Relationships Matter
Supporting Schools, Trusts and Families put relationships and the heart of behaviour and wellbeing
About Me
I'm a qualified teacher, Thrive Practitioner and Trainer, and the founder of Relationships Matter. Before setting up this service, I spent 20 years working for Hampshire County Council’s Primary Behaviour Service. During that time, I worked in five of the six areas across the county and managed teams in four of them.
Throughout my career, I’ve supported children and young people aged 5–18 who were struggling with emotional regulation and behaviour. My work has included supporting their teachers, LSAs, and parents, as well as advising Head Teachers and Senior Leadership Teams. I bring a wealth of practical, relational experience from a wide variety of school contexts.
I’ve also worked with adolescent young people at risk of offending, supporting them and their families to rebuild more positive and effective relationships.
Over the years, I’ve developed and delivered training to school communities on topics such as:
- De-escalation and self-regulation
- The power of language and its impact on children
- Building meaningful relationships with pupils and parents
- Emotional containment and practical strategies for staff wellbeing
I’m passionate about supporting staff—especially Head Teachers, both new and experienced—as they navigate the emotional and practical challenges of working with dysregulated children. I’ve helped many to understand and manage their own emotional responses while supporting those in their care.
As a Thrive Practitioner and Trainer, I love how the Thrive Approach brings the science of brain development and relationships into everyday practice. It gives us a powerful framework to truly understand what children need in order to feel safe, connected, and ready to learn.
I’m known for forming trusting relationships quickly and for working with empathy, patience, understanding, and a deep belief in the power of relationships to create lasting change.
This new chapter in my journey is about bringing all that experience together to support schools, families, and organisations that want to get it right for children and young people.
I’m also the author of Relationships – The Key to Understanding Children’s Behaviour, which explores how connection and emotional safety underpin everything we do with children.
Jenny
Please do look at my testimonials below.
What can I offer?
Staff training -
- understanding your child or young person's behaviour and creating good relationships. What is the message behind the behaviour - addressing the primary behaviour so the secondary ones don't need to happen.
- De-escalation - understanding how we help young people to de-escalate when they are heightened, what is going on for them at the time and how to help them.
- Self-regulation - how do our young people develop self-regulation and how can we as adults help them.
- ASC/ADHD - understanding what is going on for young people and how adults can help.
- Language and its effect on our children and young people. How what we say and how we say it can alter their behaviour both positively and negatively.
- Any other behaviour related training - bespoke to your schools requirements.
Support for Head Teacher/SLT/all staff - emotional and practical.
Problem Solving sessions - or anonymous consultations - talk about a young person without naming them and we can problem solve together.
Parent Workshops - helping parents to understand their Child's behaviour, boundaries and why they are important and how the way we as adults deal with situations can affect the outcomes.
1:1 sessions with parents
Reflective practice/support sessions for school staff - a chance to talk about situations/behaviours and reflect on our practice.
School behaviour audit - a whole day in school with time spent in classrooms to assess the effectiveness of school behaviour policy/behaviour management with a chance to debrief, reflect and problem solve at the end of the day.
Support with school behaviour policy
Anything else you feel I may be able to offer - bespoke package for your school.
Costings
Dependent on frequency and length of session but as a guide:
Whole day - £400
Twighlight training - £200
Hourly - on request
Do get in touch to discuss what you would like.
Relationships - The Key to Understanding Children's Behaviou
Video
The very first one!
More to come - check out my Instagram page Relationships Matter
Number 2 coming soon!
There will be more!!
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