🔬Rethinking Behaviour Policies: Why a Trauma-Informed Approach is Essential📝

Why Traditional School Behaviour Policies Fail SEND Pupils, and How Trauma-Informed, Restorative Approaches Improve Outcomes.

👋 Welcome to SEMH Education!

Every week, I share insights, strategies, and tips from my experience working with children and professionals on social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) in education. This week, we’re exploring behaviour policies and how to rethink them in a trauma-informed way!

You know the children we’re talking about. Traditional behaviour policies don’t work for them. Professionals often say they have a ‘don’t-care’ attitude towards school, and they never seem motivated. The current sanctions don’t prevent them from exhibiting ‘persistent disruptive behaviour’, and they’re always given detentions and isolations!

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Traditional school behaviour policies rely on rewards and punishments to enforce discipline. But what if these policies are actually making things worse, especially for children with SEND?

Anne Emerson’s (2022) research in The Case for Trauma-Informed Behaviour Policies highlights how these policies often exacerbate anxiety, disengagement, and school exclusions. Instead of fostering positive behaviour, they create cycles of punishment that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable.

🔬 What the Research Says

• The problem with rewards & punishments: Traditional policies assume all children can self-regulate if motivated. But for children with SEND, executive function difficulties make rule-following harder (Timpe, 2016).

• Exclusion as a consequence: Children with SEND are disproportionately excluded for “persistent disruptive behaviour” (DfE, 2023/24).

• The trauma connection: Reprimands and exclusions can create a “fight, flight, or freeze” response, increasing behavioural issues rather than reducing them (Kerns et al., 2015).

📝 Inside the Full Analysis (For Paid Subscribers)

In the full post, I break down:

✅ Why traditional policies are failing in real schools (case studies and evidence).

✅ How to implement trauma-informed alternatives that improve behaviour and emotional well-being.

✅ A step-by-step guide for educators to shift from control-based to support-based approaches.

🔒 Paid Subscribers Exclusive: The Full Analysis

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