Tag: CPD

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British Wheel of Yoga Diploma course certificates

Our British Wheel of Yoga Diploma Course Certificates arrived earlier this year. We finished the training last year but the certificates take a little while to be issued. But they are certainly worth waiting for!

British Wheel of Yoga Diploma certificates
Paul & Steve modelling their Diploma certificates!

The British Wheel of Yoga Diploma in teaching yoga is a Level 4 diploma. Learning hours on the course are a minimum of 500 hours. It comprises eight units as follows;

  1. Applied Anatomy and Physiology and the Teaching of Asana
  2. Yoga Breathing Practices and Relaxation
  3. Planning for Teaching and the Responsibilities of a Yoga Teacher
  4. Planning and Delivering a Yoga Course
  5. Teaching Asana: Observation, Adjustment and Protection of Vulnerable Areas of the Body
  6. Hatha Yoga and Pranayama
  7. The Teaching and Philosophy of Meditation
  8. Progression in Yoga

As a result of the above units you get a fantastic grounding in all things yoga. The British Wheel of Yoga qualifications actually prepare you to teach yoga.

OFQUAL regulated

OFQUAL regulated qualification

In the corner of our British Wheel of Yoga Diploma certificates is the OFQUAL logo. OFQUAL is the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. (Here is their website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofqual ) This means that the British Wheel of Yoga course must meet certain regulatory framework requirements. It also means that every course has a verifier who check the standard of the training and the written work.

The world of Yoga teacher training is unregulated and as such the quality of trainings vary massively. This varies from short courses below 200 hours and even some correspondence courses. The industry standard is 200 hours which is often crammed into a month long period via a trip to an exotic location. As a former learning and development professional I know that cramming intense learning into such a short period of time is not good practice. Can you really learn a profession in one month? With the British Wheel of Yoga you are getting an OFQUAL regulated 500 hour training course. This really is a reassuring mark of quality.

When searching out Yoga Teacher training courses, you are preparing to make a significant financial investment in your training. As a result make sure you do some due diligence to avoid being disappointed. The British Wheel of Yoga offer an unrivalled quality of teacher training as one would expect of the Governing Body for Yoga in the UK. You can check out their website here: https://www.bwy.org.uk/

We wrote a previous blog about our journey on the British Wheel of Yoga Diploma which you can find here: https://yogasmiths.org/2019/09/23/the-british-wheel-of-yoga-diploma-journey/

British Wheel of Yoga Diploma certificates
Paul and Steve with their British Wheel of Yoga Diploma certificates
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The Science of Teaching Yoga for Athletes training completed!

Paul recently completed his 40 hour Yoga Teacher Training course in The Science of Teaching Yoga for Athletes. He luckily won this training course in a competition run by the Institute of Yoga Sports Science website https://www.yogasportscience.com/ The Institute of Yoga Sports Science are listed as a recognised centre by The British Wheel of Yoga. This recognises that they show excellence in their specialist field of yoga.

It is an interesting course which focusses on looking at specific sports and the most common movement patterns involved. As a result, intelligent yoga interventions can be formulated to suit particular sporting populations. Paul chose swimming as he used to be in a swimming team in his teens. He has always maintained this sporting hobby. Practicing the sport specific yoga alongside having some improver swimming lessons has resulted in him improving his front crawl stroke.

The Science of Teaching Yoga for Athletes
Paul with his Science of Teaching Yoga to Athletes certificate from The Institute of Yoga Sports Science

Further training

This year we are furthering our training in the area of Sports Yoga. We have already trained with Sarah Ramsden, the yoga teacher who worked at Manchester United and Manchester City football club for many year. Completing The Body Aligned training with her was a fantastic CPD course. We enjoyed it very much and consequently have decided to do the next level of training with her called Sports Yoga -The Body Athletic – teaching yoga to athletes and in sport. As part of this training we will both be working with a sports person or athlete over the summer and are looking forward to this.

We love undertaking additional training and continuing our professional development. In doing so we can provide our yoga students with the best experience possible and further our own knowledge.

You can find out details of all the training we have undertaken here; https://pauls93.sg-host.com/about/

Details of how we have been consistently listed on the Three Best Rated website for Best Yoga Class in Wirral since we started our business in 2016 can be found here https://pauls93.sg-host.com/2020/01/13/best-yoga-class-in-wirral/

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BWY Foundation Course Tutor Training in Grantham

As many of you know we spent Tuesday – Friday last week in Grantham on the (British Wheel of Yoga) BWY foundation course tutor training course led by Belinda Emberson with Dawn Wesselby.

The BWY Foundation Course 1 is a wonderful personal development course for those who want to delve a little deeper into the rich tradition of yoga. It also will give a solid foundation in yoga for those who wish to become yoga teachers.

BWY Foundation Course Tutor Training
Paul & Steve with Belinda Emberson!

There were long days of training involved (9am-7pm) and we learnt a lot from the tutors and also from our peers on the course. It was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and practice how we would deliver the BWY Foundation Course 1.

