The boy swore at his teacher after a confrontation with a fellow pupil then ran away, recalls Jenn Knussen. When the Fife head teacher found him he slumped to the ground with his head in his hands. It proved a lightbulb moment for her.
From then on, she stopped seeing ‘challenging’ behaviour among children at Pitteuchar East Primary School in Glenrothes. Instead she looked at the distress behind it. She inspired her own staff and others around the country to do the same.
Now Jenn, 56, is about to retire and write a book about what she has learned about children during 35 years of teaching. Recalling that pivotal moment 13 years ago, she explains: “This was not the time to ask him about what happened in the playground. “He was clearly upset and was in fight or flight mode.
” The boy was in the care system and his placement was breaking down. He must have felt scared and alone. says: “I put my hand on his forearm and said ‘I don’t how to help you, but I’m here’.
“I just sat on the floor beside him because that’s all I could do, be a presence for him.” Over the subsequent weekend the event played over and over in Jenn’s mind. She says: “I realised that any incident of what we used to call challenging behaviour that I had experienced in my whole career was either down to a child’s distress or an adult’s distress.
” That distress, she explains, could be as overwhelming as having nowhere to call home like this boy’s. Or it could be as commonplace.