British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) Reveals Winner of the Wilfred Clark Bursary

BWY is delighted to award a Wilfred Clark Bursary to Natasha Harvey from Cardiff in Wales, to finance further training and support her work for children with additional needs in nursery settings, schools and the NHS Wellbeing hub in South Wales.

Natasha is a long-standing BWY member who has dedicated the past 17 years to teaching children’s yoga. She now brings the wellbeing benefits of yoga to Early Years children (0-4 years) in nurseries throughout South Wales, through her work with the Flying Start Project.

Flying Start is a successful Welsh Government initiative providing much-needed services to both children and families through early years to support healthy development and wellbeing.

The bursary award will help Natasha to pursue specialised training in Special Education Needs (SEN) Yoga.

She said: “There are many emotional and health challenges that children coping with adversity face, and providing yoga supports the wellbeing, self-regulation and emotional resilience of both the children and staff in nurseries and classrooms. The award will enable me to deepen my knowledge and better cater to the diverse needs of children.”

Natasha received her certificate of achievement and £500 towards her training at the BWY Heart of Yoga Awards on Thursday 9 May in London.

‘Helping disadvantaged families is important work,’ said Di O’Reilly, BWY Chair. ‘Our bursary programme is designed to bring yoga to people who can’t access yoga through traditional means. Natasha is doing amazing work helping children in their formative years have a better future. We look forward to developing an Early Years course module with Natasha in the future.”

The bursary was founded in 1981 in memory of Wilfred Clark, the founder of the British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) to support BWY teachers wanting to extend their training to teach people with additional needs.