For one ten year-old boy it’s another school day. As usual he’s walked in with his mum but when gets to school door he just can’t go through it. He does everything he can to prevent it, punching the wall, digging his heels in, clearly distressed but not running away or hurting anyone else. No-one knows what to do for the best and every time […]
“There’s only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve; the fear of failure” Paulo Coelho de Souza What protects a child from fear of failure? It’s being able to see the way ahead with realistic optimism, building the sense of security that comes from meeting challenges on the way and overcoming them, knowing that they’ll happen and knowing they’ll be temporary. What […]
It’s the start of another school day. A ten year-old boy gets to the school door but on this day he just can’t go in, it’s simply too much. He does everything he can to stop it happening, hitting himself on the wall, refusing help, clearly in distress, not running away or hurting anyone else. Family and staff are at a loss as to what […]
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 […]
It’s time to scrap school exclusion. Why? Because Plan A isn’t working. A story – Plan B. A young man on the edge of adulthood, experiencing such severe panic attacks it’s causing him to disengage and putting his educational future at risk. As part of a school team developing Solutions Focused Coaching as a new pastoral approach, I’m asked to work with him. His […]