Practical Sessions

There were lots of useful practical sessions around planning the course and all the associated paperwork involved. In addition we shared and discussed our favourite yoga texts.

It was an assessed course and I am pleased to say that both of us passed. We will shortly gain the status of being BWY Foundation Course Tutors which is the next rung on the ladder in our yoga journey. Paul had the nerve wrecking slot of being the first to do his presentation on the first day and Steve was second a little later in the day.

On one of the days we were also treated to a fantastic yoga asana session from the lead tutor Belinda. Belinda is a BWY Diploma Course Tutor and also the BWY Foundation Course Officer. It is a privilege to train with such experienced and knowledgable tutors.

Networking with BWY Teachers

It was also great to meet and network with other BWY teachers from across the country and to see some familiar faces that we had met before.

BWY Foundation Course Tutor Training group

The BWY Foundation Course Tutor Training was a great learning experience.  We will be organising our first BWY Foundation Course 1 very soon and look forward to sharing the details with you.

You can check out further details of all the training we have undertaken to date here About

Links to the tutors

You can find more on Belinda and Dawn at their websites;

https://yogaingravesend.co.uk/

https://www.newdawnyoga.co.uk/

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The British Wheel of Yoga Diploma journey

This weekend marked the last day of our British Wheel of Yoga diploma course up in Troon in Scotland with Carol Price. It also marked 3 years since we first met our wonderful tutor Carol Price and began training with her.

A serious end of course pitcure
Slightly less serious exuberance

Our first Yoga Teacher Training qualification

Our first teacher training course which we started in February 2016 with Yoga Alliance as the awarding body left us feeling unprepared to teach yoga. I am sure that there are some very good courses out there with Yoga Alliance as the awarding body. In fact I have been on some myself, however our first Yoga teacher training course certainly wasn’t one of them.

British Wheel of Yoga Certificate in Teaching Yoga

Feeling quite despondent, we were recommended to look at the British Wheel of Yoga. We found a certificate course running in Salford with Paul Fox (then BWY chair) and Carol Price. I had a chat with Paul and we decided that we would embark on another teacher training course that would actually teach us to teach yoga! The British Wheel of Yoga Level 4 Certificate course has BWY Qualifications as its awarding body which is regulated by OFQUAL. This was more like it! A qualification that we could be proud of. There was a lot of hard work, learning and academic essays to complete. We were also assessed teaching a real 90 minute class with real students. The final day of the course was very emotional and we felt very proud of our certificate. This was a world apart from our previous experience!

British Wheel of Yoga Diploma in Teaching Yoga

We then became aware that Carol Price had a British Wheel of Yoga diploma course which was part way through. It was possible we could tag on to the course and upgrade our qualification to the highest level of OFQUAL regulated Yoga Teacher Training available, the BWY Level 4 Diploma. We gave this serious consideration. The course was running in Troon in Scotland and obviously entailed a further significant financial and time investment. Both of us wanted to continue our learning with Carol and felt it was absolutely the right thing to do.

The British Wheel of Yoga diploma top up has been a fantastic experience. It covers 3 modules on Hatha Yoga & Pranayama, the teaching & philosophy of meditation and progression in yoga.

On the course we dived deep into the ancient texts and looked at how we could make them relevant for our classes and create rich layered lessons. The formal essay writing was the part that I found particularly enjoyable. It really encouraged me to read around the topics and to draw together references and importantly allowed me to work out my own opinions. There was also a further assessment of us teaching one of our real weekly 90 minute classes, and those who come to our classes may remember Carol sitting in the corner! Despite having been teaching for 3 years at the point of being assessed it was still a very nerve wrecking experience. I felt supported and buoyed by the lovely yoga students who attend our class.

Carol Price – Celtic Yoga

Let me just say a few words about Carol Price our Diploma Course Tutor. Carol has been a wonderful guide to us on our diploma course. She never fails to come up with either a wonderful pearl of wisdom, a lovely new mobilisation exercise or an intelligent imaginative sequence. Carol always provided constructive and helpful feedback. One of her catch phrases being “what could make you even better would be….”. She has been an extremely important teacher to us. We can’t thank her enough, we will always affectionately refer to her as our Yoga Mama!

British Wheel of Yoga Diploma Yogasmiths
Yoga Mama Carol Price with her two boys!

Here is a link to Carol’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Celtic-Yoga-264932390858722/

Continuous Professional Development

As an already qualified yoga teacher (at least twice over) when embarking on the Diploma top up I was keen to get as much out of it as possible. When deciding to do further training / CPD I want to gain extra knowledge that is going to make me a better teacher. This is certainly what we got in bucket loads from the diploma course with Carol. It has also been a greatly enriching personal journey studying in depth the ancient yogic texts and pulling together formal assignments.

