School Behaviour Secrets with Simon Currigan and Emma Shackleton

Episoade

• How To Keep The End Of Term Sane 13.07.2026 23min

  The final week of term should feel positive - but when routines disappear, emotions rise and pupils realise the year is ending, behaviour can quickly start to unravel. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn how to keep the end of term calm, structured and meaningful without removing all the fun. We’ll look at why pupils often become silly, emotional or unsettled before the holidays, how to balance high-energy activities with calm “landing” tasks, and how to help children lo...
• What School Leaders Need To Know About SEMH Right Now 06.07.2026 18min

  School leaders are facing increasingly complex SEMH needs, rising pressure around behaviour and inclusion, and more uncertainty about what effective support should look like in practice. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll hear what schools are telling us right now about SEMH leadership, why it can feel so difficult, and what leaders need in order to move forward confidently with SEMH and behaviour. You’ll also find out about Beacon School Support’s first National SEMH Confere...
• When Pupils Use Friendships As A Weapon 29.06.2026 24min

  Some behaviour problems don’t start with defiance, disruption or poor emotional control. They actually start when pupils use relationships to humiliate or exclude another child in their friendship group. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll discover how Relational Aggression affects pupils in both primary and secondary schools, why it’s so easy for adults to miss and how it can drive anxiety, dysregulation and sudden changes in behaviour. You’ll also find out how the PAIN Frame...
• How To Support Pupils Who Are Anxious 22.06.2026 27min

  Have you noticed some pupils seem more anxious, avoidant or dysregulated at this time of year - even when nothing obvious has changed in the classroom? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn why exams, transition days, new classes, secondary transfer and end-of-year changes can increase anxiety for pupils. You’ll discover why some children aren’t just reacting to what’s happening now - they’re reacting to what they think is coming next. Plus we’ll look at how anticipatory a...
• Teaching A Tricky Class? This Is The First Thing To Fix 15.06.2026 23min

  Got a tricky class that feels harder to teach than it should? Sometimes the problem isn’t one big behaviour issue - it’s the smaller repeated issues that drain everyone’s attention, patience and energy. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we look at why some classes feel so difficult to manage, how problematic routines can create hidden workload for teachers and pupils, and why simply telling pupils what to do once is rarely enough. You’ll discover why children don’t always transfer ...
• Why Some Pupils Fall Apart After Lunch - And What Schools Can Do 08.06.2026 25min

  Have you ever had a pupil come back from lunch looking fine - only to refuse work, argue, shout or completely fall apart minutes later? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore why lunchtime isn’t always a break for every pupil. You’ll learn how social stress, sensory overload, unresolved conflict and tricky transitions can build up during lunch - then spill over into the afternoon lesson. We’ll also look at what schools can do to make lunchtimes calmer, support vulnerable pupi...
• When Behaviour Strategies Work… But Make Things Worse 01.06.2026 26min

  Have you ever used a behaviour strategy that worked brilliantly in the moment - only to find the same behaviour came back again the next day? And the next? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore why some short-term behaviour strategies appear to work because they reduce the immediate tension but can accidentally teach pupils or whole classes habits that make behaviour harder in the long run. Most importantly, you’ll discover three simple questions that help break the cycle an...
• Are We Mistaking Compliance For Regulation? (And Why It Matters) 18.05.2026 25min

  Are the quiet, compliant pupils in your classroom genuinely regulated - or just holding everything together? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore the important tension between compliance and regulation. Because while schools absolutely need routines, boundaries and clear expectations, “doing what we asked” doesn’t always mean a pupil is calm, settled or coping underneath. You’ll learn why some pupils can appear fine in school but collapse at home, how masking and shutdown c...
• Why Pupils Say “I Don’t Care” - And What To Do Next 11.05.2026 21min

  What should you do when a pupil looks you in the eye, shrugs and says, “I don’t care”? It’s one of those classroom moments that can easily pull adults into a power battle. But while they sound disrespectful or deliberately provocative - what if those three words are not the whole story? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore what pupils might really be communicating when they say, “I don’t care,” why taking the words at face value can lead us in the wrong direction, and what ...
• When Behaviour Seems To Come Out Of Nowhere: Understanding Stress Stacking 04.05.2026 24min

  When a pupil explodes over something small, it can look like their behaviour came out of nowhere. But what if that “tiny trigger” wasn’t really the cause - just the final bit of pressure they could no longer cope with? In this episode, you’ll learn how stress stacking affects dysregulated behaviour, why looking for one simple trigger can lead schools down the wrong path, and how to ask better questions after an incident so support is matched to the pupil’s real needs. You’ll also hear a pract...
• The Hidden Causes of Attention-Seeking Behaviour 27.04.2026 26min

