Brand new course books for each BSEM domain

We need to regulate to educate

Dr Tom Brunzell, Dr Jacolyn Norrish, Grace Langton, and Karlie O'Neill

Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) is excited to celebrate the start of 2025 with the launch of the second edition of our suite of course books, Berry Street Education Model: Curriculum and classroom strategies.

This is a pivotal step in our commitment to shifting educational systems towards strengths-based inclusion, and to better meet all students’ needs, especially those who are at risk of dysregulation and disengagement. So, it is with delight that we introduce the second edition of our four BSEM books.

Interested in purchasing? The new edition of our course books is now available exclusively to BSEM Alumni with a special 20% discount.

Domain 1: Body

Supporting students to be Ready to Learn through strategies that meet the body’s regulatory needs, and empowering educators and students with tools for regulating their stress response.

Domain 2: Relationship

Developing strong teacher-student relationships and fostering a sense of connection and belonging across educational communities.

Domain 3: Stamina and Engagement

Building stamina and engagement for learning and helping students to set and exceed high expectations for their academic progress.

Domain 4: Character

Identifying, nurturing, and celebrating student and community strengths to ensure positive school cultures of safety, belonging, and achievement.

Educators familiar with our first books may notice a boost of BSEM strategies, updated to reflect recent developments in research and our learning from over a decade of applying BSEM strategies across educational contexts. We started BSEM more than 10 years ago by drawing on the fields of trauma-informed education, positive education, and the sciences of learning.

We focused on understanding early adversity and how to meet the needs of students with dysregulated stress responses. We combined this knowledge with tools and strategies drawn from positive education with a focus on enhancing wellbeing, strengths, positive emotions, and strong relationships across individuals, communities, and educational systems.

As we launch the second edition of our books, our commitment to integrating trauma-informed practice and the wellbeing sciences remains strong.

New additions to our books reflect our continued commitment to strengthening our knowledge of culturally responsive practices and respectfully integrating culture into the educational environment and curriculum, with the support of students, their families, and communities.

We are also determined to deepen our understanding of disability and inclusion, and how to better meet the needs of all students, including those with disability, who are neurodivergent, or who have additional learning needs.

This is a continuing journey, as we strive to enhance our own knowledge, connect and collaborate with experts in these fields, and share our learning with others.

We have combined the Stamina and Engagement domains, integrating these strategies to get to the heart of BSEM: We prioritise learning.

Our recent research suggests that few trauma-informed education models worldwide have learning and academic skills as core objectives for trauma-informed educators (Norrish & Brunzell, 2023).

BSEM is changing the landscape. We want all educational practices, including the delivery of academic content, to be both informed by the sciences of wellbeing and grounded in a commitment to academic growth and development for all students.

We know that many students who have experienced early adversity and instability need concrete tools, strategies, and support to build their stamina for learning. Supporting all students to be Ready to Learn and to meet and exceed high academic expectations is how we open future pathways and overcome systemic disadvantage.

The Stamina and Engagement domain is how we bring academic rigour to students and communicate our belief in their inherent potential as learners.

As we integrate new research and understandings into our work, our strategies of consistent, predictable routines, strong co-regulatory relationships, and building students’ own capacities in regulation remain at BSEM’s core.

Consistent, predictable routines create safety and predictability and are highly soothing for young people.

Co-regulation is our continual focus, providing warm and nurturing support to students when they are distressed or dysregulated, and communicating unconditional positive regard.

The aim is for students to build their own self-regulatory capacities to navigate the many challenges of the school day without being pushed into dysregulated or escalated states.

In the following article, Ready to Learn Plans: A priority strategy for student regulation, we delve deeper into the Body domain and explore how to meet students’ regulatory needs in the service of learning. We focus on how Ready to Learn Plans can be used as consistent, predictable routines for supporting all students, especially students who may be frequently stressed or escalated in the classroom.

We want all students to meet and exceed their educators’ high expectations for their learning and feel a deep sense of safety and belonging in their educational communities.

We need to regulate to educate. This is our call to action for our community as we strive to meet the needs of all students in our communities. We remember that students who are highly stressed and outside of their window of tolerance are not Ready to Learn. When we support students to regulate, we create pathways for healing, growth, and learning.

Reference

Norrish, J., & Brunzell, T. (2023). How is trauma-informed education implemented within classrooms? A synthesis of trauma-informed education programs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), 94-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/1835-517X.6159