Teachers’ responses
Children are more independent, more confident, have new friendships, less worried about making mistakes, are better listeners and turn takers.
I have learnt about projecting emotions.
Changing partners weekly reduces anxiety and develops a class community.
My emotions can have an effect on the children and I need to be able to offload them after a stressful moment. Stories are very powerful in dealing with children’s emotions.
I am less anxious to try new strategies. I have increased interest in exploring the causes of extreme behaviours in class. I have increased awareness of child anxiety in the classroom. It was good to share and discuss with colleagues in an informal manner.
The class culture is improved with happier children, happier adults and more independent children. I have better understanding of extreme behaviour. I see the importance of formative assessment. We have now changed PSHE planning to include the zones of regulation, self-efficacy, growth mindset affirmations and fabulous mistakes. We have now included books linked to emotions – children now have a better understanding of what’s going on.
I focus on containing children’s emotions, something I quite naturally did e.g. staying calm, but this project has given me realisation that as a teacher I can contain panic and anger and model to the child how to cope with those feelings. This has validated their emotions as I think I sometimes had he tendency (me and lots of other adults) to brush ‘small’ problems away. Now I ensure I don’t do this and help children tackle every issue.
I’ve really enjoyed the entire project and loved meeting and hearing from other teachers who are employing the skills we have been taught. Their experiences have been a great insight into the impact on children from different age ranges, out of my own experience, and now I am working with similar children who are presenting with similar issues.
This has helped me focus on the whole class and individualised strategies to reduce anxiety around learning. It has helped me develop strategies for developing talking about emotions and making this the norm, so that as a result, children find it easier to share their difficult emotions.
The project has helped reduce my anxiety which has helped reduce the anxiety in the classroom and provide better teaching. The importance of containment and providing emotional support even when children display extreme behaviours has had great impact. The power of success criteria to reduce anxiety and cognitive overload and PETI (practise, effort, time and input) have worked really well to help children know exactly what they need to move forward.
I have been given lots of different ideas to try with children in school. I have reflected on the ‘why’ behind certain behaviours and been given background information. It has helped to reduce my anxiety over dealing with anxious children and given me ‘food for thought’.