This approach can be simply implemented into any school as follows:

• The process must be seen by all staff, and especially the SMT, that it is vital to the future of the school’s success and not merely another ‘initiative’.



• Allow in the overall curriculum programme space inside say the PHSE faculty for the lessons - a lesson per week is ideal



• Train at least 4 of your staff to facilitate the programme



• Make sure that all staff members are aware of the structure of the programme: ideally run an inset day on Positive Emotive Delivery or Brain Compatible Classrooms



• Ensure that all staff are aware of the indented outcomes



• They should see greater motivation in all students within their lessons



• They should see students who are aware of their feelings and the impact they can have on others



• They should see disruptive classroom behaviour dramatically reduced



• There should be a greater awareness of behaviour issues by staff



• Parents should notice improved behaviour at home



• Students will improve their academic performance - in certain cases this could be as high as 30%



• As their empathic skills develop, students will accept the authority of staff



• Both mental and physical bullying will be reduced, making school a good place to attend and reduce truancy



• Students will become active listeners



• Phase replaces discipline in the school philosophy

The staff who are trained must be able to know and understand their own feelings and emotions.

The skills that the selected staff will train include the following:

• Self Awareness



• Self Responsibility



• Self Control



• Self Management



• How to deal with other people including those I don’t like



• How to cope with put-downs



• How to cope with people who don’t like me



• How to become a better friend



• How to actively listen



• How to be assertive but not rude



• How to walk in others’ shoes



• How to deal with bullying behaviours



• How to deal with bullying behaviours directed at me



• How to cope with addiction



• How to cope with cheating and stealing



• How to be assertive



• How to deal effectively with adults



• How to say ‘No’ and mean it



• How to evaluate decisions

All of these can be taught effectively from 3 years to 18 years however, the young the students are the easier they are to teach.

In the approach taken by BAAT, we decided to call it the Life Science Curriculum for indeed it is what it represents.

The Life Science Curriculum gives a solution to tackle the fundamental problem of low-level unacceptable behaviour at school, challenging the attitude deficiencies that affect self motivation and a failure to achieve the academic performance that schools know they should achieve.

The Life Science Curriculum teaches students how to control their behaviour and emotions intrinsically, thus eliminating the need for extrinsic measures of control. Inappropriate behaviour not only affects the student, who fails to learn, but all those students immediately around them. Evidence shows that the Life Science Curriculum dramatically reduces mental and physical bullying.

Currently, five schools in Scotland and eight schools in England have trained teachers in the Curriculum. Three Primary Head Teachers from the West Midlands, who have currently been trained themselves in the Life Science Curriculum, all stated that they had never experienced anything so fundamental and necessary to their school and recommend that every school should embark on this approach.

A discernible change with their students immediate! At the end of the session students were asked to evaluate, on a non-judgemental basis, the topic taught. Their comments were staggering and showed the teachers that student emotions can be re-framed. This progress has been maintained into the new academic year.

The schools receive extensive training for four teachers over the 4-Day programme which is split into 2-2 day segments: this allows practical implementation work to be undertaken.

Each trained teacher is supported by 50 lesson plans to start the Life Science Curriculum which spans a 3 year period. We recommend that in the secondary schools it is started in years 7, 8 and 9 and in the Primary sector in years 4, 5 and 6. In addition, every trained teacher in the Life Science Curriculum is linked, by ourselves, to every other teacher who has been trained so that there is cross-referencing network in teaching any of the selected lesson plans so that ideas and best practise can be explored across the United Kingdom: currently, there are over 50 teachers in this network.

Within the investment, each school will get 3 follow-up visits to ensure that any arising issues are dealt with. This is supplemented with a 24/7 mobile phone service for any teacher who needs support; this running over the 3 years.

Each trained teacher also receives accreditation for the course as well as an Autogenic Certificate of Competence.

There are no short-term answers to emotional and behavioural control for it takes a similar time that it does to master any other subject such as mathematics, English, ICT, Foreign Languages and others, and this is why the curriculum approach is essential. Telling is a poor substitute for experience when it comes to training the emotions.