Up with social pedagogy!

I cannot believe that the same government that has introduced a Social Pedagogy pilot in children’s homes throughout the country is also allowing a giant-sized school to be built. Nottingham Academy will have 3,600 young people in its walls when they finally finish building the new blocks. Community size and wellbeing are known to be linked, for goodness sake.

If you haven’t heard the phrase “social pedagogy”, you can find information on the progress of the pilot on the DSCF site here, and an old Guardian article explaining it with examples here. I hope they’re progressing well, because one of the things we find in child therapy, and indeed in adolescent therapy, is that young people thrive in a small environment with a safe adult or a small safe group of peers. Why, then, would we build a huge school in which they feel overwhelmed and unimportant? That will be joined-up thinking, then!

With so much social, behavioural and emotional disruption in society among young people (not the majority, I accept), the Government would do well to concentrate on what works and focus carefully on whatever meets that need. Small groups, attachment needs met, sense of belonging and being appreciated – not many of my clients in therapy have all this.

Even okay children need these things; behaviourally challenged children need them even more – and our help when they are falling by the wayside. They are not a child therapist’s easiest clients (I talk from experience!) but helping them to success is even sweeter.

For BESD, the claims are that there are four main ways of “treating” children, (they are outlined here), and social pedagogy is one. The solution-focused part of this article makes a good case for this method of working with BESD, because it deals with the preferred future rather than the unwanted past.

I would add tapping (EFT) to this list for two reasons. One is that it accesses bodily feelings as well as cognitive issues, and another is that it can be used with a bear. Yes, you heard right, a bear! Have a look here at Tappy Bear to get the idea. It involves something we all know about – and that is: mirror neurons.

It works like this: when a child (in this scenario) puts the problem on Tappy Bear, views Tappy Bear with all “his” problems, and then taps for the bear’s problem behaviours and feelings, the child fires off mirror neurons in himself and so is also affected by the tapping procedure.

Neat – but identifying the child that can be helped in this intimate, understanding and nurturing way in an aerodrome-sized school will not be easy. That’s why I say hurrah for ideas about social pedagogy.