Exclusion is a dark corner of educational practice. It’s in the news this week because supposedly high-performing schools across the country are gaming the system by excluding students who don’t jump the performance bar. This isn’t new news. I’ve seen it happening at first hand in my work with students threatened with exclusion over the last two decades. As Children’s Commissioner Dr. Maggie Atkinson reported […]
Reported rates of exclusion are rising inexorably, by as much as 300% in some areas of England. It’s the ‘last resort’ of the behaviour management approach most schools are advised to use. Exclusion is producing a growing strain on limited cash and resources in the education system. There is also an inevitable human cost as school staff find themselves unable to alter the behaviour of […]
“For action, we need hope. For hope, action.” New year 2016 2016 began with reports of a rising tide of mental distress among children and staff in schools, sustained and rising rates of exclusion, divergent calls for draconian action against children cast as offenders on one hand and for innovation in support of the same children in response to their needs on the other. […]
With thanks to Claire Owens and Paul Fragle at Christ’s Hospital school in Lincoln of their clear thinking and hard work for writing this SF inclusion policy. They attended the SF coaching two-day course in July this year and during the course could be seen talking together and making notes in parallel to doing the other tasks. They could see that SF coaching offered them […]
JULY 29, 2016 | SUE PIMLOTT For the last year or so, I have become a bit disillusioned with teaching; saddened at the focus on testing and the moving of the goalposts again and again. Children appear to have become units of data rather than individuals with beautiful talents and skills. More and more children seem to enter primary school at a low academic level, […]
It’s only a few weeks since we were all together in training, thinking through the new ideas that Solutions Focused coaching brings to our work and the practice of SF coaching. Some people made an immediate start, putting the ideas into practice in school, for others there was the welcome space of the summer holiday and the chance to make start in this new term. […]
Cats and pigeons When children misbehave the automatic response in most schools is to press the ‘On’ button of the Behaviour Management Machine. Start small, reminders and consequences, setting the boundaries. Focus on the bad behaviour, try to put a stop to it. It if works, everyone can settle down to the much more fascinating task of finding out about the world. But what if […]
End of the school year and time to tidy things away, ready for a new start in September. We’ve got so used to putting things in boxes it’s become a habit and when you’ve got a habit you’re on autopilot, no questions asked. Economical, fast, requires no thinking. On the shelf are two oversized crates marked ‘LEARNING’ and ‘BEHAVIOUR’. Everything we do goes in one […]
