Education – Sarah Ockwell-Smith

What Makes a Good School? (Hint – it’s Not in the Report)

This is a guest blog, from headteacher Rob Dell, who also wrote THIS article (about whether mainstream schooling and gentle parenting can ever mix: When I meet new parents at our school, they often arrive armed with the usual tools: performance tables, Ofsted grades, league positions. I understand why. These are the official signals—public-facing indicatorsContinue reading “What Makes a Good School? (Hint – it’s Not in the Report)”

Parenting children with ADHD or explosive behaviour – a free excerpt from my new book Raising Attention

My new book RAISING ATTENTION, a supportive guide for parents and carers of children (of any age) with ADHD or undiagnosed explosive behaviour is published on July 3rd. Read on for a free excerpt from the introduction: The path of a parent who has a child displaying explosive behaviour can be a lonely one. IContinue reading “Parenting children with ADHD or explosive behaviour – a free excerpt from my new book Raising Attention”

Ten important takeaways from ‘Because I Said So! why society is Childist and how breaking the cycle of discrimination towards children can change the world’

We have all been affected by childism when we were children, we often don’t realise it though and just grew to accept that adults hold a position of power over children. Often our loved ones have been even more deeply affected than us and when we struggle with their beliefs about parenting and discipline, we have to start with empathy and understanding how they have reached this position before we can ever try to change it.

The problem with end-of-term school attendance and behaviour awards

As I write, it is the end of the school year in England. Last week, hundreds of schools celebrated the most priviledged of their students. Those priviledged include children who are fortunate enough to have good health, a two-parent family or a single-parent family with lots of local support, a family lucky enough to not live in poverty, a parent with good physical and mental health and children no special educational needs and disabilities. Children lucky enough to tick all of these boxes were treated with special parties, ice creams, certificates, stickers, sweets and other rewards celebrating their ‘good behaviour’ and ‘good attendance’. Not so fortunate children were left to experience yet another day of disappointment, stress and estrangement from their peers.

What is Childism? and why should we all be talking about it?

What exactly is Childism?

In short it’s about the discrimination of children in our society. It’s about the fact that child rights should be human rights, and yet children are treated in ways we would never imagine treating an adult.

Why Fear and Compliance is not the Same as Respect when Disciplining Children

Our society is obsessed with children respecting adults. As children get older, our focus on this respect for elders increases. We tolerate what we deem as ‘disrespectful behaviour’ from toddlers and preschoolers, but once children are of school age our tolerance wanes. We take their backchat, rudeness and refusal to listen or do what we tell them to do as an indication that they are lacking in respect for us and we meet it with punishments, chastisements and consequences. We are wrong.

What Does ‘School Readiness’ Really Look Like?

A question that seems to crop up again and again among discussion groups is “what do I need to teach my child so that they are ready for school?”, this is commonly followed by questions such as “do they need to know their ABCs?”, “do I need to teach them to read?”, “should we practice phonics?” and “should they be able to write simple sentences?”