The Motional Blog
Ideas, stories and reflections from the Motional community — covering Emotional Wellbeing, inclusion, attendance, behaviour and practice in schools.
CARE: Why We Are Moved to Respond to Others’ Needs
Humans are unusually dependent on care. From before birth, we rely on others for regulation, warmth and sensory connection. After birth, that dependence becomes even more visible through feeding, protection, reassurance and care…...
Affective Neuroscience: The Emotional Systems That Move Us
Before we think, we’ve already moved! For much of the history of psychology and neuroscience, emotion was treated as something that happened alongside, or sometimes interfered with, thinking. Affective Neuroscience asks us to look at this differently....
KCSIE 2026: New Rules from 1 September Explained
KCSIE 2026 is live from 1 September. This article explains what’s changed on mental health and safeguarding, and a practical checklist to help you get ready…...
Building Better Predictions
What neuroscience can teach us about Emotional Wellbeing The purpose of education is not to eliminate uncertainty. It is to help young people become better predictors of an uncertain world…...
Reading for Pleasure: How to help children fall in love with books again
Reading for pleasure is falling. Learn how to rekindle a love of reading by creating low-pressure, autonomy-rich environments where children and young people can engage with stories on their own terms...
What is ‘Pupil Voice’ and why is it important?
‘Pupil voice’ is one of those buzzwords or topics that keeps coming back around – in fact, it never really seems to go away. And there’s good reason for that. For the wellbeing of students as individuals and as a collective, for engagement, motivation and belonging, for leadershi...
Neuro-affirmative Practice – A strengths-based approach
Motional is committed to neuro-affirming practice. We’ve introduced our Neuro-affirming ‘Always-Never’ descriptors to validate all neurotypes in Snapshot and Groupshot completion, supporting a strengths-based approach that sees and values the whole child....
So, What Is Teacher Wellbeing – and How Far-Reaching Are the Impacts?
Wellbeing is often discussed in broad, professional terms, and is writ large in the new Ofsted framework. When we apply that same generic lens to teaching, we risk missing something important. Teaching is not just cognitively demanding – it is emotionally intensive, relational, a...
Paradoxfsted – When Wellbeing & Inspection Pretend They’re Friends!
In this Joy Division podcast, an international group of wellbeing professionals come together to explore “Paradoxfsted”- the paradox of wellbeing and inspection in education....
The new Ofsted Framework (2025): a Brighter Future for Children’s Wellbeing?
Announcements of changes from Ofsted don’t often meet with enthusiasm, but this one struck a slightly different chord in the Motional Team. Since Motional’s launch, the mission has been simple: “To prioritise Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health for children and young people, so...
Deliberate Joy: Unlocking a Hidden Wellbeing Superpower
The return of The Joy Division! A growing band of wellbing professionals who chat about all things ‘wellbeing’ – and share their conversations! In this video, we explore the concept of deliberate joy as a hidden superpower for wellbeing in educational settings. We discuss how joy...
Rethinking the Return: From Attendance Targets to Emotional Safety and Belonging!
As schools reopen after the summer break, the headlines and the government return to a familiar theme: attendance. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson recently suggested that children who miss the first week of term risk “starting badly.” The implication is clear: absence is a...
The Importance of Play for Children’s Development
In a time of mounting stress, reduced social interaction, and increasing screen time, schools are facing a quiet crisis: the decline of play. In this compelling roundtable conversation, four leading education and wellbeing experts come together to talk about why play is essential...
Attendance Reimagined: Creating Schools Where Every Child Can and Will Belong
School attendance is often framed in terms of rules, punishments, and targets – but what if we looked at it through the lens of emotional wellbeing, connection, and motivation? In a compelling and practical session hosted by Motional’s Rich and Barnsley’s Virtual School Head Tom ...
The Emotions Toolkit: Taming Big Feelings at School
In our previous post titled “Using Co-Regulation to Develop a Child’s Self-Regulation,” we explored the crucial role of co-regulation—the process through which adults help children manage their emotions. But what happens as children grow and start to navigate the more complex env...
Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025!
We’re excited to support Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025! 🌟 This week is dedicated to challenging misconceptions, breaking down barriers, and celebrating the incredible strengths and talents of neurodivergent individuals. Together, let’s work towards creating a more inclusi...
The Power of Daily Check-Ins to Support Children’s Emotional Wellbeing
Discover how daily check-ins can transform classrooms by fostering Emotional Wellbeing, enhancing self-regulation, and creating a supportive environment where children feel safe, heard, and ready to learn...
How Risky Play is Essential to Children’s Developmental, Physical, Mental and Emotional Wellbeing
Play is crucial for children’s development and contributes to their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. So, we’ve been chatting to Thérèse Hoyle, Education Consultant, Play Expert and Author, about the PLAY system in the brain and the role of risky play!...
The Importance of Feeling Safe in Education
Creating a sense of safety in education goes beyond physical security. When students feel emotionally safe, their capacity for learning and development flourishes. We cover practical strategies to foster environments where students can thrive emotionally, socially, and academical...
Let’s sack-off the naughty list!
