Four Opportunities for You This Half Term

Neil @ Future Action
1 day ago
3 min read

Welcome back. I hope you’ve had a proper break. Time to rest, reset and reconnect with family and friends. Maybe even return to homeostasis.

As we step into this next half term, I wanted to focus on four opportunities that might support you and your school over the coming weeks.

Not noise. Not overwhelm. Just a few things that could genuinely help.

1️⃣ Welcome to Our New Schools and Educators

Over the last term, we’ve welcomed a significant number of new schools, educators and partners into the Global RISE Up community.

If that’s you, you are so welcome.

The RISE Up movement now spans thousands of educators across five continents. It’s a safe, generous space where colleagues share practice, wrestle with challenges and build expertise around trauma-informed practice, movement for wellbeing and early intervention.

Whether you’re joining through a regional programme, a trust partnership, a virtual school collaboration or independently through our training, we’re proud to stand alongside you.

If you’re still watching from the sidelines and wondering whether this community might be right for you, we’ve updated two pages that may help:

📊 Our Impact Page - now includes our latest case studies and the Wirral RISE Up Interim Impact Report. Click here.

💡 Our Taster Resources Page - refreshed with practical tools you can use straight away. Click here to access.

Both are there to help you explore at your own pace.

2️⃣ A Conversation Worth Listening To

I recently had the pleasure of joining Paul Ryan on the Tag, You’re It podcast.

Paul is coordinating our Derbyshire RISE Up programme, and our conversation goes deeper than surface-level strategy.

We explore:

Where RISE Up began
The frustrations in schools that sparked it
The foundations of Trauma-Informed PE
Why connection must come before correction
How this work improves attendance, behaviour and mental health outcomes

It’s an important discussion about what it actually takes to build safer, more relational environments in schools.

If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of the movement, or how trauma-informed practice translates from theory into real classrooms and sports halls, this episode will give you context and clarity.

And longer term, it will serve as a helpful introduction to the work for schools exploring partnership. You can listen here.

If it resonates, Paul and I would love to hear from you as we build the first cohort of the Derbyshire RISE Up programme.

3️⃣ Supporting Young People Through Exam Season

For many of our secondary schools, exam season is approaching.

Anxiety can start to creep in, for students and staff. From the archive, you might find this blog useful:

How to Use Exam Worries as a Positive

It shares a real student case study from my time at City Academy Norwich, where a simple shift, focusing on controlling the controllables, transformed anxiety into action.

The technique we taught:

Audit predicted grades
Create a clear revision plan
Seek support early
Use retrieval practice
Celebrate small wins
Use the “Power of Three” journaling habit

The impact was immediate. As action increased, anxiety reduced. Confidence followed.

If you’re supporting Year 11 or Year 13 students right now, this might be something worth revisiting with your team.

4️⃣ The Future of Regional RISE Up

This half term, a major focus for us is strengthening and developing our Regional RISE Up programmes.

We have some exciting programmes emerging and several powerful case studies coming your way from existing regions.

If you’re curious about what a Regional RISE Up programme could look like in your area, do get in touch.

We’d love to listen first and explore what would genuinely serve your context. Click here to start your journey.

Looking Ahead

We’ve also got some deeper insight blogs coming this half term around:

Smartphones, pets and mental health
Skiing as Positive Attachment Childhood Experiences

Some of these are slightly more personal reflections. All are rooted in the same mission: helping children experience safety, belonging and genuine connection.