Regulation and self-advocacy
Recognising, understanding, and managing their own emotions, communicating emotional needs or advocating for themselves effectively.
- Reflect a culture of relational practice and trauma-informed approaches in interactions with learners and in behaviour and relationship policies.
- Develop a warm and positive relationship with pupils that prioritises well-being.
- Use respectful and inclusive language to empower individuals, reduce stigma, and promote a more inclusive environment. This is reflected in anything written about learners, e.g., ‘Learner currently requires extra support to attend school’, rather than ‘learner refuses to attend’.
- Provide structured and predictable environments so that learners know what to expect.
- Acknowledge and validate the whole range of emotions as part of daily experience and support learners to understand and respond to these.
- Use and model "wondering aloud" approaches across the school day to support emotional recognition and understanding. For example, “I wonder if you are tired today? You are yawning” or “I am feeling a little bit cross this morning as the photocopier didn’t work. I think I will go for a walk at break time to help me to regulate.” Name it to tame it.
- Explicitly build in opportunities to promote regulation for the whole class, e.g., 5 minutes of low lighting, calming activities, mindfulness, whole school Zones of Regulation, emotions coaching, etc.
- Provide resources that promote self-regulation in every learning space for all learners to access (for example, breakout spaces, sensory resources, zones of regulation).
- Timetable specific time for class reflection and discussion to explore whole-class pupil views and make adaptations where needed.
- Have a structured and clear neuro-affirming system that pupils can use to indicate if they need further support.
- Create time and space to explore and understand the learners' views on what is contributing to their feelings in school and make changes in response to their views.
- Help learners to understand the signals their bodies give them (interoceptive awareness). For example: “I know that when my heart beats quickly, I might be getting cross.”
- Help learners to identify and use calming strategies.
- Support children and young people (CYP) to self-advocate for the support they need.
- Work with pupils to help them develop a plan and strategies to support their regulation, such as a 3- or 5-point scale, calming toolkit, or sensory plan. Have systems in place to ensure what adults can do to support is clearly highlighted in these plans and ensure consistency.
- Recognise parents as key partners in their children’s education.
- Seek parent/carer views to find out what helps and use this to inform the development of provision.
- Encourage two-way communication with families using methods that work for them—this could include changes within the family (for example, divorce, bereavement, illness)—and ensure this information is effectively shared with key staff.
- Use a consistent approach and make reasonable adjustments to the behaviour and relationships policy in response to the needs of individual learners and vulnerable groups.
- Ensure staff are properly trained to support dysregulation through de-escalation and positive handling training, as outlined in individual pupil risk assessments. These are used as a last resort and reviewed regularly with parents/carers and young people.
- Only use positive handling strategies when there is a significant risk to the safety of the child/young person or others, and all other options have been explored.
- Based on the principle that all learners are entitled to a full-time education, reduced or part-time timetables are only used in exceptional circumstances. Practitioners assess whether a reduced or part-time timetable is in the best interests of the learner and work in partnership with parents/carers to support the learner or young person returning to full-time education.