Our Impact

Located in area of recognised deprivation, supporting many pupils affected by adverse childhood experiences and complex emotional needs. In September 2021, entered funded partnership with Child Therapy Service to respond to increasing SEMH needs across school community.

What was delivered

Whole-school consultation and staff training, delivery of the Grounding Programme including assessment tools and daily regulation activities, termly consultation for staff and leadership teams, and resource bank to support consistent practice.

What changed

Emotional regulation scores improved across targeted pupils. Staff reported calmer mornings, smoother transitions into learning and stronger relationships between pupils and LSAs. Pupil confidence, communication and readiness to learn all increased over the course of the project.

Children described the grounding sessions as “special time.”

The school continued and expanded the intervention into 2022–2023 — the clearest indicator that the approach was working.

What this tells us

A regulation-first approach, consistently delivered and reviewed, produced observable change in some of the most complex children in the school — in an area where need is high and resources are stretched. Grounding and sensory-based strategies are now embedded across the school day.

Large special school supporting children with severe and complex needs. Began with single portal subscription before expanding to whole-school licence — a decision driven by direct relevance and impact on everyday practice.

What changed

Staff understanding of behaviour as communication improved across the setting. Confidence in supporting emotional regulation increased. Practical resources became embedded within classrooms, and training began directly informing how staff responded to children in real moments — not just in theory.

What this tells us

When training is accessible, practical and relevant to children in front of staff, it gets used. Leadership team saw the difference it was making in classrooms — and wanted every member of staff to have the same foundation.

Explore Learning Portal

Since launching the Learning Portal, membership has grown into the thousands — spanning schools, colleges, NHS services, and individual practitioners working across education, health, and therapeutic settings. Teachers, SENCOs, TAs, ELSAs, therapists, and frontline staff now access the same foundation: CPD-certified training, practical strategies, lesson plans, assessment tools, and provision planning — all grounded in the BOUNCE Approach®.

Alongside the resources, weekly live drop-in sessions provide small-group support, so learning doesn’t stop at a certificate — it gets worked through, questioned, and embedded in real practice with real children.

What changed

Professionals consistently report the same three shifts.

And the shift reaches children: staff report that the children they support are calmer, more regulated, more engaged, and more able to participate in learning.

In their words

What this tells us

Children’s outcomes change when the adults around them change — and the adults around them change when training is practical, affordable, and relevant to the children in front of them. The Learning Portal extends what was once delivered school by school to thousands of professionals at once — building a shared language and a shared lens across every setting it reaches.

Every professional working through the BOUNCE Approach lens is one more adult who responds to need rather than reacts to behaviour. At this scale, that generates evidence that supports earlier identification, more consistent provision, and better outcomes for children — far beyond what any single service could deliver alone.

Explore the Learning Portal

Between 2021 and 2023, the Child Therapy Service delivered regular online coffee mornings for parents and carers of children experiencing emotionally based school avoidance, anxiety, and PDA profiles. Sessions were small, structured, and safe — designed to reduce isolation as much as to provide information.

What changed

Families felt heard, supported, and understood. When you are a parent of a child struggling to cope with school, manage change, or meet everyday demands, life becomes smaller.

Sessions were led by Tracy, Founder of the Child Therapy Service — and someone who has been in these families’ shoes. That made the difference: someone who understood, not just to hold the space but to support.

In their words

What this tells us

Families of children with social and emotional needs are often left feeling isolated and misunderstood. When they are given access to safe, informed, non-judgemental support — the ripple effect reaches the child, the school, and the wider family.

This work shaped how the Child Therapy Service now supports families through personal coaching, access to the Learning Portal live drop-in sessions, and ongoing live chat on the site.

In 2022, Child Therapy Service delivered a funded project supporting families of children experiencing tactile defensiveness — a sensory difficulty that often presents as significant distress around clothing, touch, and everyday physical contact, including school uniform.

The project explored a specific question: could parent-led, regulation-based somatic strategies reduce sensory distress?

Outcomes

Children showed increased tolerance for everyday clothing and activities. Families reported calmer daily routines, reduced escalation, increased child autonomy, and improved participation in everyday life.

In their words

What this tells us

Somatic-based strategies can reduce tactile defensiveness.

As a result, these strategies were recorded as mini videos and are now accessible in the Learning Portal for any parent to use. Alongside this, the Tactile Defensiveness Project webinar walks through the full process.

Before: Regularly leaving the classroom, refusing written work and becoming distressed during independent tasks.

The Snapshot revealed: cognitive overload, anxiety around making mistakes and difficulties with executive functioning.

What changed: staff understood the distress as cognitive overload, not avoidance – tasks were broken into manageable steps, movement was woven into the day, and executive function barriers were identified before independent work began.

Before: Frequent stomach aches and headaches, with daily visits to the medical room.

The Snapshot revealed: anxiety and uncertainty were affecting emotional wellbeing and feelings of safety.

What changed: staff understood the body was telling the story of the child’s anxiety – predictable routines and daily emotional check-ins gave the child certainty, and a safe way to be heard before distress grew.

“We’d been seeing as avoidance of work, now we see it as a nervous system under stress.” – Class teacher

Before: Refusing to enter the school building following the holidays.

The Snapshot revealed: anxiety around uncertainty and change was preventing successful transitions.

What changed: staff recognised the child was outside their window of tolerance – a gradual transition plan was paired with sensory tools and safe-person to bring them back to a place of safety before any expectation to enter.

Before: Regularly damaging property and becoming verbally aggressive when expectations were placed upon them.

The Snapshot revealed: sensory overwhelm, nervous system activation and low trust in adults.

What changed: staff read the behaviour as a nervous system in survival, not defiance – the environment was adapted, demands were reduced, and language shifted to declarative, low-pressure communication.

“It gave clarity and practical suggestions right at the start, and gave the whole team a shared benchmark to work from.” – Practitioner

Before: Frequently entering school in a heightened state and struggling to settle into learning.

The Snapshot revealed: the child needed movement and sensory input before they could access learning.

What changed: staff recognised the child was arriving dysregulated, not defiant – movement and sensory input were built into the start of every day, before any learning demand was made.

Before: An autistic student was struggling to attend lessons and complete coursework, despite strong academic ability.

The Snapshot revealed: sensory overwhelm and uncertainty about expectations were reducing engagement.

What changed: staff understood that engagement depends on certainty – expectations were made explicit, sensory load was reduced, movement breaks offered, and changes were signalled in advance rather than discovered.

Before: Frequent emotional outbursts following family contact visits.

The Snapshot revealed: the child required additional recovery time following emotionally demanding experiences.

What changed: carers recognised recovery as a need, not a behaviour – time, reduced demands and body-based calming followed every contact visit, instead of an expectation to return to normal.

“Once we stopped expecting him to bounce straight back, everything got easier – for him and for us.” – Foster carer

Before: Frequent conflict with staff during daily routines.

The Snapshot revealed: expectations were often being introduced when the young person was already dysregulated.

What changed: staff had greater confidence in being neurodivergent-affirming and focused on co-regulation before problem-solving – regulation first, expectations second.

In 2025, Child Therapy Service was invited to deliver workshops at SEND Live 2025 in Oxford — one of the UK’s leading events for professionals working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Delegates reported high relevance, practical application, and increased confidence in supporting children with complex needs.

In their words

What this tells us

The BOUNCE Approach, developed through years of direct work with children, families, and schools, is relevant to any setting and can be implemented straight away.