Simon Currigan: 0:57

You know that one room in school that's meant to fix behaviour, but somehow the same kids keep ending up there? Isolation, detention, the reflection room, the rainbow room. So many metaphors. Well, there's a reason it's probably not working for a significant number of the kids that you teach. And in this episode, I'm looking at why this common approach feels effective in the short term, but can actually make challenging behaviour even harder to change in the long term. If you've ever wondered why some pupils just don't respond to detention or being sent to isolation, this one's for you. Hi there, my name's Simon Currigan and welcome to this week's episode of School Behaviour Secrets. And in the words of Depeche Mode, when it comes to SEMH in schools, I just can't get enough. And yes, I did work as a waitress at a cocktail bar and I never got tipped once. And it's not the kind of cocktail bar you were imagining. Dark times. And I'm still working that one out with my therapist. And before you message me, now I've said it... I do realise I've just mixed up Depeche Mode with soft sell. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because there's. anyone who lived through the 80s will tell you- you never want to get on the wrong side of a new romantic. Anyway, today we're unpacking why isolation rooms don't work, why we're seeing the same pupils ending up in them again and again, over and over, and what schools can do instead to actually change negative or problematic behaviour rather than just try to control it. And before we dive into that, can I ask you, please, for a quick favour? If you're finding the School Behaviour Secrets podcast helpful, please take a moment to to subscribe so you never miss future episodes. And if you could leave us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Amazon Music or wherever you listen, it really helps other teachers and the school leaders find the show, because when people leave reviews the algorithm, shares the podcast, and that gets this kind of practical support to people who really need it and helps us grow the podcast. Thanks, if you would. I really appreciate it. All right, let's get into today's episode. Do isolation rooms work well? As a man who's constantly sent out of the room by HR during staff meetings for saying inappropriate things and swearing too much, I feel like I've got some insight. When I talk about isolation rooms, I mean those spaces in UK schools where pupils are sent to when their behaviour in class crosses a line. Sometimes they're called reflection rooms or reset rooms, or internal exclusion. The idea is simple. Remove the pupil from class so they can calm down, think about what happened and avoid disrupting the learning of others. In practice. what this often means is sitting alone at a desk, facing a blank wall, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for the whole day, with little or no contact with staff or peers. Sometimes pupils are sent there during an incident, in the heat of the moment. Sometimes they might be sent there the next day or for behaviour from the previous day. So different schools have different approaches. So do they work? And I've already trailed this really, so there's no spoiler alert here. No, but it's a bit more nuanced than that. It depends on what do you mean by do they work? Do they work for whom? So let's unpack this and start looking at pupils with more complex needs who become dysregulated or find it hard to cope in class, get overwhelmed, that sort of thing. If isolation rooms worked for those children, to stop those pupils repeating the same negative behaviours in class, well, we wouldn't see those same children in isolation rooms day after day after day. But we do. And the statistics back this up. Ask anyone who's been unfortunate enough to be asked to staff one and sit in one. It's literally a like Groundhog Day. Same faces, same stories, every single day. And not only that, in many schools, we're seeing the same people spending even more time in isolation as the term goes on. They're not spending less time, they're spending more time. It's like they've got a season ticket and they're trying to get value out of it or something. So what's going on here? Because if isolation is the answer, why are the same kids turning up week after week after week? Well, usually one of two things. Either the child doesn't yet have the skills to do what's being asked of them and meet expected standards in school, or their behaviours being driven by underlying factors that haven't been addressed. So that might mean you're seeing emotional behaviours, they're anxious or angry or overwhelmed in class. Or it might be environmental, too much noise, too much sensory overload or inconsistent expectations or poor sleep. It might be cognitive, the task feels impossible and they've lost confidence with their work. It could be social, they don't yet have the relational or communication skills to get what they need in appropriate ways. When we look through the pain framework, and that stands for the primary areas of internal need, we can start to see those stressors more clearly. The pain model looks at how stress affects a child's physical, emotional, cognitive, social and pro social functioning. And when those stress systems are put under strain, behaviour always changes. We looked at the pain framework back in episode 246 and if you've not heard it, I definitely recommend that you go back and have a listen to that because it gives you a way of understanding what's causing a student's behaviour in the first place, so you can address the underlying causes, the drivers, rather than trying to tackle the symptoms, which is the behaviour you see in the classroom