Emma Stephen

Deputy DSL in secondary school, passionate about supporting young people to be the best version of themselves. Based in Wiltshire, but my 💕is still in Wales

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

You know the holiday is getting closer when you choose your seats for the flight…

[Sue Cowley @Sue_Cowley]

I'm running this *free* behaviour training event to celebrate the sixth edition of my book on #behaviour. Now with a brand new title. Please retweet and share with colleagues. Thank you!

https://t.co/EiRpVL6cTM

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

WIN UP TO ￡300 Wallet Credit
Please~This is the SUPER EASY MODE for both of us to win up to￡300 credit!
https://t.co/51Vo7CUPN9

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

What should we do about attendance? Here’s a pathway I hear way too often. Child manages primary school fine, is happy there and excited to go to secondary school. They start, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and like many eleven-year-olds they find the transition hard. It’s a big step up.

Expectations are suddenly much higher than at primary school, not necessarily academically but in what is demanded of them outside the academics. They have to remember much more and the level of organisation required is significant. They have to get themselves from class to class with the right books and equipment and remember to walk on the right side of the corridor and not to talk. They don’t have one teacher throughout the day who they can get to know. They don’t know who to ask for help.

Eleven-year-olds are immature. They find all of this stuff much harder than adults, not because they are lazy, but because they are eleven and their brains have a lot of development still to do. They’ll still be developing until they are about 25, in fact. The things which are not well developed yet are exactly the things which they need to keep up secondary school – self-management, self-organisation and self-monitoring. It’s a struggle for them to keep up.

If their school has a high control approach, quickly they start to either get behaviour points or to worry about getting behaviour points. They start checking things all the time, and they become hysterical at home when they have lost a green pen, torn a homework page or they can’t find their socks. Emotion regulation is something else which is still in development at age eleven, and teenagers feel emotions (particularly when connected to shaming in front of their peers) intensely.

Their parents get alerts of demerits and they get detentions, having never been in trouble at primary school. They forget a detention (because they are eleven, and keeping track of things is harder when you are immature) and then they are in isolation. They start to lose their sparkle. They think that the teachers don’t like them. Everything piles up on them and they are increasingly unhappy. They start saying they don’t want to go to school.

School react by saying that if they don’t come every day, they’ll be excluded from the school trip and offer an certificate for 100% attendance. This doesn’t help. Their unhappiness increases. Every morning is a struggle. They become a ‘persistent absentee’ and their parents get official letters and fixed penalty fines. Their parents say ‘It was like falling off a cliff’ and they don’t know what to do.

Where’s the problem here? Is it ‘behaviour’ and they should simply be made to keep going to school? Or is there a problem with what is going on in some of our schools, creating an environment in which some children simply can’t thrive?

If we aren’t allowed to ask the question, we’ll never find out.

[Darrell Wakelam @DarrellWakelam]

@DavidNautilus1 A very experienced teacher once said to me “school is sometimes an island for children, an island in a sea of troubles. But they quickly realise that if there’s one safe island, then there may be others.” I’ve never forgotten this, it was 30 years ago. 👍

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

.@OVOEnergy have surpassed even my low expectations of customer service…3 different chats, 3 different versions of a way to resolve the same issue and none are actually helpful…

[Richard Osman @richardosman]

Happy 2024 everybody. Wishing you all peace, health and happiness. Lets spend less energy on noisy people who want our attention and more energy on quiet people who need our help.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Feargal Sharkey, "This year is the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. For 25 years the people of NI have been able to prosper and grow and blossom. And have discovered that this thing peace, is a very delicate beautiful little flower that needs nurturing caressing supporting."

"I do wish the people of Gaza, Palestine, and Israel, get to discover what 25 years of peace, prosperity and diplomacy and democracy looks like. And that those people can blossom into a much more confident and brighter future for everyone involved" #HIGNFY

[Pooky Knightsmith @PookyH]

Can Where a Child Sits in Class Really Make a Difference? (spoiler alert: YES!)

https://t.co/OgeIWza5MJ

The latest episode of my podcast explores sensitive seating - a simple, free and highly effective intervention.

Please listen & share

[Refuge @RefugeCharity]

Could you help to replace a child’s school uniform after they’ve fled domestic abuse, so they can have a fresh start this September?

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

@GWRHelp interesting journey home from Bath to Swindon, when 4 passengers say they’ve ‘jumped the train’ and your colleague tells them ‘that’s ok…’ and walks on.

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

@SaturdayKitchen winning innuendo bingo this morning!

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

Ah well, was nice while it lasted…🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #SixNations2023

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

👏🏻👏🏻

[HMI Michelle Skeer QPM OBE @MSkeer_HMI]

I wouldn’t normally comment on such poor journalism but this is an absolutely disgraceful comment about a professional senior female police colleague - I did wonder what decade I was in !

[The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes]

Teens in crisis: why we need to change the way we raise daughters.

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

Would it be ok to pretend I have a foot injury just so I can wear my slippers for another day?

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

@WelshRugbyUnion v Argentina tickets? Don’t mind if we do…@SophieWorkman @HmsHannah

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

@SUnsworth90 @Radley_and_me Louise is excellent, her knowledge around trauma informed teaching is brilliant. Would highly recommend!

[David Baddiel @Baddiel]

I don't care what anyone says, I'm very happy with this.

[Emma Stephen @emmacstephen]

👏🏻👏🏻

[Aldi Stores UK @AldiUK]

us next @marksandspencers xx