  Why do so many sensible school strategies fail, even when staff are trying their best? In this episode, you’ll learn why attention-seeking behaviour is often a misleading label - and why two pupils can show very similar behaviour for completely different reasons. Using the PAIN framework, you’ll discover how to look beneath the surface, identify the hidden drivers behind a child’s behaviour, and choose responses that actually match their needs. You’ll also learn why adult attention can change...
• Why Good School Strategies Fail - And How To Fix Them 20.04.2026 25min

  Why do so many sensible school strategies fail, even when staff are trying their best? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore one of the biggest challenges facing school leaders: consistency. Because having the right strategy is only half the battle - the real challenge is getting staff to understand it, apply it in practice and embed it over time. Using the example of restorative conversations, you’ll learn how to use the ALIGN framework - a simple, practical model to help s...
• How Executive Function Can Trigger Student Dysregulation 13.04.2026 24min

  What if a pupil’s dysregulation isn’t just about behaviour - but about hidden executive function demands they can’t yet manage? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn how difficulties with executive function can fuel frustration, overload and emotional dysregulation in the classroom. Using a concrete case study and the PAIN framework, we unpack how challenges with holding information in mind and inhibiting impulses can quickly tip a child from not coping with work into shut...
• SEND Reform Is Coming: What It Means For Behaviour And SEMH In Schools 23.03.2026 22min

  The government’s new SEND reform paper proposes major changes to how schools support pupils with additional needs. But what does it actually mean for mainstream schools, teachers and SENCOs? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we break down the key changes in the proposed SEND reforms and explains what they could mean for SEMH support in schools. You’ll learn: • Why mainstream schools will increasingly be expected to meet SEND needs earlier • How the new layers of support (Universal,...
• Why The Students Who Need Your Help the Most Are the Ones Who Reject It (Understanding Avoidant Attachment) 16.03.2026 19min

  Some of the pupils who need the most support are the ones who refuse it. They say they’re fine. They push adults away. They avoid check-ins, mentoring and pastoral support - then struggle or explode under pressure. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore why this happens, through the lens of avoidant attachment. Not as a label, but as a way of understanding why help itself can feel unsafe for some children. You’ll learn why well-meaning support strategies sometimes backfire, w...
• Why Social Media Makes Children’s Behaviour Worse (And How To Help) 09.03.2026 18min

  Why do children sometimes say things online they would never say face to face? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn why social media can make behaviour escalate so quickly - and why it’s not simply about children being unkind. Drawing on psychology and real-world school experience, we explain how social media and messaging apps remove the natural feedback that helps children regulate their behaviour - and why that’s important. You’ll come away with a brain-based fra...
• Emotional regulation is not a curriculum – and treating it like one backfires 02.03.2026 21min

  Emotional regulation is not a curriculum - and treating it like one backfires. Many pupils can explain their emotions, name calming strategies, and talk confidently about what they “should” do… yet still struggle to cope when things get hard in the classroom. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn why teaching emotional regulation as a set of lessons often doesn’t work, and how schools can accidentally make things worse by confusing facts about regulation with emotional reg...
• Kids Aren’t Less Resilient - We’re Training It Out Of Our Students 23.02.2026 24min

  More children are struggling to cope with small setbacks in school. Mistakes feel overwhelming. Frustration escalates quickly. And learning grinds to a halt. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, we explore why this isn’t about children being “less resilient” - and why common advice like “push through” or “try harder” often makes things worse. You’ll learn how modern home and school environments have reduced children’s opportunities to practise coping with difficulty - and what that me...
• Why “Be More Assertive” Is Bad Advice – And What Actually Works in Classrooms 09.02.2026 24min

  Teachers are often told they need to be “more assertive” in the classroom. But what does that actually mean when behaviour starts to wobble, pressure rises, and everyone’s watching? In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn what assertiveness really looks like in practice - and why it isn’t about being louder, stricter, or more dominant. Instead, it’s about clarity, calm and making better decisions before you even open your mouth. You’ll explore why many behaviour confrontatio...
• The SENCO Bottleneck: Why the Role Is Becoming Impossible in Caring Schools 02.02.2026 25min

  In many schools, the SENCO role has become the pressure point where everything ends up - SEND, SEMH, behaviour, parent concerns, paperwork and managing crises and pupil outbursts. And when that happens, how SEND and SEMH is supported across the school starts to break down. In this episode of School Behaviour Secrets, you’ll learn why the SENCO job has become increasingly difficult even in caring, well-intentioned schools - and why this isn’t about individual failure. You’ll see how a range of...