itself. So when we don't do that, when we don't look at the underlying drivers, what do we often do in response? Well, we double down and we increase the punishment, we increase the time spent in isolation. So if one day in isolation didn't work, let's up the ante, let's make it two. If a lunchtime detention didn't work, let's make it an after school one or one on a Friday afternoon. You know that detention where hope goes to die? We keep raising the stakes in the hope that it's going to have a different outcome in the future. But here's the thing, for these kids, it doesn't work. It's a bit like the death penalty. It's the most severe punishment available, but it's never stopped murder or rape in the countries that use it. The severity of the punishment doesn't change the root cause of what's causing those crimes. And in a similar way, suspensions, well, they don't stop permanent exclusions, they just delay them or they're a signal that a child's on the way to a permanent exclusion. And I can't think of many cases in all honesty, where a student's been repeatedly suspended and the suspensions have been made longer and longer and that suspension made a difference to that child's long term trajectory of leaving the school. And look, right, I'm a pragmatist, I'm not in the business of ideology. If you've found a system and you've made this work in your school to support a child and it changes negative behaviour into a positive one and it's humane. We're not talking about the educational equivalent of waterboarding, then I'm all for it. Do what works in your school for your kids. But if the same students are ending up in isolation week after week and that consequence clearly isn't working for them, then that's when we have to start digging deeper. So let's tackle the biggest myth of all, that isolation helps pupils reflect. Now many of these rooms are called something like reflection rooms, but truth be told, there's very little reflection in the real world going on in most of them. Think about it. When a child's been removed from class, they're rarely calm, they're still flooded with stress hormones, their nervous system is in fight or flight, their brain in that state, in that moment isn't ready for logic or empathy or problem solving. And it won't be for hours and hours. And then we put to them in the isolation room and we hand them a reflection form and we ask them to fill in answers like what did you do wrong? and what could you have done differently next time? Now those aren't necessarily bad questions and I can kind of see the logic in this and there is a quote I love that I'm going to share with you, which is we don't learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience. So there is a logical thread here. But often in the real world, because the pupil's body is still screaming danger. If they're sent to isolation in that moment or they're sent the next day because of factors like toxic shame or drivers from the pain framework are fueling their emotions whenever they're in school, that means they're not going to be able to engage in that kind of high level reflection. Their brain simply won't access that kind of thinking, asking them to reflect in that state and without access to the higher order skills to do so in their brain without feeling, and this is important, safe enough to look at their actions and emotions without triggering shame. It's a bit like asking someone in the middle of a panic attack to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. We're not teaching reflection, we're teaching shame. And shame doesn't lead to insight. Shame leads to avoidance, shame leads to resistance. If we want to encourage genuine reflection, it has to happen when the child is calm. After they've co regulated with an adult they trust and feel safe enough emotionally to separate their actions, their behaviour from their identity, to separate what I did from what that makes me as a human to get into a state where they can reflect honestly and you get them into that state and then enter into, not a worksheet but a restorative conversation, a coaching conversation with an adult. That's when they can actually learn from what happened during a coaching conversation. So here's the first practical step. Replace reflection forms with restorative conversations or coaching conversations, short structured check ins that happen when the child's regulated, not during dysregulation or frustration or anger. And that needs to be with a human being, with an adult, not with a pen and paper and not with ChatGPT. Sorry, GPT, you know I love you, but this isn't your arena. They need a connection with a human. And this is where we come to the second reason isolation rooms often don't work. They remove the very thing a child needs to calm down and be in this state, which is connection with a human being. We all regulate through people and nervous systems are built to synchronise with the calm of someone safe. So think here of like a two year old screaming and shouting because someone's hurt them, that life's unfair or whatever. And what they need in that moment isn't a reflection sheet, it's an adult to deal with their emotional state, to hug them and calm down their nervous system. That's called co regulation. It's biology, not theory. Well, many of our students still have that two year old inside them calling the shots. And that two year old has never learned to soothe themselves, rightly or wrongly, whatever the age of the student. They could be in primary school, they could be in secondary school. They need an adult to reach calm so they can reach clarity. And just to be clear, before I move on, I'm not saying we should be walking around schools hugging kids like some creepy uncle. When