Kat Stern

Kat Stern was once dragged around the floor of a sports hall by a twelve-year-old child during a lesson observation. This event was conspicuously absent from the lesson plan. From these auspicious beginnings she went on to specialise in behaviour within secondary educational settings and consults across mainstream and alternative provisions. Having qualified as a PE teacher, most of her career has been within inner-city schools, incorporating various pastoral and leadership roles. She spent four years running a unit for students at risk of exclusion and became the Director of Teaching and Learning for Behaviour in a large academy, before consulting in the education provision of a Young Offenders' Institute as an associate senior leader.

Kat is passionate about bringing the worlds of mental health and education closer together, particularly using academic research to inform behaviour policies and pastoral care. She draws on a wide range of research in her writing, but particular influences are the work of Professor Robert Sapolsky, Professor Peter Fonagy and Dr. Bruce Perry. Her inspirations for everyday teaching are the students she has learned so much from, and her colleagues (ALL of them) who have taught her so much even if they weren't aware of it. Having worked closely with vulnerable students, she is fascinated by trauma research and how it supports our understanding of interpersonal behaviours. She ran a pilot study of a trauma-informed strategy within a prison setting and is currently replicating the trial in a Pupil Referral Unit.

Kat can be contacted on Twitter @KatStern4 and via her website www.katstern.com