Emotional Literacy in Cheshire

Patricia Buxton, a full time EP at Delamere House, Crewe, Cheshire, writes about her work to develop youngsters’ emotional literacy.

I am in the process (session 4) of running the Anger Management Group based on The Southampton Model. I am working with 6 youngsters (4 boys and 2 girls in Year 7/8 ) in one of my high schools in Cheshire. The group is being supported by the school and the school has purchased all of the resources so that they can continue running groups following the initial group that I am facilitating. The SENCO is acting as the observer and the teacher who was employed by the school through the social inclusion budget is working with myself as group supporter. The group has found it difficult to adjust to the different approach and it has taken up to the last session for them to start opening up and discussing issues they are concerned with. One such issues regarded school staff being present for the sessions, although the teachers concerned did not actually teach these pupils themselves

On the two occasions that I have run the group, session 2 seems to be the most difficult in that the pupils are not playing a game and are having to think and be creative in trying to discuss or draw feelings. During session 4 the group opened up a huge box of issues that will need to be addressed in school such as bullying, attitudes regarding staff members to these and other pupils, curriculum content, differentiation, lack of emotional intelligence both on the part of pupils and staff and also some of the huge domestic issues with which these children are dealing, and of which the staff up until then had no insight into or knowledge.

The Anger Management package at this moment in time appears to be more of a tool to allow the staff to look at how pupils think and to understand why they behave in the way that they do. This in itself is very powerful. When I ask of staff, for example, "How do pupils in your school know what to do if they feel that they are being bullied?" I might get answers such as, "We have a bullying policy which everyone follows"; the pupils themselves can tell me, however, "We would not know where to go or what to do, the only answer is to punch or call names in order that the bullies do not get away with it because nobody listens to us. We are always in trouble and the teachers expect it to be us because we have a reputation". This tool has allowed a bottom up approach rather than a top down approach and has allowed pupils to have the freedom to express their feelings in a safe, non-threatening way that would otherwise have been very difficult to create. The games are a real winner with the pupils, but can be very challenging. The spinning part of The Anger Solution Game can be obscure.

I think that the Anger Management Model is a way of making pupils think rather than coming up with solutions; the outcomes may not be measurable in the short term, however I feel that staff will expect this. It would be interesting to follow up with outcomes over time.

I initially ran a group with Social Services with pupils on the verge of being looked after. This group was 2 boys and 2 girls aged 12, 14,14 and 15. This group was difficult to run because I had no back up from school as the pupils attended 3 different schools and social workers tended to leave it to the people running the group. I was able, however, to advise senior members of staff of what need to happen in the future in order for this to be successful, such as having a representative from each of the schools attend an initial meeting so that the youngsters would get more support in school and for the individual social workers to be more actively involved in supporting the youngsters. A good idea might have been to have run a parenting group alongside the Anger Management Group for the parents of these youngsters, so that the two groups were receiving the same messages. It would have also been good if follow up work in school could have been done by myself as SSD EP or the school EP. Unfortunately, as I moved posts, this was not possible. As far as the participants were concerned it was a huge success because they were being treated as having a view, as being listened to and as being valued. This was, they said, the first time that anyone had given them time and space without nagging, criticising or judging. The group was run after school in a centre from 5-7pm and there was 100% attendance for the 6 weeks plus one extra session as a social Christmas event. Evaluation was very positive from the pupils and outreach workers who were participating. The outreach workers are about to start a new group which they will run themselves with the option of seeking advice from me if necessary.

There were common issues raised about the difficulties that the pupils were having in school from both of the groups that I have run.

I am about to deliver a workshop on Anger Management to teachers through INSET on a day run by the Behaviour Support Team and will be using The Southampton Model along with material from Rob Long and Jonathan Fogell: Supporting Pupils with Emotional Difficulties Creating a Caring Environment for All

I am involved with the development of Mind Friendly Learning through looking at Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences. I am particularly interested in looking at emotional intelligence and how this affects learning in a learning organisation. I have recently delivered a workshop to the Cheshire Primary Heads Conference on Developing an Emotionally Healthy Learning Organisation. This involved looking at adults’ perceptions of their own intra and interpersonal intelligences and how these skills could be taught /utilised in their learning organisations. This work is based on Daniel Goleman's book Working with Emotional Intelligence.

The issues that have arisen from the Anger Management Group fit in nicely with the message that school should be looking at creating a caring environment for all and appears to support the need to develop Emotionally Healthy Learning Organisations.

Added November 2000