tool going forward to help them. I thought it was fantastic because I had children who opened up in that 45 minutes who are normally very quiet and don’t want to put their hand up or share their ideas but they came alive when they started looking at My Magical Garden and they wanted to share their ideas and talk about themselves really. That was a great thing to see and, in that moment, I learnt a lot about them there and then so it will be exciting to see where this goes going forward”
- Loughton Primary
“The class were absolutely buzzing; they were really excited about everything that was in their garden and there were children who don’t normally speak up and they did and they shared their ideas. Some of them gave really insightful contributions as to what they would have, and you could tell they’d really thought about it. It sparked their imagination and I’m really excited to see what comes from this moving forward.”
-Loughton Primary
“The imagination was fascinating and the children that don’t normally speak spoke up. They all wanted to be involved, they were all engaged. This is a fantastic tool now for them to continue realising their emotions, to understand their emotions and dealing with their emotions. You can see it’s already starting to happen. It’s really fascinating.”
-Loughton Primary
“It’s been a great day and it’s worked well throughout the school and engaged all the children from eyfs, reception right up to year 6 and everyone has been able to access it at their own level. Something that I feel will benefit us moving forward in the future is how our ELSA will be able to use the book. She’s already begun to use the book with certain individuals when they’re having a bit of a wobbly day using that as a tool in the sensory room, helping that pupil to calm and to focus and find some strategies to enable them to become a bit more independent with self-regulation skills. It’s going to be really useful in terms of supporting some of our families at home. Certainly in my role I often find parents will often come and say that their child is anxious or reluctant to come to school for multiple reasons or perhaps the family have suffered a bereavement or they’re struggling with angry feelings – parents don’t necessarily have a tool kit to know how to handle that so I think the book will support families with what to do and in a non-threatening way, giving them an opportunity to talk to their child about their emotions without being very directed and specific about them. A quiet way in.”
-Senco Lyneham Primary
“I thought it really opened up the children’s imagination and children that I haven’t actually heard speak that much until today that were giving lots of lovely ideas and really delving deep and came up with some brilliant ideas. We can use the book in PSHE and go into more depth for each thing, get them to draw some picture and perhaps get them to write descriptions for each page and then perhaps put it together for a story.”
-St Mary’s Junior School
“It was fantastic, the children were really engaged and calm. The book is amazing and the way you describe it is great. The children really understood what it was there to help them with. Even the young ones can develop as they get older and potentially use it for life. It’s equipping them to deal with things that might be difficult emotionally to deal with.”
-Princeville Primary
“They loved it. It was lovely how you broke down each section, so you turned the page read a bit and got the kids to close their eyes. It really helped them to build their confidence. Every child participated which was lovely as there are a few children who don’t like to speak up.”
-Grange Valley Primary
“I thought the workshop was absolutely wonderful. All the mindfulness agenda that we’re bringing into the school fits in perfectly. The way Jacqui got the children to think about their garden and what’s in the garden and the characters that they were coming out with and the super powers they were coming out with was absolutely amazing, absolutely fabulous.”
-Year 4 teacher Horton Grange Primary, England UK
“The workshop was absolutely fantastic. The children were just so engaged, listening to you and looking at the pictures. I myself have bought a book because I think it’s a lovely opportunity to share with the children in my class. In particular I have a boy in my class with Autism and just watching him interact with you and engage with the story and the visual images, I think it will really help him. He suffers with anxiety so it’s a perfect way for him to deal with that. He was putting his hand up and joining in which was lovely to see as he doesn’t normally do that.
Nowadays there’s so much more heightened awareness about mindfulness and the importance of it and this is a lovely way to approach it.”
-Year 3 Teacher Peasedown St John’s Primary, UK
“I thought the workshop was absolutely wonderful. All the mindfulness agenda that we’re bringing into the school fits in perfectly. The way you get the children to think about their garden and what’s in the garden and the characters that they were coming out with and the super powers they were coming out with was absolutely amazing, absolutely fabulous. I think it really helped the children to zone into having a calm state of mind whenever they need to. I think it will work really well with our children; we’ve got some behavioural issues so it will work well for that.
It just sets the tone beautifully for the Mindfulness agenda that we’re bringing into the school and this was a great start for the children to get into it.”