The Christmas season often brings joy and excitement, but for many children, it can be a time of anxiety, sadness, fear or emotional overwhelm. Often this is displayed outwardly and is a form of communication stemming from unmet needs or past experiences. Christmas can magnify th...
Thinking ‘Out Loud’: A Tool for Children’s Emotional Wellbeing
Thinking ‘out loud’ is a simple yet powerful strategy for supporting children’s Emotional Wellbeing. By bringing internal thoughts into the open, we can help both children and adults make sense of challenges and learning obstacles in a structured way...
Return to school – Using Co-Regulation to Develop a Child’s Self-Regulation
It is essential to remember that when we label or name our emotions, it helps to calm down the emotional activity in our brain....
2024 Phoenix Heart Awards
We were delighted to have sponsored the 2024 Phoenix Heart Awards, an annual event to recognise and honour the remarkable achievements of Phoenix Team Members in bringing the values of Nurture – Flourish – Grow to life....
The King’s Speech 2024
The emphasis on Wellbeing in schools is both timely and crucial. Recognising the importance of Mental and Emotional Health in the development of young people is a significant step towards creating a supportive educational environment...
Supporting Schools through Transition Periods
As part of a series of blogs about supporting transition, we are focusing on how Motional can be used as a tool to support schools and other settings during transition periods. This includes when a child moves between school years or to a new school...
Supporting Children through Change – Planned Change
All children require support during times of change, regardless of the nature of the change. Find out how to support a child through a transition period, particularly the step from primary to secondary or middle school…...
Prepare to Kick Off 2024/25 with a Powerful Plan for Emotional Wellbeing in Your School
A well-structured plan to develop an emotionally healthy culture throughout the whole school, not only benefits staff and students, but also provides evidence around Emotional Wellbeing and Personal Development to inspection bodies…...
School Attendance! Ask yourself this: If they didn’t have to, would they?
We all know that school attendance is compulsory for the vast majority of children, but the real question is: if they didn’t have to attend, would they? We explore the ‘I Can’ and ‘I Will’ factors of School Attendance....
Elevating the Emotional Wellbeing of Students with Severe and Profound Intellectual Disabilities
Statistics indicate that over 25% of individuals with severe or profound intellectual disabilities may experience Mental Health challenges. We’ve been chatting to Dr Julie Calveley, Director of Nurturing Affective Care, to further enhance our knowledge in this area...
Children’s Mental Health Week – Why every child’s voice matters.
We explore why discussion and increased exposure around children’s mental health should be just the starting point of a conscious effort to adopt proactive approaches towards Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health....
Emotionally Available Adults in school.
What is an ‘emotionally available adult’? How can a school identify pupils who may be more at risk of or experiencing difficulties? Should every child have an emotionally available adult? How do you achieve ‘emotionally available staff’ in a busy school?...
Who here knows my child?
Independent Health, Social Care and Education Consultant Lisa Williams elaborates on her concerns as a mother (and consultant), that in a school of 1600 students, “who here knows my child”?...
Introducing the NEW Organisational Snapshot & Action Plan
We’re very excited to be able to announce these new features – the next step in promoting an emotionally healthy culture throughout the whole school and supporting Senior Leadership Teams with improved workflows and potentially great time savings...
Making the change to a Whole School Approach
Fantastic news – you’ve decided to embrace whole-school change and introduce a new, strategic, Whole School Approach to Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health. But what does this mean for staff and wider stakeholders and what do you need to consider?...
The Power of Transitional Objects
The use of Transitional Objects by children within the school setting can provide stability, connection and a feeling of groundedness. We explore the use of Transitional Objects as a potentially valuable tool for a Teacher, TA or adult in a similar role…...
Avoiding Teacher Burnout
Behind the classroom doors, many educators face immense stress and challenges that can take a toll on their mental health and overall wellbeing. Last year’s Teacher Wellbeing Index sheds light on some alarming statistics regarding teacher stress and its consequences…...
The Brain
Perhaps the most amazing thing in the universe is the thing inside our head? We spend a fair bit of time in Motional thinking about the way in which our brains and our bodies work and how they work together, so it’s worth a quick look at what we have and what we can do with it!...
What are adverse childhood experiences and how do they affect us?
It is well known that the experiences we have early on in our lives and particularly in childhood significantly impacts how we grow and develop, our physical, emotional and mental health, and in turn our thoughts, feelings and behaviour....
Introducing Jaak Panksepp
Jaak Panksepp is somewhat a hero to us all and his ground-breaking work has provided a foundation on which we have built part of Motional. He finished his career as Professor of Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience at Washington State University and Emeritus Professor of the Dep...
The importance of understanding emotional wellbeing within schools
Emotions are sometimes seen as the bull-in-the-china-shop of well-organised thinking, well-ordered classrooms, and a barrier to academic performance; it’s time to shift that paradigm. In fact, it’s more accurate for us to imagine those emotions as shelves in that china shop on wh...
Autism Acceptance Week 2023
Doesn’t there just seem to be a week for everything now!? This one’s important to us though as it really links to our core value of ensuring Motional is a tool that supports young people wherever they are: geographically; emotionally; culturally or in terms of neurodiversity. In ...