Supported to do the techniques correctly – Feedback
A reception teacher in Leeds describes being supported to perform techniques correctly, able to ask questions and put right when wrong, and guided through the legal steps at each stage.
Positive Handling Training Project for UAE Schools completed
150 staff in Abu Dhabi and Dubai were trained in an approach tailored to the UAE, drawing on labour law, the penal code and ADEC requirements, with online learning done beforehand.
Course Feedback: “a more detailed support plan was given for working with younger children”
A teaching assistant in Essex, previously trained elsewhere, welcomed the detailed support plan for working with younger children, found the techniques useful and enjoyed trying them out during the course.
Course Feedback: “excellent practical guidance”
An alternative provision headteacher describes guidance that is practical and grounded in clear principles. After online study, training covered body language through to restraint, keeping dignity and respect central.
Teachers headbutted and bitten by children as young as five.
A brief post noting reports of teachers being headbutted and bitten by children as young as five, with links to related reading on classroom communication, attacks on staff and five steps to persuasion.
Course Feedback: staff gained significantly from involvement
Pace and delivery were praised by an assistant headteacher at a mainstream primary in Kent, who noted Gerard’s willingness to answer questions and said all staff gained significantly from the training.
Course Feedback: a very professional experience
A learning disabilities specialist in Huddersfield found the techniques simple, quick and easy to remember, and valued being able to work through the theory in their own time before the practical training.
Duty of Care and stopping fights in Positive Handling
Schools often ask whether safe, risk-free ways exist to stop fights between children. A video tells how one teacher improvised urgently in her classroom, illustrating duty of care in physical interventions.
Positive Handling: What’s the worst that can happen?
A news report on teacher Diane Whitehead, whose leg was shattered and kneecap broken by a karate kick from a ten-year-old pupil at Burwood School in Orpington, leaving her facing a long recovery.
You need a team for safe Positive Handling and here is why
A short video clip in which Gerard O’Dea explains why the company does not recommend that one member of staff carries out a restraint, defined here as immobilising a child, without proper assistance.