Stories from the RISE Up Community - Finding My Way Back to Teaching

Within the global RISE Up community, there is a place for anyone who believes that relationships, movement, and wellbeing toolkits are essential to transforming children’s mental wellbeing and life chances, whether you are a student teacher, an executive head, an external partner, or anywhere in between.

This week, we are proud to share the story of the brilliant Bianka Gombás, a PGCE Primary PE student, whose journey back to teaching will resonate with anyone who has ever questioned their place in education.

Finding My Way Back to Teaching

I am a PGCE student, but 2025 was not the first year that I applied for teacher training.

Some years ago, during an interview, I was advised that I should consider pastoral roles in schools instead of teaching. The feedback was blunt: teaching wasn’t for me. I was described as being too dedicated to children, too focused on being there for them, on mental health and emotional support. They said they couldn’t imagine me rushing from one lesson to the next. At that time, I was applying to train as a secondary art teacher.

Looking back, they were right about one thing, my past experiences were deeply rooted in me.

As a student, school was not always a place where I felt supported. Yet I was fortunate enough to encounter a small number of teachers who asked the right questions, who truly saw me, and who showed genuine care and empathy. Those moments stayed with me. In many ways, those individuals quite literally saved me.

Because of that, I did not choose teaching simply to deliver a curriculum.

I chose it to give back. To be there. To understand and accept. To help every child feel valued and seen.

For a long time, I held a critical view of the education system, first as an individual, then as a parent. Eventually, I decided to try again. Teaching had always been the dream, and I wanted to know whether I could find my place within it.

As expected, though I had hoped otherwise, I soon found myself caught between two worlds: the education I believed in, and the one I was experiencing day to day. The focus was heavily on lesson plans, behaviour management systems, and test results. All of these are important, but something still felt missing.

I knew exactly what it was.

My hope had been to learn how to bring into the classroom everything I had read, researched, and explored over the years, ideas I had already tried to apply as a parent.

But as a trainee teacher, I felt I didn’t yet have the tools to do that. I began to question myself and my decision. Perhaps the interviewer from years ago had been right. If teaching was only this, then maybe it wasn’t for me after all.

Then something shifted. Everything changed when I discovered trauma‑informed practice, both more broadly and within physical education. Until then, I didn’t even know this approach existed.

I bought Neil Moggan’s Time to RISE Up, and shortly after, I reached out to him. For the first time, I encountered a way of thinking that went beyond teaching Maths and English, one that recognised children as whole human beings.

Neil generously invited me to attend a training session at Springfield Primary School. There, I was able to see how a trauma‑informed approach could be lived out in the everyday reality of a school, not as an abstract theory, but as a relational and highly practical way of working.

That experience gave me the confidence and clarity to design and plan a pilot trauma‑informed PE project within my own placement school.

And with that, I felt something I hadn’t felt for a long time. I felt like I had found my way back.

Understanding the Context

The school serves a disadvantaged community, with a significant proportion of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium support.

Through observations and conversations with colleagues, I noticed that many children found emotional self‑regulation challenging.

Behaviour was often interpreted as something to be managed rather than understood as a form of communication, while teachers were under increasing pressure and working with limited time and energy.

There was no shared language around trauma or well-being.

Behaviour is communication (Emerson, 2022). It is not something that needs to be controlled; it is something we need to learn how to understand.

Why Physical Education?

As my assignment task was to plan and deliver a PE project, I began to explore physical education as more than just a space for physical development.

I started to see PE as an environment where children could regulate themselves through movement, connect safely with others, experience success without pressure, and begin to build self‑confidence and friendships.

For many children, particularly those who struggle to express their emotions verbally, movement can offer a powerful point of entry.

This understanding became the foundation of my project.

The Intervention

 With the support of the school, a small intervention group was identified. I worked with ten pupils from different Key Stage 1 classes, twice a week for twenty minutes.

All pupils were eligible for Pupil Premium funding and had known or suspected Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). None of the pupils were receiving concurrent therapeutic support, allowing the intervention to remain preventative and pedagogical in nature.

The intervention was delivered through short, structured, trauma‑informed PE micro‑sessions. Each session followed a predictable structure, including a consistent entry routine, familiar warm‑up activities, cooperative movement tasks, and a calm closing phase.

The pedagogical approach prioritised relational attunement, calm and responsive adult interactions, and an understanding of behaviour as communication (Siegel, 2012; Porges, 2011; Souers & Hall, 2019).

Alongside using RISE Up activities, I also designed and adapted additional activities to meet the needs of the group. The aim was not performance or competition, but safety, connection, and regulation.

What I Noticed

Although I felt that the sessions could have been longer than twenty minutes, I began to notice meaningful changes within the group.

The pupils gradually adapted to the group rules; there was less need for raised voices, and children increasingly supported one another. A sense of group identity also began to develop, the pupils even voted on a group name.

One important learning point and confirmation for me was that behaviour can, and does, change when the environment is made calmer and safer for children.

Looking Ahead

Although this was a small‑scale project, it demonstrated that trauma‑informed physical education is achievable within existing school structures when implemented thoughtfully.

Importantly, it does not substantially increase teacher workload; in fact, it can reduce the time spent managing behaviour.

Most significantly, it has the potential to make a meaningful difference for those pupils who need it most.

Given that trauma manifests in diverse and individualised ways and often remains invisible within educational settings, a trauma‑informed approach has the potential to positively impact all pupils, not only those with identified needs (Arad, 2017).

I believe that trauma‑informed practice in schools should not be an optional approach, but a fundamental requirement.

Unfortunately, in many schools, it is not yet even presented as an option. However, I genuinely hope that with the support and guidance of people like Neil Moggan, and through frameworks such as the RISE Up principles, this will begin to change, and do so rapidly.

For the first time during my PGCE year, I feel that I am truly on the right path.

I believe I have found my direction.

A Note from Neil

Thank you, Bianka, for sharing your story so openly and honestly. Your reflections, courage, and commitment to seeing children as whole human beings are exactly what this work is all about.

If Bianka's story resonates. If you've ever questioned your place in education, or felt the gap between the teacher you want to be and the system around you, we'd love to hear from you.

The RISE Up community is built on stories like this. Please do get in touch if you'd like to share yours.

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Thank You

Have a brilliant week, and thank you for everything you do for your young people.

Neil Moggan and the Future Action team

💛🤝🧠💪

Reference List

Arad, B. (2017) Youth of today – challenges of teachers of tomorrow. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Emerson, E. (2022) The Routledge international handbook of emotional and behavioural difficulties. London: Routledge.

Moggan, N. (2019) Time to RISE Up: Supporting students' mental health in schools. London: Routledge.

Porges, S.W. (2011) The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D.J. (2012) The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. 2nd edn. New York: Guilford Press.

Souers, K. and Hall, P. (2019) Fostering resilient learners: Strategies for creating a trauma‑sensitive classroom. 2nd edn. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.