I support children who struggle in school, and their schools, in a practical, evidence informed way, by increasing the capability of school staff to respond to children’s needs at the earliest opportunity, before turning to outside specialist services. Intentional, structured kindness is at the heart of what I do, and what I offer to schools as continuing professional development with my new online course – […]
Children and young people who struggle to meet the demands of school are facing the additional stresses and changes brought about by the pandemic. Many of them who were struggling before the virus appeared will have suffered loss, bereavement and the effects of social isolation and ruptured relationships. We now have clear scientific evidence on the links between stress and behaviour; learning is only possible […]
The need to find solutions to the complex problems children face has never been more urgent. We’re in a time of high stress, constant change and stretched resources. The same holds true for the school staff who are working hard to keep students on track for learning, safely and productively. Usually we can hold most children securely in school, we teach them the rules and […]
Responding to Covid19 Recently I wrote about the distinctly different responses we could take to the changed practices and new thinking Covid19 is demanding in schools. Option 1, routinely promoted by the DfE, is to put everything into the pre-pandemic box, with the routine use of punishment to control ‘bad’ behaviour, hitting children hard with exclusion as the weapon of choice if they go wrong. […]
Emotional health in childhood ‘is the key to future happiness A London School of Economics study “What Predicts a Successful Life? A Life-course Model of Well-being” (Economic Journal 2014) offered “a completely new perspective on which factors contribute most to a satisfying life”, namely wellbeing, challenging “the basic assumption of educational policy in recent years – that academic achievement matters more than anything else”. (Guardian […]
Covid19 and early intervention; understanding the impact, preparing for recovery A story of success St. Ambrose Barlow Catholic High School in Swinton, Greater Manchester is showing what’s possible by providing Solutions Focused Coaching Early Help, to support students and their families during the Covid19 crisis. What is it about SF Coaching that makes it able to meet the needs of young people, their families and […]
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 […]
“When I tell people I study the adolescent brain, the immediate response is often a joke – something along the lines of : ‘What? Teenagers have brains?’ For some reason it’s acceptable to mock people in this stage of their lives. But when you think about it, this is strange: we wouldn’t ridicule other age groups in the same way. Imagine if we went around […]
I wrote and published this two months ago. Since then a great deal has happened that we couldn’t have predicted then. But the issue of how to deal with children’s behaviour when and if they return, and more pressingly, how to meet their increased needs arising from their experiences, remains. So here it is again, unedited. It’s hard losing touch with the thread of regular […]
I wrote and published this two months ago. Since then a great deal has happened that we couldn’t have predicted then. But the issue of how to deal with children’s behaviour when and if they return, and more pressingly, how to meet their increased needs arising from their experiences, remains. So here it is again, unedited. It’s hard losing touch with the thread of regular […]
