Developing Teaching Assistants – new opportunities, new responsibilities  

Academic achievements are very important, but schools are about more than just that. For pupils who have SEN or any other emotional or behaviour issues it is vital that these are solved as early as possible. Parents of this children also need support and re-assurance that your school is doing its best for them.

Over a thousand schools have developed TAs into multiple roles by training them as Practitioners in Therapeutic Play Skills to do both of these tasks.  They are achieving success rates of between 75% and 84%. Consider this opportunity if your school is not yet one of these or you are not already employing a registered Play Therapist.

The training takes place over five weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) to minimise time away from school at 13 venues in the UK.  It’s at post graduate level, validated by Leeds Beckett University.  Qualifies for the Register of Play and Creative Arts Therapists accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.

Improved learning; pupils with better emotional well-being and mental health; happier parents; good staff development; excellent use of your budgets.

Learn more about the skills needed and our training methods on a one-day Introduction to Play Therapy course.

More information:  mokijep@majemail.com to fix a time for a chat.

www.playtherapyregister.org.uk

www.playtherapy.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Jeff Thomas – Registrar Play Therapy UK

 

How can the tale of a veteran inspire students to try harder?

Students are always interested in people who come from significantly different backgrounds from themselves – sports stars, celebrities, entrepreneurs…people whose lives are totally different from their own.

We currently have a team of military veteran speakers touring the country and are on a mission to inspire students to increase their aspirations and motivate them to be the best they can possibly be.

Our speakers draw upon their unique experiences of success and failure to convey the value of hardwork and commitment to get the best in life.

Schools and academies regularly invite us to work with their Year 11 students prior to the new year, so our study techniques can be incorporated early in preparation for the exams ahead.

The good news is that we are making our sessions even more affordable by offering a one hour seminar to 100 of your students for £399.

During the session we cover:

– How to be self motivated

– Inspirational stories of success

– Strategies to plan your work

– Study skills to ‘get the edge’

– Revision techniques.

If you are interested and would like to know more, then please feel free to contact me for a no obligation chat.

In addition, if you know of any other schools or academies which would benefit from one of our military speakers working with their students, I would be very grateful if you were to forward my details across to them.

Many thanks

Nasir Unia

07830 208725

info@armykeynotespeakers.com

www.armykeynotespeakers.com

What is the most frustrating yet most common obstacle to learning that we see among pupils and students?

Of course we all get frustrated with pupils and students who are not using their natural talent or native ability and who could do so much better at school, but simply won’t settle down to work.

However, such a lack of application is not just something that is observed in the classroom or with homework.  It gets reported in all walks of life.

Employers constantly see young staff who could really get on in the business but who have a certain resistance to being told what to do. The same is found in sport – athletes, footballers, swimmers, etc – all with a natural ability that could give them a career in the sport, who simply will not train properly or refuse to look after their bodies.

And then again it is there in the arts – the talented actor who won’t focus in rehearsals, the musician who won’t practise…

So it is probably not surprising when we find it in school, when attitude gets in the way of what could be achieved.

The problem is, with all these cases, that once the poor attitude sets in it is quite hard to shift, not least because attitude is a habit, and habits are incredibly easy to pick up and very difficult to remove.

Difficult – but not impossible.  For with a clarity of purpose it is possible to make a change in attitude and behaviour happen in virtually every individual – as long as we can encourage parents to play a central role in the issue of the changing attitudes and behaviour of pupils and students.

Our argument is that if ways can be found to bring parents who might not normally associate strongly with the school, into the school’s approach, then change can happen more quickly and become more solidly embedded within the school and within the pupil or student.

From these concepts emerged a series of formal school policies and everyday approaches which are set out in detail in our report “Improving attitudes, managing behaviour and reducing exclusions.”

The volume is available as a download only for £14.95, inclusive of VAT, with the right to reproduce the volume in full or in parts to colleagues in the school.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.schools.co.uk/samples/T1813.pdf

ISBN: 978 1 86083 845 3 Order code: T1813

You can obtain the download by: