Is Whole-School Positive Handling the right answer?
The post weighs training every member of staff, with certificates for inspection, cover everywhere and one consistent message, against the cost and impact, and says it suits schools whose risk assessment demands it.
Course Photo: Instinctive Protection
Gerard O’Dea demonstrates for his training group how positioning, body language and the body’s survival system protect a person without conscious thought during a low-level interaction with a child.
Restraint in school – what the law says
A pointer to a Schools Week article by solicitor Jade Kent on the use of force, plus Mark Dawes’ advice on agreed policy, suitable training, behaviour plans and recording everything.
Positive Handling by the Numbers #5: Five Steps to Persuasion
Refusing to leave a classroom is the example used to show the Persuasion Sequence. Staff make a firm request rather than a command, explain why, then offer both positive and negative options.
Positive Handling by the Numbers #5: Five Values for Effective Interactions in the Classroom
When a child refuses a reasonable request and says you cannot touch me, the post asks how the situation was allowed to build, and sets out values that favour non-escalation over de-escalation.
Staff Governor said: “competent, clear, precise, logical training with good humour”
Clear, logical delivery with some humour, plus theory alongside practical scenarios, is how a staff governor described the day, which covered duty of care and reasonable force.
I forgot all the “holds ” within days because training in the past has been too complex
A reception teacher says past training was too complex and the holds were forgotten within days, while this course was clear and easy to remember. Summer feedback from other school staff follows.
Positive Handling by the Numbers #4: Forewarned about (some) Four-year-olds is Forearmed
A 2012 London incident in which a Reception child put two teachers in hospital shows the damage a four-year-old can do, and why plans must consider a wide range of risks.