Carl Emery – Manchester University

1. Carl Emery – Manchester University Children's social and emotional wellbeing in schools, a critical perspective Authors/Editors; Debbie Watson, Carl Emery, Phillip Bayliss Writer and lecturer in social and emotional wellbeing/conflict resolution with a particular focus on disengaged learners 14-19

2. Teaching & Learning When we become totally focussed on ‘covering the material’, preoccupied with competence and success, we often forget to open our hearts to the young people, particularly if they are sabotaging the success of the group. We may shut down and create a range of barriers to protect ourselves.

3. Engaging Learners Building Relationships – Managing Challenges. 30 hour programme, 1 day programmes. Coaching model. Built on a three strand foundation Contextual Subjective Relational (Emery & Watson 2011)

4. Positive Engagement Programme BRMC Key Concepts Stipek reports that learners ‘work harder for teachers who treat them as individuals and express interest in their personal lives outside school/college.’ (Stipek, 2006, page 46) Building and developing resilience and reciprocity A process model Contextualised for 14-19 Practice/reflection-based model Not prescribed

5. Belonging – Feelings &Behaviour In pairs • Think of a time you believed you weren’t valued and didn’t belong, or were labelled. Talk about how you felt at that time. In squares (two pairs) • Write words at the centre of the page to describe your feelings. Illustrate the way you behave when you have those feelings.

6. Key Principles Learners and staff need to have a sense of Belonging Being heard Being understood Teacher PRESENCE and building relationships are key to this. We need to develop a strong and sensitive presence built on successfully using our body, mind and voice.

7. Presence Think of someone you know in your school/college who has presence. What do you see them do? How do they demonstrate this presence?

8. Presence We celebrate those precious moments when we embody a presence that carries the class to a place where minds and hearts are moved and genuine connections occur. Some teachers just naturally live there most of the time. But how do we find that place?

9. Presence Although presence is a difficult thing to define we all know people with it and these people generally share the following qualities: Body - Strong clear body language and the ability to read and respond to others’ body language  Mind - Clarity and calmness of thought, understanding the power of positive thinking and recognising their thought process particularly in regard to perceptions and expectations.  Voice - A strong clear voice that uses pitch, intonation, rhythm and breathing to state clear messages, create confidence and demonstrate understanding. The voice also needs to communicate messages that encourage learners to participate, feel positive and follow instructions. To develop presence we need to ensure that body, mind and voice are working in unison and are balanced.

10. Body Body - Strong clear body language and the ability to read and respond to others’ body language. Zones in your classroom: Connected Learning Drifting Lost

11. Body Activity The body arc Directive body language Patrolling & rescuing

12. Body Congruence Eye contact Positioning Patrolling Proximity Posture Facial Expressions Non verbal cueing Barriers

13. Mind Mind - Clarity and calmness of thought, understanding the power of positive thinking and recognising their thought process, particularly in regard to perceptions and expectations.

14. Mind Activity Evaluations and observations Which of the following statements are evaluations, and which are observations …?

15. Evaluations or observations? Paul is aggressive in class   James said I looked good last night  Josie got up from her chair three times during the ICT lesson  Keisha would not sit still around during functional Maths Gina is always late for college  Jack tapped his pen against his desk for over ten minutes  Jasmine is usually messing about Ben never stops talking

16. Voice Voice - A strong clear voice that uses pitch, intonation, rhythm and breathing to state clear messages, create confidence and demonstrate understanding. The voice also needs to communicate messages that encourage learners to participate, feel positive and follow instructions.

17. Language Language is one of the most powerful tools available to a teacher. It permeates every aspect of teaching and learning. Remember: what they hear and interpret has a huge impact on how they think, act and learn.

18. Language “Okay, settle down everyone. Lunch is over, let’s get started. We have to get to work on our functional skills now.” “I see that everyone is ready for functional skills, lets get started.”

19. Language Different messages. First version implies learning is about resisting pleasure, that is now over. ‘Have to’ implies it is something we don’t really want to do, demonstrates no choice is on offer.

20. Attack/Distortion words The Always/Everything Distortion Challenging generalisations allows young people to 'buy out' of their extreme thinking. Look out for 'all-or-nothing' words like 'all’, ‘always’, ‘never’, ‘everyone’, ‘no one’, ‘every time/place/thing’. 'People are always shouting at me' Which people ? Always ? Shouting ? At you ?

21. Attack/Distortion words 'Oh, everything's going wrong!' Everything? How are things going wrong? What would need to happen for them to go right? Similarly, other extremes/absolutes – 'couldn't’, ‘mustn't’, ‘shouldn't’, ‘unable to', etc. – can be challenged and changed 'I couldn't do that' What stops you? What would/might happen if you did?

22. Remember To learn we need : to feel safe (orderly familiarity) experience success more often than failure (celebrate often what I do) to be noticed (say my name) to be trusted and respected (as a human being) to be motivated (use what I remember) to feel acceptance (as I am )

23. Contact me carl.emery@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk 07852 192770 http://www.exploringwellbeing.co.uk