We are both very proud to be British Wheel of Yoga teachers. With an OFQUAL regulated awarding body, you know that you are going to get excellent quality training and rigorous assessment. It may feel like a lot of hard work as you progress through the BWY training but this is exactly why it is worth it. You come out the other end of the training prepared and ready to teach yoga to all ability classes. The staged approach to teaching that the BWY train you in is all inclusive. We have in our classes students who are retired yoga teachers and others who are completely new to yoga. Both are able to practice side by side.

Choose Wisely

There are so many different yoga teacher training courses out there, I even saw one that was a correspondence course! Choose wisely. How long does it really take to learn a profession such as teaching yoga? In an unregulated arena go for regulated courses. Do your homework. Speak to previous trainees. Spend your money and time wisely and you won’t regret it.

Check out our bio’s for further details of all the training we have undertaken: https://yogasmiths.org/about/

British Wheel of Yoga Diploma Yogasmiths
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Well Being Yoga Fest BWY Congress 2018 23rd-25th March 2018

We had a great time at this years British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) Yoga Fest at Warwick University. We thought we would report back on the weekend to share it with you all.

We arrived at Warwick Uni in the afternoon, checked in to our accommodation and went and picked up our session tickets and welcome packs.

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My first session was with a lovely Italian Yoga Teacher called Elena which was called “Lost in Translation: Intelligent and functional sequencing.” This was a great session with lots of wonderful detailed instruction moving through some simple yet very strengthening movements.

After a delicious lunch was one of the headline sessions of the weekend, a talk by Dr Timothy McCall on the Holistic Science of Yoga Therapy. Dr McCall is an American MD and explained his approach to yoga therapy. He has published a book compiling all of the papers and evidence on the efficacy of yoga for a range of different ailments. To date I think he has a list of 101 conditions that yoga has been proven to help by scientific studies. Here is a link to the list off his website;

101 Health Conditions Helped By Yoga

And here is a link to his website too;

Dr McCall’s website

This talk was then followed by a presentation on the work carried out with the NHS. This was delivered by The Minded Institute’s Heather Mason and was titled Yoga in the NHS. Heather detailed the 10 week NHS pilot scheme that has been run in London and the very positive initial findings from this study. These results will be written up and a paper published in the future. Hopefully this will roll out nationwide! Heather is a director of the Yoga in Health Care Alliance which is a social enterprise, here is a link to their website;

Yoga in Health Care Alliance

On Saturday our first session was with our yoga mamma Carol Price! We did our British Wheel of Yoga training with Carol Price and Paul Fox in Salford and are good friends with both of them. We always call Carol our Yoga Mamma! The session was a beautiful flowing sequence focusing on Dividing the Yogic Body. There is always something to learn from great teachers such as Carol and we came away with plenty of ideas for our classes!

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The next session we attended was a very interesting and informative session with Jo Creaser about Social Prescribing / working in a deprived area of Norfolk. This was an informal conversational session and it was great to learn how Jo had brought yoga to deprived areas in Norfolk and the continuing good work she is doing with people of all ages. Here is a link to Jo’s website;

The Yoga Nook

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Another headline session followed delivered by the American author Elliot Goldberg who wrote the fantastic book The Path of Modern Yoga. Elliot talked about some of the key players in the field of yoga and the development of traditional yoga into the modern yoga class we know and love. Elliot’s book is a wonderful read and busts a lot of myths about yoga and its origins!

The British Wheel of Yoga AGM followed with a presentation on all the hard work and progress made by the NEC over the last year. It made us feel very proud to be members of the BWY.

The next session for me was an Ashtanga Yoga workshop with Scott Johnson and Andy Gill. I was so glad that they were here again after attending their great sessions last year. They are such intelligent and intuitive teachers and their approach to Ashtanga is very inspiring. With the help of my good friend Sharlene I was able to fold forwards into the most comfortable and deepest version of Paschimottanasana that I had ever done!

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In the evening there was a very entertaining lesson in Argentine Tango! This fitted in perfectly to the Yoga Fest, the mindful movement of the body to the music really resonated with the yoga practitioners and teachers present. I had the pleasure of dancing with two lovely people, Nina (pictured below) and a Yoga Teacher from Southport called Pam. Next stop Strictly Come Dancing!

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After the clocks turning forward an hour overnight the 6am Ashtanga Yoga class was tough to get up for but I managed it. In reality it was 5am to my body clock! The class was led by Scott Johnson and Andy Gill and was a lovely way to start the morning. Here is a link to their websites;

Scott Johnson Still Point Yoga London

Andy Gill

We had a little break then in the sunshine and had some fun being photographed!

After a final session on Wellbeing and Yoga Therapy and we then attended the closing of the weekend with a talk from The Indian High Commissioner and Amarjeet Bhama from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Traditional Indian Science. The UK is at the forefront of trying to integrate yoga into health care and this is an emerging area to look  out for!

A leisurely trip home along the A-roads through Cheshire and the BWY YogaFest was over for another year. It goes much too quickly!

BWY Yogafest is open to all BWY members both yoga student and yoga teacher members. To join the BWY follow the link below;

Join BWY

All photographs are either my own or Tori Williams.

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