Recent Talks

Practical strategies for the adults supporting anxious and neurodivergent children who find school hard, where what looks like won’t is often can’t. Using the five domains of safety, physical, sensory, social, emotional and cognitive, it shows how small changes to environment, communication and the way we show up can lower anxiety and rebuild trust.

Practical strategies for school staff who want to respond well when a student’s behaviour escalates, rather than taking it personally or making it worse. This keynote shows why challenging behaviour is almost always survival, not sabotage, and uses the CALM framework to help you get the first 60 seconds right, even when you’re under pressure yourself.

For parents and carers of children who feel rejection, criticism or failure far more intensely than most. A short, practical session on what rejection sensitivity is, why it hits so hard, and three things you can do differently: meeting the moment, softening how hard messages arrive, and making it easy to come back together afterwards.

For SENCOs in primary and secondary settings as autistic students move from Year 6 to Year 7, the point where many who seemed to be coping start to struggle. Practical, research-informed ideas for leading with strengths, making an unfamiliar school feel known before September, and putting a named, trusted adult in place so no student is left to manage the move alone.

A session for parents and carers of autistic children moving to secondary school. Five questions sitting underneath the worry of the move, with concrete things parents can do this summer, in the first weeks, and through the autumn term that follows.

For parents and carers whose children are struggling to attend school, this session gets to what’s actually driving avoidance and why standard approaches so often make things worse. Practical strategies cover managing mornings, understanding after-school meltdowns, finding the real barriers, and building a more productive relationship with school.