Raising happy girls

The author and childcare expert Steve Biddulph’s latest book is out today 20th April.  Following on from his book on raising boys the new book: 10 Things Girls Need Most To Grow Up Strong and Free,  tackles the possibly even trickier subject of how to raise girls.

There is a great deal of concern about girls health and wellbeing at the current time.  Much of this focuses on the way social media can work to undermine a girl’s confidence and set up damaging rather than empowering role models.  For a taste of the book’s central message have a look at the article by Lorraine Candy for the Sunday Times magazine.  This is available on Steve’s website.  There is quite a harsh message for parents here but see what you think, even if you don’t have young girls to raise.

http://www.stevebiddulph.com/Site_1/UK_Times_Article.html

Restorative work instead of sanctions and punishment

It was good to read a report in The Guardian on the use of a “restore” process in a school in Gloucester to break the cycle of sanctions and exclusions. As part of the research and development undertaken for an Erasmus+ funded project, staff from Crossfields Institute have taken part in a training session led by teachers from Finland, who use Restorative Mediation widely in their schools. It had a significant impact on the group of 50 teachers gathered from four countries, and we could see the value of the process for both student and staff conflict or difficulty.

Learning support on four legs!

We welcome the increased interest in the use of dogs as educational support “staff” in schools, as reported here https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/28/teaching-support-dog-school-teach-read

We offer several qualifications that accredit practitioners working with horses and dogs to facilitate human development, develop mindfulness practice and use horses in therapeutic work. Developing these qualifications has allowed us to see at first hand the amazing ways in which trusting relationships between animals and humans can lead to increased health and well being.