Eight-year-old Laa-iqah Fernandez is at school at 6am sharp when it's her turn to pose like a butterfly and sometimes a tree as part of morning yoga lessons.
At a time when principals are battling to cope with the battlegrounds that their schools have become, yoga, dance, meditation and self-esteem games appear to be the answer to restoring calm amid the violence, brawls, bullying and incidence of corporal punishment.
The subject of mindfulness, which involves focusing on emotions in the moment, is becoming common practice in US schools. In the UK a major government study is under way at schools to determine which relaxation techniques will work best.
In SA mindfulness has not been formally introduced as part of the curriculum.
But Laa-iqah, a grade 2 Hout Bay pupil, is among thousands of children in SA who are being taught how to remain calm and regulate their emotions through mindfulness classes run at schools mainly in the Western Cape. After-school private classes are taught to youngsters in other provinces.
Although reports of school violence - perpetrated by pupils and sometimes teachers - are growing, there are no recent statistics available.
In 2012, a study of about 13,000 pupils by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention found that 15.3% of children at primary and secondary schools had experienced some form of violence at school.
There have been reports of pupils attacking other pupils, and also attacking teachers.
The Sunday Times reported last year that 1,473 pupils in Gauteng and Limpopo had been involved in serious misconduct. This included using and dealing in drugs, bullying fellow pupils, assaulting teachers and pupils, theft and carrying dangerous weapons.
Carol Surya, a psychologist and co-founder of the Wellbeing in Schools and Education programme, is helping reduce aggressive behaviour at schools. She uses tools like yoga, dance movements, meditation and self-esteem games.
She is working at three schools in areas ridden with gang violence and other crimes. These include the Mitchells Plain, Bonteheuwel and Hout Bay suburbs of Cape Town.
FINDING INNER PEACE
"In SA, children are experiencing high levels of stress, especially in previously disadvantaged areas, where even getting to school can be stressful because of gangsterism and community violence," she explained.
"When children are stressed, and where there is a lot of aggression in the classroom, their brains cannot learn and take in information.
"With mindfulness practice, a child is able to think before they do, because they are coming from a calmer state. Over time, children will become less violent and reactive," said Surya.
Bramble Way Primary School, in gang-ridden Bonteheuwel on the Cape Flats, is an example of how mindfulness lessons can work. The lessons include yoga and dance assemblies.
The school is seeing a "new-found" calmness among problem pupils and a general change in attitude towards their teachers and other children, according to teachers.
Thandi Aranes, a grade 6 teacher at Bramble Way, said: "In a community where these children are exposed to violence and gang fighting on a daily basis, this change in their approach to dealing with problems at school level is nothing less than amazing."
There are about 150 to 200 pupils who are learning to be mindful at the school.
"The programme has been instrumental in the transformation of our learners' behaviour and discipline at Bramble Way Primary.
"We began to see a change in the learners' discipline and behaviour, as well as the way they interacted with one another," said Aranes.
Mareleai Bressick, Laa-iqah's grandmother, said she had seen a marked improvement in the child's concentration.
"She is so excited to go to school at 6am to do her yoga class. It brings her energy levels down and she is calm for class."
Nicola Fisher, of Mindful Kids in KwaZulu-Natal, wants mindfulness to be introduced formally into classrooms as opposed to being an extracurricular activity, as it is now.
"In schools where mindfulness has been implemented overseas, studies have shown that 90% of children improved their ability to get along with other children. In addition, visits to the principal's office, incidents of bullying, and absenteeism, among both pupils and teachers decreased."..