We batter them with kindness’: schools that reject super-strict values

Spring well is a school for special children from the age of 5 to 16. The school has 100 special children that have some sort of social, mental and emotional health issues. The executive principal, Dave Whitaker, along with all staff members greet each student with a warm smile and a personalized hello.

According to the principal, Verity Watts, this allows the teachers to spot those children that arrive school in a foul mode. She said, “You’re sussing out where the child is at and how they’re feeling.”

Many students suffer from anger management issues, belong to broken homes and suffer from neglect disorders. Majority of students have experiences abuse, neglect or poverty before they were enrolled in Springwell.

The unusual thing of the school is that all staff members have made a vow that they will approach each child with ‘unconditional positive rewards’ and ‘batter them with kindness’. This approach is a sharp contrast of the ‘no excuse’ approach that most schools follow.

This new approach of providing students with “unconditional positive regard” dates back to 1950s. It was the work of Carl Rogers, a famous psychologist. Education psychologist, Laura Winter, at the University of Manchester says that if all humans should be treated equally instead of saying someone is good only if they behave a certain way, or if they fit in certain boxes.”

Whitaker believes that children should be rewarded with small things rather than being punished for bad behavior. She said, “I could have a kid that spits in my face today and tomorrow I’ll be OK with them,” he says. And if a pupils throws over a table and swears at the teacher? “The teacher would be really nice to them, talk nicely. It would be dealt with by the care team and that child would be looked after, taken out of the room for a calming period and then welcomed back into the classroom.”

Many mainstream schools are now finding success with using the new approach. However, a teacher in a mainstream secondary school said that the approach was quite challenging when applied to her French Class. She said, “I will challenge them on things if they are taking the mickey, I’m not a doormat.”

In a recent report by Tom Bennett, government’s behavior tsar, Bennett said that a national problem existed in the behavior of most students. He said that teachers believed in telling students what to do is ‘oppressive’.