This article describes how autism was explained to a group of Year 10 students. This was in response to an autistic boy feeling socially rejected in a mainstream school. An adaptation of the whole class session of a 'Circle of Friends' was used. The process served to challenged the stereotypic ideas the class held about the autistic boy and helped them to change their attitudes towards him.

Background:This paper describes the impact upon well-being of pupils, staff, and families following the introduction of Emotion Coaching as a whole school approach.Objective:This paper’s objective is an attempt to redress the lack of published evidence about the use of Emotion Coaching in schools and to highlight how a school has been able to adopt a humanistic relational approach in a climate in which behaviorist principles are dominant in schools.Method:A case study approach using mixed methods was used. Data were examined from an outcomes model perspective where the benefits and changes intended from Emotion Coaching were the starting point. Perspectives from pupils, staff, and families were gainedviainterviews and structured questionnaires alongside quantitative measures of pupil academic progress and staff and pupil behavior.Results:Results indicate that Emotion Coaching improved the pupil’s ability to regulate their feelings and had a positive effect upon teacher-pupil relationships. Family-school relationships were supported by the school’s use of and modeling of Emotion Coaching with families and the ethos of attunement and non-judgemental interactions implicit in Emotion Coaching. Emotion Coaching promoted an increase in shared emotional language and trust. Shared emotional language and trust were key in the development of both teacher-pupil and family-school relationships. There was an improvement in well-being in that: rates of pupil restraint decreased, pupils made better than expected academic progress, staff absenteeism reduced, and families reported improved family life.Conclusion:We conclude that Emotion Coaching contributes to the promotion of sustainable, holistic improvement in wellbeing for pupils, school staff, and families.

This paper positions Emotion Coaching as a universal strategy for supporting sustainable emotional and behavioural well-being within community and educational contexts. It offers Emotion Coaching as an effective strategy that promotes resiliency skills and locates it within the broader social agenda. The paper will address the key elements of Emotion Coaching which reflect a bio-psycho-social model for universal well-being and are informed by theory and research from neuro-science, interpersonal neurobiology, developmental psychology and attachment theory. The paper will review the growing international evidence base for Emotion Coaching and its multi-disciplinary application to a range of professional and personal contexts. Emotion Coaching helps to create nurturing relationships that scaffold the development of effective stress management skills, develop capacities to promote emotional and behavioural self-regulation and support pro-social behaviours. We argue that Emotion Coaching is a simple, cost-effective, empowering and universal tool that can harness well-being through improved communication, relationships, self-regulation, attainment, health, and resilience.

Background:Application of attachment theory in school contexts lacks empirical evidence. The Attachment Aware Schools pilot project was commissioned by two Local Authorities in England to improve the educational outcomes of Looked After Children, and to build an evidence base. Informed by attachment research, the Attachment Aware Schools program provides a coherent and integrated theoretical framework, discourse, and practice for all practitioners working with children and young people.Objective:The primary focus was to provide whole school and targeted attachment-based strategies to support children’s well-being, behavior, and academic attainment. This paper; however, documents a secondary objective, which was to facilitate collaborative partnerships with families.Method:As part of the mixed methods approach to the Attachment Aware Schools project, a series of case studies were collected and thematically coded. The case studies were generated by practitioners using an outcomes-based framework.Results:Although the case study sample size is small (N=10), the case studies presented here illustrate how the Attachment Aware Schools program can promote increased home-school engagement and shared practice between home and school. Outcomes include improved home-school relationships, reductions in behavioral incidents, and improved family dynamics.Conclusion:Attachment Aware Schools can be a vehicle for facilitating supportive home-school collaborative partnerships with positive outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.

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