How Can We Create Calming Spaces in Schools? Part 2 | Kat Booker
In Part 2 of ‘How To Create Calming Spaces in Schools’, Kat Booker from Meet The Need Ltd shares some practical tips for setting up a calming space, and discusses the importance of looking at it ‘through the eyes of a child’
Kat is an SEN consultant and Senior Team Teach trainer based in Sussex. She is a psychology graduate with experience in both residential care and SEMH specialist settings, where she has worked as a teaching assistant.
More recently, Kat was SENDCO, and Nurture and Outreach lead in a mainstream primary school, before launching her own consultancy business. She is an IQM Assessor, former Regional Co-ordinator for Nurture UK, and was involved in the development of the current SEND Code of Practice. She is also a mum of one, and an avid Redbull F1 fan.
You can find Kat at Meet The Need Ltd, and on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn and Facebook.
Kat recommends the book, Creating Tomorrow’s Schools Today, by Richard Gerver.
She also shares three tips during the episode:
- Look at the space through a sensory lens, and consider ‘softening’ colours, lighting, and acoustics.
- Involve children and young people in the design of the space, and try to see it through their eyes.
- It doesn’t require lots of resources to set up an effective calm space; it could be a case of simply tweaking the existing environment.
The Team Teach podcast shares the latest thinking in behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use in your setting.
