Meet the teacher turned business owner offering yoga to young people between two and 18 across Northampton
Meet the primary school teacher turned business owner offering yoga and mindfulness for young people aged two to 18 across Northampton.
The Little Yoga Company was launched by Sarah Willis in September 2024, with the aim of helping children connect to their bodies and with their peers through yoga.
Sarah’s aim is to help raise balanced, emotionally stable and healthy children into the world, having worked as a primary school teacher for 18 years before launching her business.
The founder does not believe the education system fully equips children to process the modern world, complex emotions and how to deal with them, which she wanted to tackle with The Little Yoga Company.
Sarah has practiced yoga for the past 15 years ago and trained in mindfulness and child yoga over the past two years – before she left her former career as a teacher.
The child and teen yoga sessions are designed to help build resilience, emotional intelligence and understand how to process emotions.
Sarah hopes children will learn that everyone is “different, unique and magical in their own way”, and that yoga can help them feel happy and strong with skills to last a lifetime.
The offering also includes one-to-ones with young people, and sessions with mums and their children.
Sarah spoke of yoga’s “huge range of benefits” including regulating emotions and understanding where your body might be holding tension – and her attendees know they can express how they feel with no judgement.
“In four to eight weeks, you can see children start to slip into the silence and stillness easier,” said Sarah. “Their favourite part is relaxation as it’s the quiet time they never get.”
Sarah currently hosts a weekly session at Bright Collective in Abington, as well as monthly teen retreats from Hardingstone Village Hall, private sessions and after school clubs.
One parent expressed their gratitude to Sarah for helping their son with his anxiety, and they were “over the moon” with how well he responded to the yoga sessions and how he utilises the skills at home.
Sarah hopes to continue to encourage bonding and connecting on a deeper level with mother and daughter yoga sessions. As she has a daughter herself, Sarah knows it can be a tricky but beautiful relationship to manage.
The founder also hopes to build on her teen retreats and her community of young people who can help, support and lift each other up when they need it.