On Tuesday we were joined (virtually!) by Emma Gleadhill for this half term’s parenting talk.

Emma is an educational speaker, trainer and coach with her own adolescent daughter, and has a huge wealth of experience working in pastoral care in girls’ schools, as well as being qualified in child and adolescent psychotherapy.  She spoke to us about how we can listen more effectively to our daughters in order to help them share and communicate more with us, and to help us through the changing boundaries and negotiations that are part of girls growing up.  One of the most impactful areas was when Emma invited us to consider how we feel when we sense someone is not really listening to us – perhaps thinking of their next sentence, or even thinking in a well-intentioned way about what they think we should do.

Reversing this, she helped us to understand how it feels to our daughters when we respond immediately with our opinions and solutions to their problems, and encouraged us simply to listen more openly, and without judgement or offering advice. Emma also gave us helpful tips on resolving family conflict by finding time to allow everyone to air their views, and understand how every party is feeling, before working towards a compromise.  We were thrilled to be joined by around 100 of you – and we’re sorry that some of you couldn’t get access to the meeting.

Next term’s speaker is the equally insightful Natasha Devon, and we will make sure that the meeting can hold all of you!