ROOTS
MCR
Movement · Relationship · Reconnection
ROOTS is a relationship-led, activity-based service with movement at its core. It is for children and young people, and works alongside the professionals and families around them.
REGULATE
RESETMovement before reflection
The bridge between school and the child.
ROOTS works alongside school, families and the wider network around a child. It creates space for a young person’s experience to be better understood, while helping them stay connected to education, relationships and opportunity.
“We do not reduce a young person to their behaviour, their risk or the content they consume.”
Some children are asked to sit, talk and reflect before they feel safe enough to do so. ROOTS starts with the body and with movement, helping create conditions for regulation, trust and meaningful reflection.
Movement is not a reward. It is part of the intervention itself.
Regulate
Start with the body and emotional state. Support safety and readiness before expecting reflection or change.
Openness
Create space for honesty and curiosity. Avoid shame, blame and fixed narratives.
Opportunity
Make room for achievement, belonging, repair and different experiences.
Trust
Build reliability and relational safety through consistent experiences.
Strength
See ability, effort, interests and protective relationships—not only difficulty.
Different ways in.
One relational approach.
The offer is shaped around the young person, the school and the wider support around them. Each pathway combines movement, regulation, trusted relationships and reflection.
Small group
Usually up to four pupils. Shared movement and challenge create room for peer connection, confidence and belonging.
Paired work
Two young people work together where peer connection and shared learning can strengthen engagement.
Reconnect · one-to-one
Individualised support for a young person who may need time to build trust and connection before group work feels right.
Prevention & development
Interactive workshops, professional development and reflective consultation for schools and wider services.
ROOTS works alongside the systems around a child.
ROOTS uses movement to build trusted relationships, support regulation and create positive experiences. We work alongside the people and services already supporting a child. ROOTS does not replace education, therapy, safeguarding or statutory support.
The 12-week journey
The weeks offer a guide, not a fixed timetable. The pace can change to meet the needs of the young person and the group.
Regulation & relationship
Foundations through consistency, movement, safety and relationship.
Peer connection, strengths & belonging
Positive peer relationships and belonging through a shared project or challenge.
Awareness & understanding
Planting seeds of awareness about relationships, pressures and influences.
Reflection: bringing it together
Connecting the programme to everyday life in school and the community.
Positive ending
Recognising the journey, reinforcing strengths and ending well.
Held in relationship.
Connected to the wider network.
ROOTS stays alongside the child and the people around them. It does not hold risk alone or work in opposition to school.
With schools
Work together to understand the child’s experience, support engagement and build a realistic bridge back into education.
With families & trusted adults
Where appropriate and agreed, strengthen the relationships and protective support around the young person.
With wider professionals
Connect with relevant partners so the work is proportionate, safeguarding-informed and held within the wider network.
With young people
Child voice shapes the work, the shared activity, the environment and the reflection on what has changed.
Space to move.
Space to think.
ROOTS workshops create practical, engaging space for young people and adults to explore the experiences, relationships and pressures that shape everyday life. Sessions are designed around the group and the issues they want to understand, not delivered as generic awareness talks.
Workshops for young people
Interactive, movement-informed and conversation-led sessions for classes, year groups or targeted cohorts. Topics can include online safety, peer influence, healthy relationships, exploitation awareness, community and personal safety, emotional regulation, identity, confidence and belonging.
Workshops for professionals
Practical, reflective sessions for schools, residential settings and wider services. Explore regulation, relationships, professional curiosity, contextual safeguarding, language, risk and protective factors through the ROOTS practice framework.
Reflective consultation
Space for teams to think together about a child’s experience, what may sit beneath behaviour, how adult responses affect connection, and what could support safety and engagement.
Shaped around your setting
Workshop themes and format are agreed with the school or service, taking account of the group, the issues they want to explore and the outcomes they are working towards.
ROOTS Regulation Through Movement Space.
A dedicated environment being developed for movement-based regulation, reflection and relationship-led support.
The space is planned for The Performance Space in Manchester. It will combine movement equipment with a calm area for mentoring, conversation and decompression. Young people will help shape the room and how it is used.
A lasting community asset for prevention, recovery and safer futures.
The Regulation Through Movement Space is in development; details may change as the project progresses.
Regulate.
Reconnect.Concept space · Co-designed with young people
Let’s build a bridge around what a young person needs.
Talk with ROOTS about a school commission, a referral conversation, professional development or reflective consultation.
Contact ROOTS MCR