In this course you'll explore practical and effective de-escalation techniques that you can use to help the young people you support. This course is aimed at teaching assistants or anyone working with young people in an educational setting and there are some ideas here that could be adapted for use by parents and carers too.

During this practical short course, Pooky will walk you through a range of simple ideas to help you to be the adult that your anxious teen needs.  None of these ideas require any existing knowledge or experience and are designed to feel easily doable.  You don’t have to do them all, pick one or two and see how you get on. This course is written with parents and carers primarily in mind, but the ideas here could easily be adapted for use by people working with young people or you could use them to deliver workshops or discussion sessions to parents or carers. One of a series of webinars commissioned by Resilient Rutland who are funded by the National Lottery

This mini-course has been developed by Pooky to share with you 5 very simple strategies that can be used by adults or children to help them to manage day to day feelings of anxiety.  These strategies will not change the underlying issues, but they can help us to get through each day without feeling completely overwhelmed.

In this course you will learn about the characteristics of PDA, a profile of the autism spectrum. x Children who present as demand avoidant will also have high levels of anxiety, making everyday tasks seem overwhelming to them and result in refusing, withdrawing or shutting down to avoid doing things. This can be very challenging as a parent and is often be overlooked or misinterpreted. We will look at all the ways that a child may present with PDA and how to spot the triggers alongside strategies to help support these children. While autism approaches may be helpful for addressing sensory issues we will also look at the flexible and collaborative approaches that are needed for the child who is demand avoidant. This course will help you to learn new creative strategies and knowledge to support the child at home and how to understand our children and support them in a way that works for them.

In this course Pooky will walk you through eight practical ideas and approaches to enable you to better support students who are currently self-harming.  This will aid your understanding and your confidence. The course is suitable for anyone working with or supporting a young person who is self-harming in any way.  These videos could also make a useful focus for team INSET.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs are needs that can be an obstacle to formal learning in a similar way to other SENDs, and yet the differentiation for learning is sometimes hazy. In addition, some pupils with SEMH also have other SENDs – how do you account for both in your classroom? 

This course gives you an overview of practical approaches and solutions to supporting the needs of these young people – how to prevent behaviour getting in the way of learning and how to support the pupils’ strengths to help them understand that education can be for them too. 

This is a course for anyone new to Speech, Language and Communication Needs and wanting to find out more about them. It aims to give you the basics so that you can start to identify pupils who may be displaying tendencies and work with those pupils to support their needs. We’ll therefore give you advice and simple ideas you can put into practice straight away and approaches to adapt and trial. It may be that the pupil needs further support so we’ll talk about what other avenues you may want to pursue. Great for teachers new to the profession, support staff or anyone wanting to check their understanding and support pupils to have the best possible outcomes.

This is a course for anyone new to Attachment Disorder and wanting to find out more about it. It aims to give you the basics so that you can start to identify pupils who may be displaying tendencies and work with those pupils to support their needs. We’ll therefore give you advice and simple ideas you can put into practice straight away and approaches to adapt and trial. It may be that the pupil needs further support so we’ll talk about what other avenues you may want to pursue. Great for teachers new to the profession, support staff or anyone wanting to check their understanding and support pupils to have the best possible outcomes.

Eating disorders are really hard to understand and can leave us very worried about doing and saying the wrong thing, fearful that we’ll make things worse. Consequently, many people do not try to help at all. In this course I’ve tried to help you build your current strengths and understanding to give you some ideas about how to support a child or young person with an eating disorder even though you’re not an expert. You won’t get it right all the time, none of us do… but these simple ideas will build your confidence and enable you to make a difference to any child you are working with or caring for regardless of your role and experience.

In this course you will learn about the characteristics of Pathological Demand Avoidance - PDA, a profile of the autism spectrum. Children who present as demand avoidant will also have high levels of anxiety, making everyday tasks seem overwhelming to them and result in refusing, withdrawing or shutting down to avoid doing things.  This can be very challenging in a school environment and can often be overlooked or misinterpreted. We will look at all the ways that a child may present with PDA and how to spot the triggers alongside strategies to help support these children. While autism approaches may be helpful for addressing sensory issues we will also look at the flexible and collaborative approaches that are needed for the child who is demand avoidant.  This course will help you to learn new creative strategies and knowledge to support the child in school as well as enabling the child to feel understood and supported through their time in education. This course is for anyone who would like to gain greater knowledge of PDA and be better equipped to support the child in feeling able to engage with their environment and learning.

This course provides an accessible introduction to anxiety and provides useful pointers for any adult supporting a child with anxiety.  Common misunderstandings and misconceptions are addressed, we consider some potential pitfalls to avoid and we explore a range of simple, practical ideas for supporting anxious children.

Self-harm is a topic that many people feel puzzled or scared by so this course aims to demystify it for you and help you to gain an understanding of the motivations behind self-harm and how we can use this understanding to support a young person to a place of relative safety.  There is no quick fix nor a one size fits all answer here, but this course will boost your confidence and give you some clear ideas about how best to support children or young people who are currently self-harming. This course has been developed by Dr Pooky Knightsmith, an internationally recognised mental health expert and author of “Can I tell you about Self-harm – a guide for parents friends and professionals” and “Self-harm and eating disorders in schools” which was based on her PhD research into the topic.

Four practical strategies for promoting positive body image are explored in this course which aims to help school staff boost the self-esteem and body image of the children in their care.  The ideas translate to both primary and secondary school and are applicable to children or all genders. The course has been developed by Dr Pooky Knightsmith, former chair of the expert reference group on body image which reported into UK government and lead author of Department for Education funded guidance for PSHE teachers about promoting positive body image in learners.