Family Work and Personalised Support

What is on offer?

Over the past 2-3 years, the work I have been doing in schools has evolved to involve more direct work with families. This shift occurred because when considering the key factors for success in changing behaviour, readiness to learn, and improved outcomes in school, I found that successful partnerships with parents and carers were always essential.

Sometimes the focus has been on behaviour at home rather than at school, but the approach is the same: “What do you need right now?” and “What can I do to help you with this?” We tailor support based on the individual needs of each family. Instead of offering a standard program for families to participate in, we address the specific issues within each family, their dynamics, and their school, and then base our support around that.

The feedback from this work so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and even initial scepticism has given way to genuine partnership and positive change. Some of the areas where change has happened include behaviour in class and on the playground, reducing instances of walking out of class, addressing violence and aggression at home and in school, reducing parental stress, lessening worry and anxiety, improving family relationships, enhancing readiness to learn, increasing time spent in class, reducing the frequency of calls home to parents, and improving the relationship with schools.

I collect ongoing data on the identified areas we seek to improve. Overall, parental stress has decreased from an average of 9/10 to 5/10. Some of this work is carried out in school, while some are offered out of school at home or a neutral venue, over a coffee. This is not counselling or therapy, but rather designed to build confidence and skills, imparting life skills that we can model for our children, such as coping with anger, anxiety, fear, boredom, and confusion. We help children and families develop skills to cope with difficult feelings and challenges, as many of these feelings and challenges are a part of life and cannot be eliminated.

The approach is reflective, problem-solving, and tailored to the specific needs of each family. It utilizes the tools and skills I have developed over the years working with adults and children, understanding how stress affects behaviour and how de-escalation and developing our own self-awareness can affect behaviour. It is trauma-informed and rooted in an understanding of how attachment affects these relationships.

Crucially, I have been helping parents get on the same page, as I have seen how a child’s behaviour can impact parents, and the stress they experience when not always being on the same page can be significant. I have been able to help quite a few couples with this.

If you are interested in this service, please use the “getting in touch” page. If you feel that this is something your school could benefit from, please get in touch.

Quotes:

‘I am much less stressed not and more confident that I am doing things right’

‘Brian has made such a big impact on what we do at home’

‘I get no calls home form the school anymore and I trust them more now’

‘Brian has really helped us at home and we’ve seen a big change in behaviour’

‘I feel like this help saved us’