we as teachers and school leaders co regulate kids in school, obviously we do it differently- professionally. But when we do the opposite of connection, when we isolate a child, the message becomes when you lose control, you lose connection and belonging. For some kids, especially those with trauma or attachment needs, that message is devastating. Because what they already have deep down is the belief that relationships are conditional, that adults are inconsistent and they can't be trusted, people can't be relied on to stay with them through hard times, that if they mess up, they'll be rejected. So isolation doesn't just fail to regulate, it reinforces that child's deepest fear. Rejection from the group. So to avoid that, they reject you, they reject their friends, they reject other members of staff, they reject the school because of that fear. Which means you can't punish a child with that kind of background into feeling safe. So the question is, what is the alternative? Well, we need to think about converting isolation rooms into regulation spaces. Calm, sensory, supervised environments where the focus is reconnection, not exclusion. That means trained adults who know how to de escalate and co regulate. It means predictable routines and it means sending a clear message you still belong here. We don't agree with what you did. There are boundaries. But we're still here for you. And we're going to help you get back on track together and be before we move on to what that conversation should look like, just another quick reminder. If you're enjoying this episode of School Behaviour Secrets or you're finding it useful, make sure you hit the subscribe button so you never miss a future episode. And while you've got your podcast app open, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, however you listen, if you could leave us a quick review, even just a single sentence and a rating, it really helps spread the word to other educators who need this kind of support. We don't sell anything through the podcast, so if you'd like to support me, that takes just 60 seconds and it's completely free. And if you're looking for practical tools to help you support pupils with SEMH needs, check out our free SEND Behaviour Handbook. Inside you'll find bite sized guides to common conditions like adhd, autism and trauma, plus a behaviour analysis grid that links classroom behaviours to possible underlying causes. And I know a lot of school leaders are downloading it and printing it out to leave in the staff room as a helpful guide for other members of staff. So that's one useful way of using it in school. It's completely free to download. I will leave a link in the show notes which you can open in your podcast or you can visit beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/SEND-handbook that's beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/SEND-handbook alright, let's get back into it. Here's the core of what's really going on in many schools, isolation rooms aren't being used for repair, they're being used for respite. And I get it. Behaviour incidents are exhausting. I've been there. I worked in a pupil referral unit. Sometimes removing a child gives everyone the pupil, the rest of the class, the adults in the room, the teachers, the teaching assistants, a bit of breathing space. It buys time and it resets the room. And I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. It can be productive, it can be helpful, it can create a useful break where everyone can reset their emotions. But by itself, that's not repair. Repair means helping the child build the skills to manage a situation differently next time. It means addressing the underlying needs that cause the behaviour. It means looking at how things are set up in the classroom, using something like the pain framework to avoid issues in the future. But respite is just about relief for the adult and the child. And the truth is, isolation often addresses adult anxiety and the frustrations of other pupils, but it does nothing to address the child's future behaviour. Now, just to be clear, I'm not saying school should get rid of every consequence or punishment, detentions, isolation, sanctions, they all have their, their place. But if a child ends up in isolation once or twice, then never again. Fine, it worked. But that's not what this episode is about. That shows in those cases that the consequence worked. It helped the pupil course correct. Consequences work well for chosen behaviour. Now, this next bit is the thing that might make some listeners bristle, but listen to this because it is important. Even as someone who's passionate about SEMH, I acknowledge that part of the reason consequences exist is not just to change the target pupil's future behaviour, but it's also justice and to send messages to the group about what behaviours are acceptable and aren't acceptable, what the boundaries of this social group are. And all social groups have boundaries. They need them to function, whether those boundaries are spoken or unspoken. So that means when one child harms another or breaks a rule, the victim in that situation needs to see that there's accountability and justice. And the class as a whole who are watching that interaction need to see that the boundaries of the social group mean something. If child A swears at the teacher and nothing seems to happen, then trust in the system and the adults and the school's routines, well, that erodes. And then some other pupils start to think, so the rules don't really apply then, do they? So, yes, accountability matters, boundaries matter. But isolation for a number of pupils doesn't achieve that. It looks like justice, but if a child is in isolation week after week after week, then