Page 4 - BHCC Virtual School Network Meeting

Key messages:

▪ Schools work tirelessly to improve students’ mental health and well-being. This work takes
significant amount of time and resources.

▪ This great work is undone by simplistic whole school behaviourist approaches (behaviour points,
detentions, isolation etc) to students experiencing difficulties in Executive Function Skills.

▪ To support our most vulnerable pupils, change need to take place at whole school level – not just

focused on support for the individual.

▪ Before such change can occur, a shift in mindset is essential: there needs to be a whole school
shared understanding as to why some students find it easier to meet daily expectations and others

find it so hard.

▪ To replace sanctions, a coaching approach is advocated.

▪ A coaching approach is not a soft option: it holds students to account more robustly than sanctions.
It maintains high expectations through rigorous follow-up, focusing on systematically uncovering
what is holding a student back and working with that student until progress is sustained.