- Year 4 teacher Horton Grange Primary
“The imagination of the children during the workshop was incredible, and I found it a really relaxing experience. The thing I liked especially was the way that we can bring it into the curriculum and the classroom, so we’re going to do some writing in English where we can actually explore our gardens more just to instil that whole mindfulness experience so that they’ve got a definite picture of it and a place they can visit.”
- Year 3 teacher from Derry Hill Primary,
“I can’t thank you enough for the help and insight that you have given me with my daughter. The time spent with you has helped me to understand her better and deal with her differently. Also knowing that I am not the only parent having such issues with their child has also been reasurring. Today I can talk and communicate with her much better and hope to try and better this too. I always wished to have a close relationship with Raima, wanted her to see me as her friend. But I knew that I wasn’t behaving like one. I was being a very stern mom. I still am to some extent but I have definitely become conscious of my attitude with her and control myself. This whole journey for me has been about bringing changes in myself as a person and not just as Raima’s mom.
Thank you so much Jacqui for everything and all the different and interesting ways that you taught both me and Raima to get closer to each other and solve her issues.”
-Kiran
“My daughter Rose and I went to Jacqui for 6 sessions to work through some sleep and confidence issues my daughter was having.
We began with our gardens and the analysts Jacqui did was both detailed and insightful. It was pertinent to our home situation and I felt I could understand Roses emotional state more clearly. We did a coloring exercise at home and again the analysis of the patterns we produced proved beneficial to our situation.
Jacqui worked gently with Rose to address her sleep issues using a variety of techniques, the flower cards, the flower essences, reward chart, exploring her fears further through drawing, and her elements… We had a successful run of sleep through nights and Rose is far better at staying in her own bed now and getting herself back to sleep. We did meditations together and also the ear candling which brought us closer to each other. I will continue the meditations at home.
We ended our sessions with another drawing of our gardens which again gave an interesting analysis which showed how much we had moved forward.
Rose is a much more confident child who is better able to express her feelings and is beginning to have some techniques she can use herself.
We really did benefit from our sessions and will definitely continue our therapy work with Jacqui in the future. Jacqui was professional, caring and understanding during the process. She related well to Rose and was able to build a relationship with her where Rose could be by herself with Jackie to do some of the work and didn’t even need me with her.
As for myself I thoroughly enjoyed my sessions and have learnt so much to help me in my own personal journey.”
- Jane and Rose
“The outcomes for the Magical Gardens were different each week and each week they got just a little bit more. The last session you could see the culmination of it all when you brought the family in and you could see that they’ve got the reflectiveness of who they’re taking into the garden and why. For example, there was one little girl who wanted to bring her mum into the garden because she didn’t want her to feel lonely and felt the garden would help to make her mum happy and another child took her neighbour into her garden because she said her neighbour was so kind to her family and she wanted to do something kind for her in return. This demonstrated that they have been using what you’ve been teaching them about how to use the garden and then apply it. They have started applying it to their own lives and ways of thinking.
The way it’s been done over the 6 weeks has been great because there’s that repetition of what they’ve previously learnt with the recap which then builds up to the new learning of the day and I think they have needed that consolidation each week. Moving forward we can use the technique and what has been embedded, especially during their transition to year 3.
Using the technique together with the book on a 1-1 will be helpful, particularly for a child who doesn’t want to engage in a conversation about how they are feeling. It would help to give an idea of how the child is feeling and give them an opportunity to open up. As school Senco I can see the benefits of this for children that are struggling.
What I’ve noticed with this group of year two is that you have got a lot of children who are what I’d call the least confident children who are fully willing to participate in what you are doing with them and sharing their ideas with no problem whereas in a classroom setting they’d be quiet and shrinking in their chairs to avoid answering a question. In your session they felt comfortable and safe enough, knowing that whatever they said was valid and came from their own personal experience.
I’ve noticed a different side to some of the children through the sessions and in particular for the children that can seem quite confident and cocky, I’ve seen that underneath they’re actually quite vulnerable. You can definitely see evidence of that through the 6 weeks.
We’re going to keep going with their journals that they started at the beginning of the 6 weeks and encourage them to draw the things they put into their gardens.
It’s been lovely to see them have an opportunity to use their creativity. We’re in an inner-city school and the children don’t all have the experiences outside of school to bring. They’ve not all been to the beach or forests etc. so it’s been nice to see them have the ability to make up the imagery in their minds and realise they can create their own magical world.
The children talk about their Magical Gardens and get very excited for the Tuesday afternoon session.”
- Sarah Sharman, School Senco