we as the adults have to face facts. This approach isn't working for them. So there's two levels to the question of does isolation work? Work for whom? There's the big picture way of looking at this, the big picture level, which is, is it working for the bigger social group? And then there's sort of the zoomed in version. Then there's the kind of individual children who are showing up, up in isolation all the time. And for those kids, that's the trigger. That's the point where it makes sense to stop just relying on punishment and start investigating what's driving their behaviour, what's missing, what skills need to be taught, just not consequenced. I call this the R cubed framework. It's all about Replace, Retrain and Rebuild. Replace isolation with connection based regulation spaces and exploring what led to the dysregulation in the first place. Break out the pain approach to help work out what those factors are in the classroom again. Go Back to episode 250 for more information about using that. Retrain staff so they know what to do in terms of co--regulation, emotion-coaching, restorative practice, how to make realistic adaptations to get things back on track and then rebuild systems so that support starts before crisis, not after it. True accountability happen through repair, not removal. That's how we teach responsibility and preserve belonging at the same time. So if you're listening to this as a school leader or a Senco and you're thinking, all right, what do I do next? Here are three practical steps you can take straight away. Step one, audit your isolation data. Look at the last four weeks, who's been in isolation more than twice, say, who's racking up repeat visits, who's in isolation so often they should probably be contributing to the council tax bill because that's your sign. Those are the pupils that the system isn't working for. Collect that data deliberately over a good period, say four weeks or half a term, and then look for patterns. Time of day, lesson, teacher trigger. Once you've got that, you can start identifying what's driving the pupil's behaviour. Step two, measure effectiveness. Ask is this consequence changing behaviour in the long term? Because if it's not, it's time. Time to adapt. Build in trigger points for a change of approach. For example, in your policy, say something like, if a pupil ends up in isolation three times in a month, that's the threshold for an intervention, or looking at their needs more clearly. And at that point you stop repeating the same consequence and start investigating underlying needs using the pain framework that will give you specific answers. And then step three, redefine your space. If you have an isolation room, repurpose it, make it a regulation or a reconnection space or whatever. Staff it with calm. And the next bit is really important. Emotionally literate adults who understand co-regulation. Some adults can do this naturally, some adults really struggle with it. The right adults need to be in the room and then change the environment so it becomes about reducing sensory load. Have predictable routines in there so the kids know what to expect. Add small signs of belonging. Remember, changing the label isn't enough. You've got to change the experience. And then build this into a child's written plan that addresses underlying needs. And if a child has, say, some social skills deficit or a regulation deficit. There needs to be some sort of intervention in place to help address these two or the child is going to go around and around and around and around and that's not what we want. So, in summary, isolation offers control for the adults, but for many kids, it doesn't lead to change. It is immediate, it is visible, it feels decisive, but it doesn't fix the long term problem. Problem. For a significant minority of kids who find themselves in isolation, real change comes from connection, consistency and a sense of belonging. Isolation might make the corridors quieter for today, but it doesn't make the child stronger or less likely to turn up to isolation tomorrow. It's a short term fix. Ask yourself the question, do the isolation spaces in our school, do they regulate or do they reject? Are they about rebuilding or are they about respite? Because every decision we make about behaviour teaches our kids a lesson, even when we don't intend it to. And if this episode has made you rethink your approach, then please share it with a colleague. The more schools who move from isolation to connection, the better the outcomes will see for every child. And again, this isn't about dogma. If you're implementing isolation in a way that works for your students and it's humane, good for you. Get in touch. I'd love to hear about it. And if this episode's made you really rethink something, please share it on social media or with your colleagues. Spread the word. And get in touch with me too. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And before you go again, one last request. If you haven't already, please hit subscribe and leave us. A quick review on your podcast app takes just a few seconds, but it really, genuinely helps us reach more educators who need this kind of support. And don't forget, grab your free copy of the SEND behaviour handbook at beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/SEND-handbook nor check out the link in the podcast show Notes. Inside, you'll find practical, easy to use guides on conditions like adhd, autism and trauma, plus a behaviour analysis grid that helps you link classroom behaviour to underlying causes so you can support your pupils more effectively. That's it for today. My name's Simon Currigan. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time on School Behaviour Secrets.