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Teaching Framework: The Empowerment Approach
At Sun Hill Infant and Preschool, we are always looking for ways to build on and improve our practice. Over recent years, we’ve seen that our pupils have increasingly diverse needs, and we recognise the importance of supporting every child in understanding themselves as individuals.
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We believe that when children feel better, they do better. That’s why we’ve adopted The Empowerment Approach; a framework that helps children understand how their brains work, recognise their behaviours, and develop the self-awareness and self-control that they need to thrive.
Good for me, Good for you, Good for everyone
This year, we’re embedding this learning priority more deeply into daily school life. We’ll be actively teaching children about being ‘Brain Fit’ to be at their ‘Brain Best’ and using this language across the school.
As part of this we’ve also updated our behaviour policy to reflect this approach. These changes will shape how we support children day-to-day and help them grow into confident, reflective learners.
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Behaviour Approach
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As part of our new approach to behaviour we are using the phrase ‘Good for me, good for you, good for everyone’. This helps us all to think about our behaviour and how it impacts upon others. It helps us to ‘catch the good’ and celebrate when children are showing pro-social behaviour. It also helps us to support children when they are dysregulated or finding something hard as it considers the impact of their actions for others around them.
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When a child has shown good skills of resilience by persevering with a task that was challenging we might say…
‘It’s good for me because you didn’t give up and you learned something new, it’s good for you because you kept on going even though it was tricky, it’s good for everyone because you can share those skills next time you learn something new.’
When a child has shown unhelpful behaviour we may say:
‘It’s not good for me because I believe you can do it… it’s not good for you because you’ve got upset, it’s not good for everyone because we want to support and help you.’
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The 5 'C's - Comfort, Connection, Count, Capable & Control
In order to be at our best at school and home, it is important that our 5 Cs are met. We need to feel comfortable, have a connection with the people and environment around us, know that we count and make a difference, and know that we feel capable and can do a task and feel in control of a situation. If we are dysregulated, it is likely that one of these needs is missing.
At school we are teaching about these needs in order that children better understand themselves and can tell us which need might be missing. It also helps your child’s teacher plan to include these needs in class so that your child feels at their best at school.
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The 5 C needs include:
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Comfort – feeling safe and at ease
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Connection – feeling linked to people and surroundings
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Count – feeling valued and that we make a difference
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Capable – feeling competent and able to complete tasks
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Control – feeling in charge of our actions and environment
Sometimes it is hard to understand what the missing need might be and we often step in to try to fix the missing need or difficulty. In order to do this we need to be ‘curious’ about the behaviour and not put any blame on the individual. We need to be insistent, persistent, and consistent, with a bucketful of kindness.
To support children effectively, consider the following questions:
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What is the behaviour telling me?
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What are the unmet needs?
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What are the missing skills?
We need to think: what are the missing skills or needs? How can we help the child manage their needs in a pro-social way so that they have a pathway to independence?