“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong” H.L.Menken Recently I wrote about the essential place for kindness in schools. In 2021 we have a mountain of evidence accumulated over the last four decades which points to the need to take into account the biology of kindness in how we respond to children’s behaviour. In the middle of the […]
The ‘Follow the Arrows’ reading group* is a new initiative, helping bridge the current gap between published evidence and school practices around behaviour, inclusion, mental health and wellbeing in schools. This week we were discussing chapters 5 Inside the living brain, 6 The ever plastic brain, 7 Social mind, social brain, and 8 Understanding other people. The book covered a broad sweep of neuroscience […]
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders writing in the TES (April 3rd 20200 was looking ahead to the time when 10 million children and 1.3 million staff get back to school; “When schools return it will not be ‘business as usual’ …. many of our pupils will be deeply anxious about the crisis in general and their own family […]
Understanding the meaning of stress is the key to preventing exclusion
Recently the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime produced their report “Back to school? Breaking the Link between School Exclusions and Knife Crime”. The cross-party group of MPs and peers investigated knife-crime, how it connects to children lives and to various aspects of Government driven policy and practice. The report urged the Government to reform school exclusions, warning that being expelled can be […]
What does a World Mental Health Day or a Child Mental Health Week mean for children who struggle in school, affected by the the push and pull of other people’s demands and the consequences of adverse experiences in their lives? Often they’re the ones who seem to ignore your helping hand, who shout and cry for attention, who hurt themselves or withdraw into their […]
Or spoil the child? When is enough enough and when is it too much? When practices run counter to what we know from recent and current research evidence on educating children with individual needs, differences and diversity, we need to look closely at what’s going on. I wrote this heading and the article below earlier this year. This week I read in […]
The next few weeks will be a testing time for children moving class and moving schools. Most of them, from toddlers to teens, will come through it by finding themselves and their place, and settling into their relationships with people around them. They can look back at their summer holidays with happy memories, refreshed and eager to be back in school. And some of them […]
Discipline and authority in schools – a bumpy ride? When is enough enough and when is it too much? When practices run counter to what we know from recent research evidence on educating children with individual needs, differences and diversity, we need to look closely at what’s going on. From Jonathan Haidt and Pamela Paresky quoted in the Guardian recently: “ ‘By mollycoddling our children, we’re fuelling mental […]
Exclusion. Defined by the behaviour that can be seen, attributed to hidden defects, moved away. Dr Shawn Ginwright’s 2018 article ‘The future of healing; shifting from trauma informed care to healing centred engagement’ (see footnote) discusses changes over the last 30 years in our approach to serious issues facing young people, to how they behave and respond and how we support them. He quotes one […]
