Show Notes
What if challenging behaviour isn't simply a discipline problem — but a sign that a young person doesn't yet feel safe, connected or regulated enough to learn?
Most heads aren't short on effort when it comes to attendance.
The harder truth: so much of it often rests on one or two people — and when that's the case, it never feels steady, however hard everyone works.
That's the work I do. I run a funded Senior Attendance & Leadership Resilience Check for headteachers and trust leaders in complex schools.
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On-site school visit Detailed, school-specific report Follow-up strategy session Practical leadership tools for a clear 90-day plan Typically valued at £1,000 — currently funded for eligible schools.
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In this episode of Headship After Hours, Paul Collin is joined by Neil Moggan, founder of Future Action and author of Time to Rise Up, to explore trauma-informed practice, behaviour, relationships, mental wellbeing and the role movement can play in helping pupils regulate.
Neil shares his own journey from PE leadership into trauma-informed practice, including how changing his approach helped reduce send-outs in his PE department by 95%, while attendance and predicted grades for some of the most challenging pupils also improved.
Paul and Neil explore: Why safety and connection come before learning Trauma-informed approaches to behaviour Why relationships should sit at the heart of school improvement Movement as a tool for regulation and belonging Supporting pupils with ADHD and additional needs Maintaining high standards without re-traumatising young people Staff regulation and teacher wellbeing How leadership pressure can affect relationships with pupils Practical strategies schools can use to create calmer environments Why belonging matters for behaviour, attendance and learning Neil also explains the Rise Up approach and shares practical examples of how movement, inclusive activities, stress-busting strategies and relationship-led practice are being used across mainstream, specialist and alternative provision. One example comes from a specialist school where physical holds for one cohort reduced from 50 in Year 5 to 10 in Year 7 after the development of a Rise Up Sports Sanctuary and personalised regulation strategies. The central message is simple: Help children feel safe. Help them regulate. Then create the conditions for them to learn. 🎙️ Headship After Hours — honest conversations about school leadership, attendance, culture and the realities of leading schools.
00:00 – Safety Before Learning 00:18 – Introducing Neil Moggan 05:58 – What Is Trauma-Informed Practice? 08:58 – Movement, Regulation & Belonging 10:53 – The Rise Up Approach 17:34 – What This Looks Like in Real Schools 18:28 – From 50 Physical Holds to 10 21:08 – Why Relationships Matter in Implementation 23:25 – Education, Belonging & Human Connection 24:47 – When Leadership Pressure Changes Relationships 27:32 – Did Schools Get Behaviour Wrong After Lockdown? 29:06 – Staff Wellbeing & Self-Regulation 33:59 – One Simple Strategy Leaders Can Use Tomorrow 36:19 – Neil’s Advice for School Leaders
More from Headship After Hours
Staff workload in schools isn't always visible — and even the clearest school improvement priorities can fail when hidden work consumes your team's time and attention.
School attendance problems aren't always caused by a lack of motivation. Sometimes they're caused by barriers that build up throughout a pupil's day. In this solo episode of Headship After Hours, Paul Collin introduces the idea of attendance friction and challenges headteachers to look beyond attendance percentages to understand why pupils struggle to get through the school gate. A pupil might be anxious about an unfinished homework task, worried about being late, struggling with transport or concerned about how adults will respond when they return after an absence. Individually, these may seem like small problems. Together, they can make attending school feel overwhelming. Paul explores: Why attendance data doesn't always reveal the real barriers
What does great teaching actually look like — and are schools sometimes turning good ideas into rigid routines?
What happens when school leaders refuse to put a ceiling on what children can achieve?
Does your school genuinely have an attendance system — or does one highly capable person quietly hold the whole thing together? Most heads aren't short on effort when it comes to attendance.