How can we get children to behave properly in school, to take their work seriously and stop messing about? The answer offered by the DfE is to do more of what’s done already. Focus on the bad behaviour you can see, put aside thinking about what might underly it, and apply graded punishment it until it stops. Knowing what children find unpleasant the pain can […]
The Problem Talk from Twitter this week; A July 2020 report from the then new Children’s Commissioner (England) ‘Vulnerable teenagers; where did it go wrong?’ Shining a light on the extent and impact of child vulnerability in England, focusing in particular on children with undiagnosed mental health issues, those excluded from mainstream education and children in gangs From these conversations there were three clear flashpoints: […]
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 – […]
“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 […]
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
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 […]
