Using the PACE Approach at Rhondda Cynon Taff Special School

Children who've learned not to trust adults often push back hardest against the people trying to help. PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy) gives you a way to stay alongside them. It isn't a script, just a change in how you use your voice, your face and your reactions.

A touch of playfulness can take the heat out of a minor incident before it grows. Accepting a child's feelings lets you hold the line on behaviour without shaming them. Music, art and clay give pupils another way to tell you how they feel. In one special school, a boy played his teacher a song about how far he'd come in a year, something he could never have said face to face.

You'll also have answers for colleagues who think PACE lets bad behaviour slide, and ways to look after yourself when the work gets heavy.