Yes! All in-person teacher training courses resumed at the start of September 2020 and our students are back in the studio learning to teach yoga. We have adopted new health and safety measures for our students and teachers’ well-being. These have allowed us to reopen our doors in a safe way, and we are constantly reviewing these measures to ensure they are current. As vocational training school, we are authorised to remain open and to deliver in-person courses, even during 'full' lockdowns (tier 4).

After seeking guidance from the government and professional training schools, we are pleased to confirm that YogaLondon remains open during lockdown.

As a vocational teacher training school operating in covid-safe venues, we continue to deliver our professional training in person. This includes our 200-hour, 500-hour and Pregnancy Teacher Training courses.

In addition, our new Live Stream feature is now available. This new learning option enables our students to participate remotely whenever necessary, ensuring they have full control over their training environment.

We are following best practices and government guidelines as they publish them. The current health and safety measures we have adopted include:

• Reduced maximum class size to ensure there is adequate spacing between yoga mats;
• Increased access to hand sanitation within the studios;
• Changes to the school syllabus, including no hands-on adjustments or other touching;
• No use of shared studio mats, blocks, blankets, straps, and any other communal equipment;
• No sharing of personal mats, blocks, blankets, straps, and any other personal equipment;
• Reduced access to communal facilities such as lockers, changing rooms, and showers in studios that have them;
• The use of face-masks in common areas but not during classes;
• A clear policy encouraging anyone feeling unwell to stay home and self-isolate. Our flexible course transfer policy will still apply during this transitional period.

If you have any Covid-19 symptoms, you should stay at home to protect other students and teachers. The following options are open to you:

• Follow the class(es) on Live Stream, if you’re feeling well enough to do so. This would ensure you don’t fall behind, and your Course Leader will be able to answer any physical questions you may have when you’re next in the classroom.
• Rebook your class(es) for a later date, by using our deferral system. You have 1 year to rebook yourself into any missed classes, free-of-charge.

We have set up a Live Stream option for students who are unable to attend classes in-person. The aim of Live Stream is to enable students who are shielding, self-isolating or otherwise unable to attend in-person classes due to the pandemic to continue their studies uninterrupted. While there are some limitations on which classes can be completed in this way (see Limitations on Live Stream Access below), the aim is to minimise disruption to student’s learning and to give our students control over their learning environment.

As a school we firmly believe that in-person training is best. However we also trust our student’s judgement and their ability to discern whether in-person or online learning is best for them. We’re rolling out Live Stream options for most of our classes to enable this, but due to the physical nature of yoga teacher training, it is not possible to complete 100% of a 200-hour training via Live Stream classes. Specific classes have been designated in-person only and will not be available for Live Stream. Students will instead be able to rebook these classes for a later date, free of charge.

YogaLondon is a vocational training school operating in covid-secure venues, which means that we will remain open regardless of the tier level London is in.

However, should you not feel comfortable traveling to London, the Live Stream or Deferral options will be available to you.

We currently have contingency plans for all our courses, to ensure that training would remain unaffected even in the case of a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ during which our venues would be required to close. Simply put, the syllabus would be adjusted to pull forward online-friendly modules, and delay elements which require in-person attendance. A circuit breaker lockdown would have minimal impact on our courses.

In line with guidance from the Government, schools, universities, and generally places of education can remain open.

We will of course continue to monitor the situation. Should government advice change at a later date, we have the technology and expertise in place to move part of the syllabus online, to minimise disruption and delays to your training.

As examples, when the first lockdown took place in March we transitioned 150 students to online learning within two weeks; and prioritised current students once in-person training was allowed again. By the end of the summer, our ‘backlog’ of students had happily and safely graduated. During the latest lockdown, our professional courses and students carried on as normal, experiencing very little to no disruption to their training altogether.