Thoughts From a Therapist: The Chasm Between Primary & Secondary Schools

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 26 August 2022.

I’ve been reflecting on my time in schools over the summer. As I think lots of us have been, I’ve been shifting away from behaviour based strategies for a while now (such as recommending the use of reward charts, praise, stickers), shifting to a more relationship based approach using curiosity, labelling emotions and collaborating with young people.

What filled me with hope is seeing this being embedded in primary schools (5-11 years), with staff developing trusting relationships with the children in their classes and taking a wider view of ‘behaviour’ to truly see what is being communicated. This was, on the whole, a stark difference to secondary schools (11 -16 years). For young people on the SEN register, accommodations were often made for them so they didn’t have to follow the rest of the school’s behaviour policy. But – I was left feeling that there’s some missing piece here – for those children not on the SEN register but still struggling.

In my cosy therapy bubble world, lots of us have shifted away from behaviour-based strategies to more attuned, nurturing approaches. It was so reassuring to see this in practice in primary schools. But the leap to secondary school entailed things like lining up for uniform checks, walking in silence, ‘no tolerance’ policies with being sent out of classrooms and very strict rules with very little room for flexibility. I was left wondering if this approach is necessary? Perhaps a vital part of growing up and learning to follow rules to be able to be successful in wider society? Or is there some middle ground that we need to find?

Building relationships between staff and students in secondary schools is so much harder. Teachers have hundreds of students they see for 1-2 hour a week, rather than a class teacher that they spend the majority of their time with. I don’t have any answers but I do have questions. Is a culture shift needed here? What would that look like? How quickly can staff establish trusting relationships with young people who are finding it hard to follow the rules?

For those of us specialising in sensory integration, we often see the children who are falling between the gaps. Who may not have any diagnoses but, for a variety of reasons, struggle to keep up and fit in. Maybe increased rule following is just a developmental shift that needs to happen at this age? Or maybe there’s an environmental issue here that could be setting some young people up to fail?

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over 10 years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism.