• Ambition School Leadership

Challenging Behaviour: Strategies for Helping Young People

How can you manage challenging behaviour in young people? Find out with this free online course featuring the latest research.

10,499 enrolled on this course

Teacher leaning in to speak to two teenaged students.
  • Duration

    5 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours

Improve your ability to manage challenging behaviour of young people

Young people today face mounting problems which makes working with and helping them learn, more important than ever. This course will help improve your experience working with young people. On the course, we’ll use the latest research to investigate the causes of challenging behaviour and look at strategies, helping you build a toolkit to modify behaviour. Ambition School Leadership work with a variety of experts that offer empirical knowledge and learning from within different school settings, meaning their expertise is drawn from both research and people directly working with young people.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 9 seconds For me, good behaviour is the pupils being engaged in their learning. Being a role model and showing other people what’s right. To be able to work in a sociable society, to have a really good social interaction. Welcome to this course on challenging behaviour strategies to support children and young people. My name is Steven Baker. I’m one of the lead educators and I’m also the Executive Headteacher of two special schools in the North West of England for children with social emotional and mental health difficulties and the associated challenging behaviours.

Skip to 0 minutes and 40 seconds I’ve previously worked as an offset inspector and I’m currently on the advisory board of the think tank called Learnus, whose key aim is to bridge the gap between neuroscience research and education. Hi, I’m your the course educator Mick Simpson. In a career spanning a quarter of a century, I’ve been an award-winning science teacher and now I’m a Headteacher in a school for young men with social, emotional and mental health additional needs. I’ve got no intention of leaving the classroom any time soon This course is incredibly important for a number of reasons. Firstly, we’re seing an increase in challenging behaviour in schools and other settings across the UK and globally. We are having increasingly complex children young people enter our schools.

Skip to 1 minute and 19 seconds We’ve also found in the UK that 10% of children young people have a diagnosable mental health disorder. We also need to consider well-being both for yourself, for staff and for the students in your schools and other settings. We hope that you want to join us on this journey as we look to support children to grow and prosper in a safe and well controlled environment. Follow the enrollment details on this page and we look forward to getting started and seeing you soon.

What topics will you cover?

  • Identifying what your current reality looks like in relation to behaviour management
  • Identifying the causes of challenging behaviour
  • Approaches to managing and modifying behaviour
  • Analysis of cutting edge academic research to develop knowledge and skills
  • Planning for individual and institutional change

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Evaluate your current practice regarding the management and modification of behaviour.
  • Reflect upon your current reality and compare it to your ideal situation.
  • Explore the latest research about the neurological basis of many behavioural issues.
  • Develop a mindset that encourages positive change.
  • Produce an effective toolkit to modify behaviour.
  • Improve your planning, environment and structures to establish excellent behaviour.

Who is the course for?

This course has been created for all those who work with young people, but it might be of particular interest to teaching assistants, student teachers, NQTs, and middle and senior leaders. To get the most out of the course you should have some experience of working with young people.

What software or tools do you need?

No specific software will be required in order to access and engage with this course.

What do people say about this course?

"This course to me seems like I just finished a one year programme in 5 weeks, it's very educative, informative, straight to the point and very interesting."

"Thank you for this insightful course. Behaviour management is always a big part of any teacher's life; this course had me looking at the children's behaviors from a variety of lenses, and the strategies offered are amazing."

Who will you learn with?

Principal of two outstanding schools catering for children aged 5-16 with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties; advisory board member of the think tank Learnus; former Ofsted Inspector.

Who developed the course?

Ambition School Leadership

Ambition School Leadership is an education charity building a network of exceptional school leaders at all levels to transform the lives of the children who need it most.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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