Lou Harvey-Zahra is a highly experienced educator on parenting and education. She has been a teacher of special needs children, helped to found a school, ran a Playgroup and now is the bestselling author of three books on parenting and educating children. She now travels the world delivering talks and workshops.

We are very lucky to have Lou deliver a NESA endorsed one day course on Positive Discipline techniques – aimed at the Primary school teacher. As teachers we all recognise that positive classroom organisation and routines are the cornerstone to daily classroom life, and they in turn affect children’s behaviour, confidence and sense of belonging. “Studies have shown that more effective teachers do more than their less effective colleagues in establishing rules and procedures at the beginning of the year” (Bohn, Roehrig and Pressley, 2004).

All teachers require positive strategies to manage classroom disruptions and inappropriate classroom behaviours for the optimum learning of all students, and for their own professional development and career satisfaction. Building strong teacher-student relationships is the first step to creating a harmonious classroom atmosphere, increasing engagement and achievement. Positive teacher – student relationships enable students to feel safe and secure in their learning environments and provide scaffolding for important social and academic skills (Baker et al., 2008; O’Connor, Dearing and Collins, 2011; Silver, Measelle, Armstron, & Essex, 2005).

For safety and respect to flourish in classrooms and centres, social and emotional skills require role-modelling by teacher/carers and reinforced in a positive and respectful manner. This can be done in a myriad of ways, both verbal and non-verbal. Lou has hundreds of tricks and tools under her belt which apply to all classroom scenarios.