This website contains numerous communication tools parents and teachers can say and do that help students thrive at childcare, right through their schooling to university. Choose the ones that are easy for you, and then experiment with the ones to which the student(s) respond positively.

If this is done regularly, students will be more willing to attend, will feel safer and will have more focus and a sense of belonging while they are there. Many of these tools will not take any extra time as they are simply different ways to communicate. The adults I’ve spoken to about these tools have said that once they started, they had a sense of more time in the day, as their children/students became more agreeable.

I would love to hear your ideas and experiences. Others would too. I urge us to start this important conversation.