Training & Development Services

INSET & Beyond

Initial INSET enhances understanding of emotional health and well-being and how children learn from a neurobiological perspective, and looks at practical ways to incorporate this work within the classroom. Further work reflects the specific needs of the school, and can include:

• Development of an ‘Emotional Needs Audit’ on a ‘whole school’ basis – this can be used in the development of an ‘Emotional Health & Well-Being’ policy. Some schools are using this as the over-arching ‘umbrella’ for policies on bullying, self-harming etc. (i.e. the preferred outcome of emotional health is placed at the ‘top’ in terms of outcomes, rather than the emphasis being placed on behaviours that are not wanted!)

• Targeted, individual therapeutic work with specific young people; this also looks at the development of in-house therapeutic expertise, where relevant staff take part in the therapeutic sessions so that work can be sustained as part of the normal school day

• Use of drop-in ‘surgeries’ to look at ways in which therapeutic techniques can be used more effectively in the classroom with specific young people (in one school, these sessions have been titled ‘That’s all very well, but what do I do about …?’ sessions!). In some schools, these sessions involve selected staff, with the aim of developing genuine ‘in house’ therapeutic expertise; an ‘in-house CAMHS capacity’, as one school has described it

• A five-day training module, designed for education professionals (e.g. teaching assistants, learning mentors, SENCO’s etc.) to develop effective and practical therapeutic competence amongst staff within the school to address a complex range of emotional health issues. This module can be delivered as a five-day ‘block’ of training, or as a series of five individual days over one or two terms

• Specific ‘twilight’ INSET sessions on particular areas of focus and interest (for example, ‘Working with Autism’, ‘Meeting Basic Emotional Needs through Movement-based work with children with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities’, ‘Creative & Therapeutic Story-telling’, ‘Classroom Management and the human givens approach’ etc

• Joint training days for staff and young people – one school has used a joint ‘team’ of staff and young people as equal contributors to the school’s planning around emotional health & well-being

• ‘Brain-based Learning’ days for young people from primary and secondary schools (including both mainstream and special schools), where young people explore learning from a neurobiological perspective with a range of artists in ways that are entirely interactive, practical and fun – and rely upon each other to work together as ‘peer educators’

Click here to experience a visit to the ‘Imagination Laboratory’!