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What about the forgotten children?
There is much debate at the moment about the use of isolation and zero tolerance. Powerful people in education favour a zero tolerance approach that is punitive in its response to behavior. Many settings that use zero tolerance claim that once a child is removed from class they are supported, that it is never for longer than a day and they are with other children. This is challenged by professionals who believe the practice of isolation and zero tolerance to be dated, ineffective and often misused. It is predominantly vulnerable children who are repeatedly hit with these sanctions. The argument for the success of these isolations and punitive approach is…
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Educational Psychologists support #BanTheBooths
The BanTheBooths Campaign is proud to support the Association of Educational Psychologists (which is the Trade Union and Professional Association for EPs across the UK) in their motion at the TUC Conference. We are grateful for their collaboration. Their expertise and experience is invaluable to the campaign. The Office of the Childrens’ Commissioner has also been talking to the campaign and Paul has been to Westminster to meet with them. There is growing discomfort about extreme use of isolation, restrictive punishment and isolation booths. When they surveyed children (and not just those who frequent such spaces) it was one of their greatest concerns. We now have support from a…
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Ban The Booths News!
Our campaign is strong and growing stronger. Our recent parent blogs were extremely popular on social media, there have been questions posed in Select Committees about the use of Isolation and the extreme practices in some schools have hit the national press. Nobody should be able to put a child in 'boothed confinement' and call it 'inclusion'.
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Aged 12, recently bereaved, put in a booth. A parent speaks out.
At this stage I did not know that he was, aged 12 and recently bereaved, being placed in an isolation unit which was akin to a cell. His offences were more often than not very minor. I have since found out that 20 plus times he was placed in isolation for wearing white socks.
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A Matter of Rights and Wrongs #BanTheBooths
Pindown had been a management regime for ‘cracking down’ on children’s wilful or defiant behaviour in their care homes, ranging from forcing children to dress in pyjamas and slippers at all times to deter them running away, to prolonged periods of being kept in isolation and detention. Pindown had become normalised among staff in the homes that deployed it over many years
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Nothing is as simple as a hashtag #BanTheBooths
Nothing is a simple as a hashtag. #BanTheBooths carries with it a passion for a more inclusive, more relationally-informed and more sustainable future in schools. I support it because this is a conversation we must have both within the profession and beyond it.
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Myth-busting Monday
BanTheBooths is growing in support but we are a small group of volunteers in the early stages of an exciting campaign. To give some context we have been formed for just over two weeks. Our Parliamentary Petition went live a week ago. Yet we have already gathered support from MPs, have had Headteachers rip out their booths overnight and have been featured in national TV and press. At the highest level of decision making BanTheBooths has entered the conversation. At the DFE, Ofsted and in Parliament. Our campaign is polite, respectful and well mannered. We are a credible, experienced and utterly determined bunch of Teachers, Parents, Advisors, Headteachers, Governors, Educational Psychologists, Professors…
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Booths and SEND, forced compliance v sensory processing
It was during a job interview – I had done my research beforehand and it was a role I was really keen to do. Things started well; I talked to some enthusiastic pupils and delivered an assembly on Mental Health. Then we came to the tour and three quarters of the way through I was taken to a room at the far end of the school. “This is our isolation room. This is where pupils come when they refuse to follow our school rules. They stay in here for the whole day, including break and lunch times.” This week’s blog is from Callum Wetherill, Teacher, Pastoral Leader and SLE All…
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Why we should #BanTheBooths by Wayne Beech
Let me set the scene: It is half past one, I am sat in my office and while the rest of the school settle into their learning for the afternoon, the verbal barbs of “let me out, this is child abuse, you’re not my dad!” echo into the otherwise tranquil corridor. This week’s BanTheBooths blog is from Wayne Beech, Deputy Headteacher of a Primary School serving an area of high deprivation. His day has not been a productive one, with the Christmas season in full swing, the onslaught of Nativity practices, Christmas Fairs and regular interruptions to the timetable, his ability to cope with the school day has diminished. As…
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Support #BanTheBooths campaign – Simon Kidwell, Headteacher
I have spent twenty-five years teaching and leading schools across Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Cheshire. I have led a school with a resource base for children with statements for behaviour, I have led a school out of an OFSTED Category, and I have worked as Local Authority Improvement Advisor with a number of schools that require improvement. In my experience, the vast majority of children who display the most challenging behaviour have a significant challenge establishing a sense of belonging. This can be a result of a difficult start to life, communication and learning difficulties, a chaotic home life, or from being excluded from school. There are two routes to…
