Classrooms are outdated, overwhelming and cluttered and often create barriers for children.

It is normal to walk in to a classroom full of display boards, laminated posters, washing lines and work on the walls. The room is lit by bright overhead lights and the furniture is made up of plastic chairs and standard classroom tables.

These rooms don't have the children's wellbeing and mental health and the heart. In fact they can often create barriers to learning and cause children to want to leave them!

We now have more school refusers than ever before. More children struggling with their behaviour and more children struggling to concentrate. The world is changing- but the classroom hasn't!

In this episode I...

-dive in to why I created the therapeutic classroom approach

tell you all about my first classroom make over.

-talk about the highs and lows of the therapeutic classroom approach becoming popular

-tell you about the time I nearly stopped it all and gave up

-tell you about some amazingly exciting news- I am launching a shop!!!

-give you my top tips for your own classroom spaces

I hope you LOVE this episode. I'd love to hear your comments below.

Watch the video version if you can- there's footage of the story as it unfolds.

***More information***

Sign up to find out more about my brand new therapeutic classroom furniture store: HERE

Read my therapeutic school approach book: Here

Visit the therapeutic classrooms store: HERE

Become part of our community and follow us:

Tick tock

Instagram

Facebook

Pintrest

Youtube

Everybody is talking about trauma informed practice in schools but what does it actually mean? There are a lot of misconceptions about what trauma informed practise is and so today I'm going to explain it all for you!

In this episode I will:

• Reintroduce the podcast after a long break since season one
• Touch on why education needs to change and how things are not working
• Explain what trauma informed practice is- giving lots of real life examples
• Touch on belief systems and thought processes based on our life experiences
• Explain why telling children off isn't trauma informed
• Touch on fight flight freeze and how children's behaviour is often linked to the brain and trauma
• Discuss the misconception that trauma informed is a woolly approach with no rules or consequences
• How to work with brain science - not against it!
• How to tweak your responses and languages to be more trauma informed
• Give you lots of examples, tips and ideas to take away

More resources and support (some are free!!)

Buy my book here

Buy my audio book here

Read my articles published for Head Teachers Update Here

Explore my free help hub - full of resources, videos and help guides Here

Watch my classrooms make overs and learn more about my therapeutic classrooms Here

Buy furniture for your classroom Here

Learn more about my work

www.tpctherapy.co.uk- whole school courses, award and support

www.therapeuticclassrooms.co.uk- Classroom/ school make over service and furniture store

In this episode, I am joined by Dave Mcpartlin, Head Teacher of Flakefleet Primary School. Dave has been in leadership roles for 16 years and has been the head teacher of two schools. His approach is extremely inspiring. Dave wants the children to believe in themselves and dream big and he is on a mission to make sure that every child leaves his primary school believing in themselves and their capacity to do anything, no matter how scary that might be.

Dave leads by example and after creating a ‘dream list’ with the children, the school has been on a lot of adventures together - including being on Britain’s Got Talent and getting the Golden Buzzer in 2019, making a song that made it into the Christmas charts and opening their own community coffee shop!

Dave and I get stuck into talking about children’s mental health and wellbeing, emotional intelligence, life skills and everything that goes beyond the curriculum. We also talk about Dave’s own experiences in life, his struggles with depression and the importance of sleep and prioritising wellbeing! This episode is not to be missed, it will leave you feeling happy and inspired to make changes. You might even find yourself wanting to take more risks and dream bigger!  

Links to Dave and his work: 

Twitter: @dave_mcpartlin 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flakefleet 

Britain’s got talent snippet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itSbV3YiRkI 

You have to listen to this episode! John Magee is the kindest coach and the UK’s kindness ambassador for schools. He shares kindness with teachers and cultivates kind classrooms in hundreds of schools throughout the UK. He is a father, speaker, author and mentor to leaders in education.  I loved having this conversation with John whose energy and purpose is soaked in self-development, positive psychology, happiness and connective relationships. There are so many pearls of wisdom to take away as he talks us through his own experience of childhood trauma, adversity in his adult life and how through all of that, he set up his own business and dedicated his life to helping hundreds of children and teachers across the UK. Get your notepad and paper out for this one because there are so many things you can take away!

Links to John and his work:

Johns courses and website: https://kindnessmatters.co.uk/

Twitter: @KindnessCoach_

John's book: Kindness Matters

Johns book: The Happy Tank

This week’s podcast episode is with Daniel Croft, the CEO and vice chair for fostering and social work organisations across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada! Daniel is on a mission to make a change to the fostering landscape. His goal? To improve conditions, pay, transfer options and create a global impact on as many children and families' lives as possible.

Daniel's journey is nothing short of inspirational. I wanted to sit down with him and explore how he got to where he is today and what his hopes are for the future of children in care. In this episode, Daniel shares his own life experience, which includes being raised by parents who were foster carers and talks us through the circumstances that led him to where he is today.

His story reminds us that anybody can do anything they set their mind to and if we lead from a place of passion and inspiration, our impact can be a great one.

Join us for the first episode of the Inspiring Leaders series with the amazing Poppy Gibson. Poppy, a senior lecturer and course lead in primary education at Ruskin University. If you follow her on social media, you will see she spends lots of her time delivering talks, writing books and doing research for education. As a mum of 3 focused on children’s wellbeing and mental health, Poppy's work is driven by a desire to help others and make a difference.

In this episode, we discuss various topics including parenting, children’s mental health, education, wellbeing and self-care. We discover the personal journey and life experiences she has experienced, including her struggle with sepsis. Despite life’s challenges, Poppy has gone on to do incredible things such as authoring books, visiting #10 Downing Street, and welcoming a refugee family from the Ukraine into her home.

Links to Poppy and her work:

Twitter: @poppygibsonuk

Poppy’s book: A Home for a Ukrainian 

Have you been following my Therapeutic Classrooms Approach? Last Year the amazing Paul Dix interviewed me on Teacher Hug Radio! We managed to get a copy and so here it is,  just for you on our Therapeutic Teacher Podcast. 

In this quick 15min chat, Paul and I talk about the first school who was brave enough to hand their classroom over to me to be transformed, what a therapeutic classroom is and why we need more of them in the UK! 

Find out more about The Therapeutic Classroom Approach:

Follow Shahana's Head Teacher Update diary entries which follow the story of Shevington Vale ( her first school) and then others that followed.  https://www.headteacher-update.com/search-results/shahana-knight/81/1/

Watch our Reinventing Classrooms You Tube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@tpctherapyltd5124/videos

Visit our website:

https://www.tpctherapy.co.uk/therapeutic-classrooms

Learn more about Paul Dix and his work and the Teacher Hug Radio here:

https://www.pauldix.org/

https://teacherhug.co.uk/

The Path Meditation is a 7 minute guided Meditation, let me know what your class thinks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACOlnosx8_o

Lockdown has been a rough year for us all, we have felt anxious and powerless. We have felt alone and at risk.. many of us have battled with our wellbeing and our mental health as a result. Feeling low, teary or withdrawn, getting angry, frustrated and snappy. We can feel the effects. One year of collective trauma has impacted us all emotionally and mentally. But it is important to remember, we have had one year...just one… what about those children who have had a whole life of trauma? Who feels alone, anxious, powerless and at risk every single day? This is a good opportunity to step into their shoes, drawing comparisons from our own experiences to what it might be like for them. This will help you support them when you go back to school and also for years to come. The impact of trauma is long-lasting and we have all had a taste of it. Let’s not forget, not everyone's trauma will end after lockdown.