Do
Any strategies and interventions are informed by the assessment carried out in order to address the specific areas of need and could include:
- Additional contact and interaction with adults, e.g. meet and greet and regular checking-in times
- Individual support for short periods of the day (for example to reduce anxiety in specific situations using strategies which are known to be effective)
- Individual intervention for short periods of the day to target skills e.g. emotional regulation
- The use of relational based approaches. For example as access to a key member of school staff in the classroom, with relevant training and/or experience, who is emotionally available to the learner, able to remain attentive and to ‘tune in’ to their emotional and safety needs and opportunities for staff working with the learner to build relationships with them away from learning demands.
- Use of strategies and approaches to reduce Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)
- The use of trauma informed approaches in school
- Provision of opportunities to build self esteem through preferred activities or having roles and responsibilities within school.
- The use of visual structures to support classroom routines and increase predictability, such as visual timetable and other symbols/photos
- choice boards
- ‘Now/Next’ cards
- Activity boxes
- Time out tents
- The use of strategies to support concentration, as:
- carpet places
- wobble cushions
- weighted blankets
- egg timers
- fiddle toys
- access to an individual workstation
- Additional verbal and visual prompts
- Additional reinforcement and praise for desired behaviour, including any personalised structured reward systems that are developed with the young person
- Access to a tailor made environment at break and lunchtime and / or additional structured activities at unstructured times, e.g. at playtime and lunchtime if this is when there are concerns
- Personalised curriculum modification informed by the social, emotional, and mental health needs of the learner, and which is reviewed half-termly to ensure progress is being made towards specified outcomes
- Peer support from older children, having a role supporting younger children
- Mentoring
- Daily home-school communication and support for the family, if required
- Small group skills work.
- Adaptations to the timetable
- Time out
- Access to a quiet room to allow regulation of emotions
- When responding to unwanted behaviours and angry responses, it is important that adults consider the following:
- anger iceberg
- the regulation window
- the escalation cycle and the corresponding appropriate responses
- the stress container.
- Access to therapeutic and or psycho-educational support such as through the EPS, Mental Health in Schools Team or CWMind
- Access to school based interventions
- Nurture Group provision
- Use of Emotion Coaching by adults
- Solution focused interventions
- WOWW intervention
- Use of restorative justice conversations
- Self monitoring interventions such as Zones of Regulation
- Cognitive Behavioural Approaches
- Coaching Psychology
- Lego Therapy
- Strategies to address resilience e.g. the Warwickshire Awakening Resilience Model (WARM), the Resilience toolkit from West Sussex
- Use of positive psychology techniques (gratitude diaries, one selfless act etc.).
- Relaxation
- Mindfulness
- ELSA resources
- Use of other programmes/books such as:
- My Hidden Chimp (Peters)
- Starving the Anxiety Gremlin (Collins-Donnelly)
- Starving the Anger Gremlin (Collins-Donnelly)
- Starving the Depression Gremlin (Collins-Donnelly)
- Starving the Stress Gremlin (Collins-Donnelly)
- Starving the Exam Stress Gremlin (Collins-Donnelly)
- Banish Your Self- Esteem Thief (Collins-Donnelly)
- Banish Your Body Image Thief (Collins-Donnelly)
- Worry Box (Mortimer)
- Dealing with Feelings (Rae)
- How to be Happy (Viegas)
- Social Media and Mental Health: Handbook for Teens (Edwards)
- There are also fiction books that older children could read, e.g.:
- The Suitcase Kid - Jacqueline Wilson
- The Worry Website - Jacqueline Wilson
- Wonder - R. J. Palacio
- Huge book of worries - Virginia Hindside
When a learner’s behaviour can put themselves or others at risk of harm, a learner-specific plan for keeping the situation as safe as possible (this is called a ‘positive handling plan’), which is carried out by staff with appropriate training and regularly reviewed.
Please refer to CWRISE Guidance for Professionals and Warwickshire Interagency Safeguarding Procedures for much more support on supporting young people with SEMH in schools.
Records should be kept of all interventions that have been delivered, the frequency of delivery, the engagement level, and the impact they had on the young person and be available to be reviewed at regular intervals.