Page 51 - SEN114 September/October 2021

SEMH
About the author
Rahi Popat is a Pastoral Support Officer and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Keyham Lodge School in Leicester
for SEN young people. Rahi works as part of an integrated response team. Before joining his current school, Rahi
worked with SEBD children
in mainstream secondary and primary schools.
To learn more about working with children displaying challenging behaviour, all schools can visit the Anna Freud Centre’s Mentally Healthy Schools website (annafreud.org). There is lots of information about challenging behaviour written for schools, and many resources suitable for all ages in the resource library.
purpose – resources like the anxiety thermometer or tools for managing emotions can help students understand what they’re feeling and regain control.
Our children all have Education and Healthcare Plans, and they have plans for social and emotional aspects as well. We have a nurture class and a nurture teacher, where they can develop basic life skills. We teach them that it is alright to experience strong emotions, and get them thinking about questions like: What does angry look like? How do I form friendships? How do I conduct myself? If I am feeling a certain way, is that OK? Learning about this in nurture class helps normalise their emotions and feelings.
We realise that they can’t all sustain five days a week in school, even with a reduced timetable – so we offer a blended approach. The students can do a couple of days a week in school, and on other days they can go offsite and develop other interests. Offsite provision includes a variety of activities like car mechanics, health and beauty, construction, bricklaying or woodwork. We have a field with horses, and the young people can even get a qualification in horse care. We’re aware that their experience before coming to our school probably hasn’t been the best, and we want to ensure they enjoy their education.
The staff at the school work very much as a team: the teachers, support staff, office staff and kitchen staff all support each other. We have a morning briefing every day where we share
key information, and we have regular progress meetings where we share best practice and any concerns we might have. Every child has a passport of information so we all know what works for them; what they enjoy, what triggers them. The Mentally Healthy Schools website has an entire section dedicated to implementing a whole-school approach like ours, which has lots of useful advice for schools to follow.
Another source of support that has been pivotal has been our involvement in the piloting of the Anna Freud Centre’s Schools Support Service (annafreud.org). It has allowed us to offer teacher wellbeing sessions, and support for the young people. It has given our parents and carers the opportunity to speak to a trained professional and get together with other parents in a group once a week for an hour. It has brought together parents who don’t usually get to speak to each other. We also get support from CAMHS, the local SEND service with an autism unit, and the police, who are very much on board. It would be great to see the Anna Freud Schools Support Service, and similar initiatives, more widely available to other schools in the future.
Building nurturing, understanding relationships with the young people in our school helps us to better understand their behaviour. If we can take the time to listen and understand what it is like for a young person with SEBD, it means we can see past the initial behaviour and work to best support them.
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