Working in school transport with pupils who have social, emotional, and mental health needs or special educational needs and disabilities is a uniquely demanding role. Drivers and passenger assistants are often managing challenging situations in a confined space, without immediate backup, and on a schedule they cannot simply pause. When a pupil becomes dysregulated — upset, anxious, angry, or overwhelmed — knowing how to respond can make the difference between a situation that settles quickly and one that escalates.  When Things Get Difficult is a 15–20 minute on-demand CPD course designed specifically for school transport drivers and passenger assistants. Using accessible language and transport-specific scenarios, it gives staff a practical awareness of why challenging behaviour happens, how to spot it early, and what de-escalation looks and sounds like in their specific working environment.  This course assumes no prior training in SEMH or SEND. It is written for people who want to feel more confident, more prepared, and better equipped to support the pupils in their care — while also keeping themselves and others safe.    What the course covers 

• Why pupils with SEMH and SEND may find the transport environment particularly challenging, including the role of sensory triggers, transition anxiety, and stress responses 

• How to understand challenging behaviour as communication rather than defiance 

• The early warning signs that a pupil may be becoming dysregulated, and the value of knowing your pupils well enough to spot the difference from their baseline 

• Common verbal and non-verbal cues that signal rising distress or agitation 

• Practical de-escalation techniques, including tone of voice, body language, language choices, giving space, and avoiding power struggles 

• How drivers and passenger assistants can work together effectively during a difficult moment 

• What to do after an incident, including supporting the pupil, looking after yourself, recording what happened, and communicating with the school 

  Who it is for  This course is designed for school transport drivers and passenger assistants (also known as escorts or transport support staff) who work with pupils with SEMH and/or SEND needs. It is suitable for both new and experienced staff, and for those employed directly by a school or local authority as well as those working for an independent transport contractor. 

Conflict in schools is inevitable — but how it's handled makes all the difference. This honest, practical course is built around one central idea: conflict, approached well, doesn't have to damage relationships. It can actually strengthen them. Across five engaging video modules, this course explores the full range of difficult conversations that school staff encounter — from navigating tension with a colleague to handling an emotionally charged parent, to staying regulated in a charged moment with a student. Rather than offering scripts to memorise, this course gives staff a genuine understanding of why conflict escalates, what gets in the way of resolution, and how to show up to difficult conversations with both confidence and care. The final module turns the lens inward, looking at how to manage your own emotional response after a hard conversation — and how to repair and rebuild when things don't go as planned.

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When children show extreme behaviours like aggression, refusal, or emotional meltdowns, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder what you're doing wrong. The truth is, these behaviours are communication – they're telling you about unmet needs, triggers, and feelings the child can't yet express. You need practical strategies to understand what's really happening and respond in ways that actually work.

This is a recording of a past webinar session. As a senior leader, you are likely called upon throughout the day to support staff to de-escalate in situations where a child is displaying an extreme behaviour. Many senior leaders are also finding that members of staff are asking for senior leadership support much earlier on or for situations that they once would have addressed themselves prior to the pandemic. In this webinar, we will consider: 

• How to respond to extreme behaviours as a senior leader: working with staff, the child and their parents/caregivers 

• How to promote teachers’ autonomy to address extreme behaviours to reduce the levels of escalation to SLT 

• Practical strategies to support staff to address a wider range of behaviours autonomously 

• Normalising asking for support when staff are struggling in a situation: Raising awareness of the Crisis Curve 

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This course has been designed for teachers, TA’s or anyone working with or supporting children. I’ll discuss how reaching positive emotional states in play can enable children to learn the skill of emotional regulation.     

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Working positively with parents and carers and maximising on opportunities to communicate even the smallest of victories can aid in enhancing parental engagement. When we get parents and carers on side, we are more likely to see improvements in student attendance. This webinar will enable you to delve more deeply into how we can achieve this in a way that doesn’t add significantly to our workloads.

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This course (part 2 of 3 in the pathway You Can: understand teenagers, their behaviour and empower them in schools) invites you to understand how the world might see you – if you were a teenager. It explores the stereotyping, discrimination and negativity that teens face – and how you can be a part of building a positive context for our young people, so that they can thrive with their education and within society.

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