Roger Mitchell has worked as a teacher in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (one of the most deprived boroughs in the UK) since 1988 and has been Headteacher at Ripple Primary School (a 950 pupil school for 3-11 year olds split over 2 sites) since 2005. His school has three Additionally Resourced Provisions that cater for children with SEMH, ASD and CMLD.

Ripple Primary School is an Emotionally Available School. Everyone is Welcome. Everyone Belongs.

Roger has delivered training face-to-face and online locally, nationally and internationally and has served on committees and research groups for many organisations, including The Royal Society, the DfE, the DTI, the STA, the London VRU and the Traveller Movement. He has been a Trustee on the board at nurtureuk since September 2024.

A vocal advocate for inclusion, Roger has a breadth and depth of experience and knowledge in supporting children with SEMH needs. He strongly believes that there is a moral imperative to provide inclusive education for all children, especially those whose challenging behaviour places them at a high risk of suspension and exclusion from school. In order to achieve this, he is continually pushing for ALL who work with or on behalf of children and young people to gain a good understanding of Attachment, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Practice.

But he also believes that, to make a real difference, schools need to move from being Trauma Informed to being Trauma Responsive. This is why his focus is now on empowering as many Emotionally Available Adults as possible in our schools so that we can create truly Emotionally Available Schools for our pupils and their families where everyone has a real sense of belonging.

Because, in his words, “If you lose the child from their school, you lose the child.”