Bradstow is a special residential school in Thanet that supports students with autism, learning difficulties, and associated speech, language, and communication challenges. As both a teacher-researcher and an assistant headteacher at our remarkable school, I believe there is a pressing need for more research involving students like those at Bradstow, who are often underrepresented in studies due to communication difficulties. The ERSP initiative provides an invaluable opportunity to explore these educational research challenges and connect with like-minded researchers and teacher-researchers.
My doctoral research focused on Bradstow’s school culture to examine how the ethos of Gentle Teaching has been embedded. My post-doctoral work continues this exploration, focusing on implementing a coaching method to inspire shifts in practice, aiming to reduce physical interventions in behaviour management by encouraging practitioners to reflectively seek alternative approaches. The working title is “Was There Really No Alternative? – Applying the GROW Model and the PROACT-SCIPr-UK® 10 Gateways to Critical Incident Analysis to Reduce Physical Interventions.”
Additionally, the school is looking to develop new research projects, including exploring effective methods for teaching mathematics to our students and assessing whether Mathematics Mastery could align with our students' unique needs and abilities.
Dr Paul Gorham – Assistant Head Teacher