Courses & Training

DATES;

SUMMER COURSE

JUNE 2012 - Day 1: Friday 1st June, Day 2 :Thursday 13th June, Day 3: Thursday 21st June, Day 4 :Thursday 27th June
JULY 2012 Day 5 : Thursday 4th July

AUTUMN COURSE

SEPTEMBER 2012 - Day 1: Monday 24th September
OCTOBER 2012 - Day 2: Monday 1st October, Day 3: Monday 8th October, Day 4: Monday 22nd October
NOVEMBER 2012 - Day 5: Monday 5th November

A certificate to support children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. This is a modular, practical course for Counsellors, Teachers, SENCOs, Teaching Assistants or dedicated support staff with training from experienced and qualified therapists. Equips you to build strong relationships with children, to support learning and be a link to home. Interactive, hands-on training including; attachment theory & practice, motivation theory & relevant neuroscience, non directive & imaginative play (art, craft and clay, music, storytelling, puppets, drama), advocacy, transitions, child protection issues, anger management , anxiety, stress (including peer massage), recording including SDQs

Link and Support (Integrating Creative Play Skills with Counselling) A 5 x 1-day course, leading to certification – £500 (Inc lunch)

Body image involves our perception, imagination, emotions, and physical sensations of and about our bodies. Therefore building up a better body image enables us to feel more secure in ourselves. Clay is a familiar material in Art Therapy, Psychotherapy and other therapies that are working with creative mediums. Clay-work involves an intense and powerful tactile experience, clay and clay products are multi-dimensional objects and as such can represent real-life objects very closely. In this workshop, participants are guided and supported into creating/sculpting the own body with clay. Through this work, the participants are in a constant interaction with their own body image. Through their sculpture they receive immediate feedback about how they see themselves and may be able to adapt their self-perception. This can help them to build a warmer and gentler self-image and to accept themselves better in all of their imperfectness. (Max 9)

The Achievement for All Green Paper is about to change how the requirements of pupils with special educational needs are addressed in both primary and secondary education. Pupil behavioural, emotional and social difficulties negatively influence behavioural responses and inhibit progress in learning. We will discover how a wide range of individual factors interact to create complex behavioural, emotional and social difficulties in vulnerable pupils. We will explore strategies to reduce the impact for the child and school. (Max 12)

Almost anyone can listen, but how often have you had a conversation with someone only to feel that you were not really heard? Active listening is a technique that can improve communication between you and another.
Active listening includes the following components:

Hearing - Interpretation - Evaluation - Respond
 
Participants will have an opportunity to explore and practise these skills in a fun, interactive environment. (Max 12)

As people in relationship with others, we encounter 'boundary issues' regularly. But what are boundaries and why do we have them? Participants will be invited to define and explore their understanding of personal and or professional boundaries. Why is it that our boundaries are flexible with some people in our life and rigid with others? Why do we sometimes feel guilty or selfish when saying "no". Only when we recognise and respect our own need for healthy boundaries, are we in a position to help others around us to recognise and respect them also. (Max 12)

A one day workshop introducing the concept of non-directive play as developed by Virginia Axline.

Non-directive play has been shown worldwide to enhance emotional literacy skills in children, as well as promoting a more secure adult-child relationship. It is a useful and safe technique which often facilitates a child to verbalise his/her feelings through the medium of play. (Max 12)

With the support of modern research, we now know that nurturing touch is important for all human beings. The skin is our body's largest sensory organ and is directly connected to our nervous system. Without touch, human beings cannot survive or develop in a healthy way, physically, emotionally or socially. Throughout their development, children need caring adults who will help them to develop into healthy human beings. This course looks at the importance of nurturing touch for the child, for the development of the nervous system, multiple intelligences, emotional & social well-being and self-esteem. We will discuss different aspects of secure and healthy touch including respecting the self and others, boundaries, verbal and non-verbal communication and feeling safe. There will also be a practical demonstration within the workshop. (Max 10)

Psychomotor relates to movements of the body associated with mental activity. The main theory is that all our feelings and emotions are memorised in our body, hence the body mirrors our feelings and emotions. Children express themselves mostly through body language as they often don't have the verbal language skills to describe their emotions. Therefore, being aware of body movements and expressions helps us to understand children better in everyday situations, thus allowing us to react differently to their needs. This course looks at movement development and how it affects the emotional and cognitive development of children. We will discuss some simple ways of supporting children when they feeling distressed or anxious on a psychomotor basis. (Max 12)

What is Social Emotional Learning and why is it so important anyway?. Developing a curriculum that will support SEL in each developmental domain. How to be an SEL adept practitioner - the art of the early years relationship. How to support the SEL of hurt children; the invisible child, the aggressor and the worried one. Looking at how to collaborate with parents. (Max 12)

What is temperament and how temperament plays a part in the development of the child's personality and behavioural style. The three main temperament styles, recognizing which one is which and which one are you? Strategies & pitfalls when responding to temperamentally challenging children. Additional information and support on temperament. (Max 12)

Responding to the challenging "spirited" temperament and nurturing social/emotional intelligence in early years settings. Focusing on resilience building and managing child behaviour in early years.

This coaching approach engages parents & appropriate carers as agents of change to improve the child(ren)'s emotional state and behaviour through non-directive play. The role of Parenting Thru' Play training is essentially preventative. Used in early stages of emotional, behavioural and relational problems rather than at a crisis stage, it is suitable for parents/carers of children aged 18 months to 15 years.

What is it that leaders actually do to build and maintain sustainable high performance? Compelling research shows that there are five themes which are used the world over in top performing organisations - Adaptability, Leadership, Focus, Openness and Reputation. Education faces unprecedented change but what do you need to nurture or develop in your teams to help them do more than just survive? You will complete a high performance diagnostic and identify areas of priority for action. An interactive and lively workshop for Heads, Chairs of Governors and senior leaders. (Max 12)

The Massage in Schools Programme is a high-quality inclusive programme that can be used creatively within all curriculum areas and age groups and links to areas of current government initiatives relating to children, such as 'Every Child Matters'. The Massage In Schools Programme is a fun, whole-school, preventative strategy for promoting respect and reducing bullying. The trainer will brief parents and teachers regarding MISP and have a question and answer session about it.
The course is run over 6 weeks, during which peer-to-peer massage will be taught to both pupils and their class teacher by learning up to 6 new massage techniques each week. The class teacher will implement the massage techniques during the following week. On completion of the course the children will invite their care givers in to demonstrate their massage programme.