Emotional Regulation

NICE recommends a whole-school approach: a supportive climate, trusted relationships, universal curriculum content on social and emotional skills, targeted support for those who need more, and staff trained to deliver it. The DfE and Public Health England whole-school framework sets out eight principles most schools already audit against — leadership, ethos, curriculum, pupil voice, staff development, identifying need, working with parents, and targeted support.

Neither points towards buying a programme. Both point towards the ordinary conditions of the school: how adults speak to children, how predictable the day is, how consistently the behaviour policy is applied, and whether staff have the confidence and time to do it.

DfE behaviour advice expects clear, consistently applied expectations alongside reasonable adjustments for pupils with SEND. Schools run into trouble at both extremes: rigid application that punishes children for the very thing they need help with, and unpredictable discretion that leaves staff unsure and children unsafe.

The practical question for leaders is whether staff know exactly which adjustments are sanctioned, who decides, and how they are recorded — so that adjustment is policy rather than the disposition of an individual teacher.

• Are sanctions data disaggregated by SEND, disadvantage and year group, and does anyone look?
• Do a small number of children account for most of the recorded incidents, and what changed for them this year?
• How much learning time is lost to sanctions, and what replaces it?
• Are internal exclusions, lost playtimes and part-time timetables tracked and reviewed?

NICE specifically recommends training so staff can support wellbeing, and the EEF's implementation evidence suggests that professional development which is sustained, modelled and followed up changes practice, while single training days largely do not.

Confidence matters as much as knowledge. Staff who fear that a difficult moment reflects on their competence tend to escalate. A culture where asking a colleague to step in is normal is a regulation strategy at organisational level.

• Is social and emotional learning taught explicitly and revisited, or delivered once a year in a themed week?
• Is what is taught in PSHE actually used by adults in corridors and classrooms?
• Are targeted interventions matched to identified need, with entry and exit criteria — or are they where children go?
• Are the resources chosen quality-assured, or bought because they were marketed well?
• Is provision mapped so you know what is being delivered, by whom, and to whom?

Emotional difficulty and attendance are closely connected, and emotionally based school avoidance rarely responds to enforcement alone. DfE guidance on mental health and behaviour, and on supporting pupils whose health affects attendance, is the right reference point when building a response with families.

Relationships with parents are part of provision, not communication overhead. Families of children with SEMH needs are frequently the ones who feel most blamed, and they hold information school cannot otherwise get.

Externally, know what exists locally — mental health support teams, educational psychology, early help, school nursing, voluntary sector provision — and who in school holds those relationships when a key member of staff leaves.

1. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Improving Social and Emotional Learning in Primary Schools — guidance report (2019, updated 2021)

   The main UK education reference for this area. Recommends teaching social and emotional skills explicitly, embedding them in everyday teaching, and planning implementation carefully — rather than buying a programme and hoping.

2. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Social and emotional learning (Teaching and Learning Toolkit)

   Summarised by the EEF as moderate impact for very low cost, based on moderate evidence. Worth reading before describing any approach here as proven.

3. Wigelsworth, Verity, Mason, Humphrey, Qualter & Troncoso (University of Manchester), for the EEFResearch evidence
   Programmes to Practices: identifying effective, evidence-based social and emotional learning strategies — evidence review (2020)

   The review underpinning the guidance report. Notes that effects vary widely between studies and that how an approach is implemented matters as much as which approach is chosen.

4. Department for EducationProfessional guidance
   Mental health and behaviour in schools (2018)

   Non-statutory advice on how schools can support pupils whose mental health affects their behaviour and learning, and on the line between school support and clinical services.

5. Department for EducationProfessional guidance
   Behaviour in schools: advice for headteachers and school staff (2022, updated 2024)

   Sets the expectation that behaviour policies are applied consistently and that reasonable adjustments are considered for pupils with SEND — the two things schools most often have to hold together.

6. Department for EducationStatutory guidance
   SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015)

   Defines social, emotional and mental health as one of the four broad areas of need, and sets out the graduated approach — assess, plan, do, review — that schools must follow.

7. Department for Education (research by University College London)Research evidence
   Identifying and supporting children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs: a rapid evidence review (2025)

   Part of the DfE's SEND evidence programme. Published as research, not policy — the DfE states it does not endorse the approaches described.

8. Department for Education (research by University College London)Research evidence
   Behavioural and social communication interventions for children and young people with SEMH and autism: a rapid evidence review (2026)

   Reviews what is known about behavioural and social communication approaches for these groups. Again published as evidence rather than endorsement, and the reviewers are careful about the limits of the studies available.

9. Department for EducationResearch evidence
   Identifying and supporting the needs of children with SEND in mainstream settings (2025)

   The collection page for the rapid evidence reviews above, including cross-cutting themes on identification and collaboration.

10. National Institute for Health and Care ExcellenceProfessional guidance
    Social, emotional and mental wellbeing in primary and secondary education (NG223) (2022)

    Recommends a whole-school approach with a supportive climate and trusted relationships, universal curriculum content on social and emotional skills, and targeted support for children who need more — with staff training to deliver it.

11. Public Health England / Department for EducationProfessional guidance
    Promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing: a whole-school and whole-college approach (2021)

    The eight-principle framework most UK schools use to audit their wellbeing provision — leadership, ethos, curriculum, pupil voice, staff development, identifying need, working with parents, targeted support.

12. NHSProfessional guidance
    Children and young people's mental health — advice for parents

    Plain-English NHS advice for families, including anxiety in children and how to seek help through a GP or local children and young people's mental health services.

13. Anna FreudProfessional guidance
    Resources for schools and colleges

    Free UK resources from a children's mental health charity, including practical materials for whole-school approaches and for staff wellbeing.

14. Anna FreudProfessional guidance
    Mentally Healthy Schools

    Quality-assured resource bank for UK primary schools, useful when choosing classroom materials that are not simply commercial products.