88: School: Angry kids, bad behaviour, and school avoidance. What can parents and teachers do?

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Nearly one in five teachers in England has been hit by a pupil this year, according to a BBC survey.

But it's not just in England. Stricter school discipline is making a comeback to Australian classrooms in a bid to help teachers stamp out disruptive behaviour. France is bringing back school uniforms to tackle the issue, and in America, more than 70% of 1,000 educators said in a recent national survey that students are misbehaving more now than they did before the pandemic in 2019.

Meanwhile, teachers are leaving the profession faster than they're joining in the UK, and school avoidance rates are at an all-time high. It's a complex issue that Simon Currigan talks about a lot on his podcast, School Behaviour Secrets.

In this conversation he gives us his version of what's happening, gives us a top tip on how to deal with a teen when they've lost control, the importance of asking why... at least five times, and gives us a framework for understanding school avoidance.

NOTES TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST:
SEND - Special Educational Needs and Disability
SEMH - Social Emotional Mental Health needs; part of SEND

EMOTION COACHING:

• Empathise with their position - connection before correction.
• Boundaries based on values.
• Problem-solving - get them to engage in coming up with solutions.

The Toyota Five

RAIDED framework for understanding school avoidance:

• Relationship problem
• Anxiety 
• Identity - what do people like me do in a situation like this?
• Direction - where they are focusing so it can be a desire to be out of school because of what's happening at home.
•  Environment - is the school too overstimulating or do they have sensory needs?
• Dislocation - do they feel unwelcome in the school community, as if they don't belong.

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I don't have medical training so please seek the advice of a specialist if you're not coping.

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