A New School Term: When the Novelty Wears Off

Helping Children, Teens and Us Cope

Calm tools for the new school term – Anchor Kit Bonus (see below)

Up here in Scotland, the children have been back to school for a few weeks. In England and Wales they went back at the start of September; Northern Ireland is just getting going. Different start dates, same pattern — and it’s a pattern I’ve watched repeat every single autumn for more than twenty years.

The first stretch of any new term runs on adrenaline and novelty, and it looks like everything is going well.

Then the novelty wears off. The new shoes scuff, the timetable stops being interesting, homework starts, the friendship groups settle into their new shapes.

At this point a child’s nervous system finally gets a quiet moment to register everything it has been coping with since day one.

That’s when it shows up. The tummy aches. The 4pm meltdowns. The “I feel sick” on a Tuesday morning. The teenager who has stopped talking or is in a permanent bad mood.

In the classroom, it’s when the fidgeting starts, the low-level disruption creeps in, and the child who seemed absolutely fine in the first week suddenly can’t settle with anything.

This isn’t a sign that something has gone wrong.

It’s a sign that a nervous system is looking for a way to get back into balance, but it needs help. And it’s exactly the moment when simple mindful tools can make all the difference – for you and for them.

I’ve listed below a few of the tools I come back to again and again. For younger children, for teens, for the adults at home, and for the adults in the classroom — who, let’s be honest, are hitting their own version of this too.

For younger children: imagination and breath

Younger children rarely say “I feel anxious.” They say their tummy hurts. They cry over a sock. They can’t get to sleep. What helps most is giving them an anchor they can reach for without needing an adult to talk them through it.  Below are 3 suggestions you might like to try to help everyone bring in some calm.

• Blowing out the candle. Ask them to imagine their thumb is a candle. As they breathe out slowly, they blow out the flame. Simple, playful, and it lengthens the out-breath – known to help take the nervous system out of ‘fight/flight’.
• The feelings thermometer. Adults consistently underestimate how much it helps a child simply to name what they’re feeling. Draw a thermometer together and let them point to how worried they feel right now. You’re not fixing anything at this stage just giving them the language. When children can identify, they get confused, and confusion links to fear and anger.  Clear the confusion.
• The bedtime colour bubble. If they can’t sleep, invite them to imagine their favourite colour surrounding them like a bubble, filling them with whatever they need — words like calm, safety, warmth, courage. It moves their attention out of the worry loop and into something they can control.

For teens: mindfulness that isn’t naff

Teens tend to avoid doing things the adults think are a good idea.  So the tools have to fit the world they are in (not ours).  While you suggest these ideas don’t be surprised if they reject them. It’s part of Teens’ DNA.  But even if they do this, you have planted a seed of an idea in their awareness.  Then it’s their choice.

• Counting the out-breath. Focus on the exhale, silently counting 1… 2… 3… as they breathe out. Nobody in the school corridor can tell they’re doing it. It moved the nervous system towards “rest and digest” — useful before a test, in a crowded corridor, or hanging around people they don’t know/like.
• Mindful phone use. Their phone isn’t going anywhere, so let’s use it. Suggest that every notification becomes a cue for one slow breath out before they look. One pause, many times a day, adds up.
• Posture as a shortcut. Ask them to notice where their feet and hands are and change their position to get more comfort. It gets them out of their head and into their body without ever using the word “meditation” and gives their mind a moment of respite from worrying thoughts.

For parents and carers: share your calm

By this point in the term the novelty has worn off for us too. The lunchboxes are relentless, the permission slips are multiplying, and the morning run has lost whatever charm it briefly had.

Children read our nervous systems long before they hear our words. If we’re wound up, they clock it — and often hand it straight back to us pre and post school.

• Model it, briefly. You don’t need twenty minutes on a cushion. Take three ‘locked in’ breaths while the kettle boils, while brushing your teeth, or standing at the school gates. Those small pauses change how you show up.
• Reset in nature. Walking under trees, kicking a ball, skimming stones — stress levels drop just by being in nature. It isn’t formal meditation, but movement and nature are deeply regulating for the nervous system, and they support a child who struggles to sit still.
• Let the day out at home. Put on music and shake the day off together, then stop and notice the breath, the heartbeat, the settling. Two minutes. It gives them somewhere to put the day — and gives you somewhere to put yours.

For educators: you need this too

The first week runs on fresh displays, new classes and good intentions. A few weeks in, the marking has stacked up, the behaviour that was politely dormant in week one has arrived, and everyone is tired.

Whenever a teacher tells me they’d love to do this but there simply isn’t time, I know exactly what they mean. So here’s what actually works inside a real school day.

• Start with your own energy. The first question I ask anyone who wants to teach children meditation is: do you practise yourself? Not to be difficult — but because a class picks up the state of the adult in the room far faster than it picks up the instructions. A few minutes of your own mindful breathing does more for classroom atmosphere than any lesson plan.  Don’t make another thing for your to do list – just add it in when you are doing regular tasks in the school day.
• Keep it genuinely short. We assume meditation has to be long to benefit us but it doesn’t. Sixty seconds of moving your attention through the 5 senses gives your mind, body and emotions a chance to come back into step with each other.  Try it now.
• Use the fists. If a class won’t settle enough to “just breathe,” ask them to clench their hands into fists on the in-breath and let them go on the out-breath. Small movement, body awareness and breath, all at once — and it barely interrupts a lesson.

A final word…

… on the “should meditation be compulsory in schools?” question that comes round every September: I’d say no — and I’ve campaigned for this for two decades. The moment it’s mandated, it becomes another box on an already overloaded checklist, delivered without conviction, in one fixed style that won’t suit every child.

You can compel a child to sit still with their eyes closed.

But that isn’t meditation. It’s sitting still with your eyes closed — and it’s the fastest way to put a young person off for life.

So instead just invite, demonstrate, offer a toolkit and let young people choose. That’s what makes it stick.

Anchor Kit Bonus available for a limited time

Whichever seat you’re in this term — child, teen, parent or teacher — the fastest way through a wobble is an anchor you don’t have to think hard to find. That’s why I’ve put together this Anchor Kit — a bonus resource for this term.

How to get your Mindful Anchor Kit

It’s yours free when you purchase any one of these Connected Kids resources before 25 September 2026.

For Educators → For Parents/carers→ For Grandparents→

Since 2003, the Connected Kids © Method has trained adults worldwide to teach children and teens mindfulness and meditation. You can also find a qualified Connected Kids Tutor near you.