The following strategies are not in any order of priority:

• Children need to feel that their well-being is treated with care and respect in school and that there is whole school practice in place to enable this to happen. This includes a whole school approach to behaviour management strategies which include clear boundaries with high expectations of learning and behaviour.  These need to be consistently in place so that children feel safe and secure.  ‘Kind’ and ‘clear’ are two words used to describe effective practice.

• The earlier that intervention strategies are put in place to help children with SEMH, the better.  Simple strategies and small steps can be most effective. This needs to involve staff working with the child as well as parents/carers. Depending on the presenting behaviours, a multi agency approach might be needed at the assessment stage.

• The involvement of parents/carers is really important; plans for their involvement need to be realistic.

• Good behavioural management strategies are integral to good classroom practice.  Most children all of the time will respond to the positive ways staff will praise, acknowledge kindness, good friendships etc.  This connects inside to feeling good about themselves and others. These strategies come in many forms from whole class/school reward systems to nonverbal acknowledgement of valuing good behaviour and/or work.  A smile in the right place can make a difference.  It’s the small, consistent steps that can make a significant difference.

• Programmes such as ‘Friendship Time’, ‘Circle Time’ and ‘Managing Emotions’, make a valuable contribution to a nurturing, caring and safe school/classroom environment. Strategies can be adapted to a whole class approach, or the programme delivered to small groups – See the Graduated Approach (Getting Advice, Getting Help and Getting More help) sections t for further details and links to strategies and details of interventions.

• A nurturing approach which looks at how to build emotional well being into classroom practice can benefit all children.

• Use of language – positive rather than negative; think about emotion coaching principles, e.g. “I can see that you get angry when that happens.  I would feel angry if that happened to me.  It’s normal to feel like that.”

• Say 10 good things to a comment that could be possibly negative!  Avoid asking why a child is doing something oppositional; a child might not know why they are behaving inappropriately. 

• Be mindful that, outside the family, schools are the place providing the opportunity for social and emotional well-being to be maintained and promoted; schools are the ones that CAN make the difference