School Behaviour Secrets with Simon Currigan and Emma Shackleton

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 shutdown, refusal or meltdown.
You’ll discover why this matters even more now executive function is being talked about more explicitly in the SEND reform conversation, how lesson structure can accidentally increase stress, and three practical strategies teachers can use to reduce overload and support regulation more effectively.
If you work with children who seem to fall apart around learning demands, this episode will help you look beneath the behaviour and respond with greater clarity and confidence.
Important links:
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026)
It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.

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, Targeted and Specialist provision) are designed to work
• Why support bases and inclusion spaces may become more common in mainstream schools
• What the move away from diagnosis-driven support means for classrooms
• Why adaptive teaching, staff training and whole-school consistency will matter more than ever.
If you’re a school leader, SENCO or teacher supporting pupils with SEMH needs, this episode will help you understand what changes may be coming - and what your school should start thinking about now.
Important links:
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026)
It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.

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, what rejecting help is really communicating, and how small shifts in adult approach can make support feel safer without forcing closeness.
This episode is especially useful for teachers, SENCOs and school leaders working with hard-to-reach pupils who appear independent but struggle beneath the surface.
Plus, we also share practical techniques to use with the pupils you work with - who survive by not needing anyone.
A must-listen if you’ve ever thought: “Why won’t they let me help?”
Important links:
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026)
It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.

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 framework to understand online cruelty in children that you can share with staff and parents - and ideas for supporting children to slow down and make better choices on social media.
Important links:
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026)
It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.

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 regulation skills.
Using a real-world pupil story, we break down:
Why recalling strategies often fails when children are dysregulated
How automatic behaviours always win under stress
Why motivation doesn’t come first – and what should replace it
And how regulation is built through repeated, practical, supported experiences, not curriculum content
You’ll also hear a simple, classroom-friendly model – Co-regulation, Practise, Fade - to help pupils develop regulation through co-regulation, without adding more programmes or workload.
If you’re supporting pupils who “know the strategies” but still struggle in the moment, this episode will help you reframe what’s really going on - and what actually helps.
Important links:
Get your FREE Beacon School Support guide to helping children manage their strong emotions
Get our FREE SEND Behaviour Handbook: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/send-handbook
Download other FREE behaviour resources for use in school: https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/resources.php
School leaders: Join us at the National SEMH Conference (October 2026)
It's a whole day focused on the real SEMH, behaviour and inclusion pressures facing schools - and what leaders can do next. Plus, right now you can get Super Early Bird tickets at £250 - find out more and book your place here.