Devika Nair
PE & Yoga · RYT-500 · NIS Athletics · 15 years

Every child deserves to feel at home in their own body.

15 years teaching Physical Education and Yoga to Grades 1–12. My programme has two promises: nobody hides in the back row of PE, and nobody graduates without knowing how to calm their own nervous system. Sport for the confident; movement for everyone.

15Years moving
3.8kBodies befriended
47District medals
6:00AM · where I'll be
01 · Ground

Strong bodies. Quiet minds.

I was a state-level 400m runner whose career ended, as many do, on an orthopaedist's table at nineteen. Yoga rebuilt my knee; teaching rebuilt everything else. What I carried out of that year was the conviction that movement is not a talent contest — it is a birthright, and school is where children either claim it or lose it.

Fifteen years on, my programme runs both engines at once: an athletics and games stream that has taken 47 district medals and sent three students to state camps, and a whole-school yoga practice — including the three-minute assembly pranayama that 900 students now do without being asked. The shy-kid metric is my favourite: the number of children who stop hiding in the back row by October. It is currently 100%.

If your school wants a PE department where the trophy cabinet and the quiet mats both matter — where sport is coached seriously and no child dreads Tuesdays — I'm easy to find. Track, 6 AM.

And yes, the breathing exercise works on stressed parents at PTMs. I've tested it.

— Devika Nair, last one off the field

A school day, embodied

The rhythm I run
06:00Athletics squad — track before the heat
08:15Assembly pranayama — 900 students, 3 minutes
10:30Gr 4 PE — games where nobody gets 'out'
14:00Gr 12 yoga — exam-season nervous systems
16:30Football, kho-kho, and one shy child learning to want the ball
02 · The practice

On the mat, on the field

Fifteen years across yoga, athletics and team sport — every body included.

Yoga & pranayama

RYT-500 · whole-school practice, exam-season programmes
Signature

Athletics coaching

NIS certified · sprints & middle distance, 47 district medals
3 state camps

Team sports

football, kho-kho, basketball — inclusive squad design
Coach

Inclusive PE design

no-elimination games, adaptive PE, every body plays
Zero benched

Mind-body education

nervous-system literacy, sleep & stress units for seniors
Gr 9–12

Sports safety & first aid

injury prevention, certified first responder
Current
03 · The sequence

Movement is a subject, not a break

PE traditionally serves the athletic 20% and quietly humiliates the rest — the last-picked, the asthmatic, the girl who was told running isn't ladylike. I run it inverted. The sporty kids get real coaching and medals; everyone else gets movement they can love for fifty years — and yoga gives every single one of them a nervous system they know how to operate.

  1. ArriveEvery class begins with breath — two minutes, eyes soft. A settled class learns any skill twice as fast.
  2. MoveSkill blocks with no elimination games. Nobody sits out, nobody gets 'out'. Repetitions, not humiliations.
  3. PlayThen the game — competitive for those who want it, recreational lanes for those who don't. Both are real PE.
  4. SettleCool-down and one asana taught properly per week. By Grade 12 they hold a full sequence — and their exam nerves.
04 · The journey

Fifteen years, one breath at a time

2017 — PRESENT

Head of Physical Education & Yoga

The Valley School, Bengaluru

Lead a four-teacher department. Built the dual-stream programme (competitive + recreational), the assembly pranayama practice, and the exam-season yoga clinic seniors actually attend voluntarily. 47 district medals alongside — the two streams feed each other.

2012 — 2017

PE Teacher & Athletics Coach

National Public School, Bengaluru

Grades 1–12 PE; coached sprints to three state-camp selections and quietly abolished elimination dodgeball, which nobody has missed.

2010 — 2012

Athlete → Yoga Teacher Training

SVYASA, Bengaluru & freelance coaching

Post-injury retraining: RYT-200 then RYT-500, plus NIS athletics certification. Rebuilt a knee and found a vocation in the same year.

05 · Training

Education

2006 — 2009

B.Sc. Physical Education

Lakshmibai National Institute, Gwalior
First class · 400m university record
2010 — 2012

RYT-200 & RYT-500 Yoga Certification

SVYASA University, Bengaluru
Distinction
2013 — 2014

B.P.Ed.

Bangalore University
Distinction
06 · Certifications

Certifications

NIS Certificate — Athletics coachingSports Authority of India · 2012
First responder & sports first aidRed Cross certified · renewed 2025
Adaptive & inclusive PE trainingSpecial Olympics Bharat workshop · 2021
CBSE Health & PE curriculum trainingCoE training · 2023
07 · Podiums

Medals & milestones

Best PE Teacher — KarnatakaState sahodaya teaching awards
2024
47 district athletics medalsSprints & middle distance, two schools
2012–
Whole-school pranayama practice900 students, daily — featured in Deccan Herald
2019–
Published — 'Abolish Dodgeball'Teacher Plus, on inclusive PE design
2022
08 · Mat notes

Written in sweat

JUN 2026

The back row of PE

Every games period has children strategically hiding. How to design classes where hiding is impossible and unnecessary.

Read note →
FEB 2026

Three minutes at assembly

How we got 900 students breathing together daily — and what it did to first-period discipline referrals.

Read note →
OCT 2025

Coach the sprinter, keep the walker

Running a genuinely dual-stream PE programme where medals and mats respect each other.

Read note →
09 · From the sidelines

What they shout

From the sidelines · 01

My daughter — asthmatic, last-picked, PE-note forger — now does sun salutations at home and jogged a 5K with me on Sunday. I cried at the finish.

Riya's motherPARENT · GR 9
From the sidelines · 01

Discipline referrals in first period dropped by a third the year assembly pranayama started. I checked the data twice.

PrincipalTHE VALLEY SCHOOL
From the sidelines · 01

She coached my 400m to a state camp AND taught me to sleep before finals. Both mattered. I run for my college now.

ArjunALUMNUS · STATE CAMP 2023
10 · For schools

The team sheet

☉ SESSION 2027–28 · ONE DEMO CLASS: GIVE ME YOUR CLASS THAT 'HATES PE' AND ONE PERIOD
Current employerThe Valley School, Bengaluru
Current roleHead of PE & Yoga
Open toHOD Physical Education · Yoga programme lead · Athletics director
Expected salary₹9–13 LPA
Notice period60 days
Willing to relocateYes — Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad · any board · needs a field and a quiet room
Principal, The Valley SchoolCURRENT EMPLOYER · SHARED ON REQUEST
Sports Director, National Public School2012–17 · SHARED ON REQUEST
11 · Namaste

Reach out

Based in18, Kanakapura Road, Bengaluru 560062, Karnataka
Phone / WhatsApp+91 99999 99992
Contact Hire me