Breaking Down Learning Barriers

Labelled ‘bad kids’, but they’re not bad, they’re misunderstood.

At KRS we work with groups of children who have social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH) and they are often misunderstood and referred to as ‘bad kids’ when really, they just need our help breaking down the barriers that have come from emotional scarring.

What is SEMH?

Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs are a type of special educational needs in which children/young people have severe difficulties in managing their emotions and behaviour. They often show inappropriate responses and feelings to situations.

This means that they have trouble in building and maintaining relationships with peers and adults; they can also struggle to engage with learning and to cope in classroom without additional strategies and interventions. Children with SEMH will often feel anxious, scared and misunderstood.

Recent figures estimate that around 150,000 children in mainstream and special schools are suffering from SEMH* 

How do we help

KRS provides different interventions for kids struggling with their emotions, social skills or mental health.  Our interventions happen in short 20-to-25-minute sessions to avoid overwhelming the individual involved. Student engagement during these sessions is amazing with and we can instantly see how much it benefits. We also do 1:1 martial arts and football which the students engage well with, and you can see it visibly relaxes them.

We had a young lady who is now about to sit her GCSE’s and get grades, who previously was a school refuser and completely disconnected from academics and socialisation who is now going out more socially in the community.

Supporting children with SEMH needs

It is important to approach these young people with empathy. If it’s something we have learnt, then it is that they need to know that someone is always there for them and can understand them as well as listen to anything they need.

It would be amazing to see more safe spaces in schools for these students to go to, something like a hub with staff they are able to talk to or just to have time out even if it’s during class.