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An outstanding school is one that achieves with all children. Inclusion is not optional. It is what makes schools incredible. Relational practice drives exceptional cultures in which children thrive and adults love their work. There are clear boundaries, excellent systems and genuine mutual respect.
The authoritarian approach doesn’t work for the most wobbly children or for the best behaved. It is unnecessarily harsh, unevidenced and its success built on the lives of the excluded. There is another way.
When The Adults Change the book has been part of the behaviour conversation in thousands of schools worldwide. Schools that live their values every day and strive for a kinder approach. I don’t believe that repeatedly excluding children is a legitimate strategy.
I know that isolating children as a punishment for lengthy periods is damaging. I have experience of so many schools that are pursuing relational practice because it works, brilliantly.
When The Parents Change Everything Changes is my new book and fits into the plan perfectly. Relational practice is not just for the classroom. Imagine the same principles, boundaries and conversations at home as at school. Surrounding children with the safety of predictable adults extends into foster care, children’s services, healthcare, attendance, youth work and social work.
So my work is to create a team of people who can help you with the seismic shifts. To promote the work to as many schools, teachers and parents as I possibly can. To influence the direction of policy and practice at a local and national level. To make sure that children live and learn in a culture that is relational, restorative and unerringly positive. To speak out against the zero-tolerance nonsense and agitate for those who can’t be heard.
That is what I left the classroom for. That is the mission and I am chasing it hard