The BESST Program
Behavioural and Emotional Skills for School Transition
with Dr Louise Porter & Sandi Phoenix
Now on the School Readiness Funding Menu - The Department of Education & Training Victoria
About
The Behavioural and Emotional Skills for School Transition (BESST) Masterclass supports early childhood educators to deeply understand children’s behaviour and strengthen the emotional and social foundations that support successful transitions to school.
Rather than viewing behaviour as something to manage or correct, BESST reframes behaviour as a child’s best attempt to get their needs met while developing essential emotional and behavioural skills. Through this lens, educators explore how emotionally safe, predictable and autonomy-supportive environments help children feel secure, capable and ready to participate in group learning.
Created by Dr Louise Porter and Sandi Phoenix, and delivered through self-paced video and written content, BESST invites educators to move beyond behaviourist approaches and towards relationship-rich, guidance-oriented practice. Drawing on contemporary research, neuroscience and play-based learning, the Masterclass supports educators to strengthen co-regulation, build children’s emotional and behavioural flexibility, and embed practices that actively support confident, supported transitions to school.
Download the full workshop brochure
See workshop overviews, learning focus, and delivery options in one clear, printable PDF.
We will
- explore Dr Louise Porter’s guidance approach, with a focus on prevention, needs-based responses and ethical, relationship-centred practice
- examine the Phoenix Cups Framework as a model for understanding why children behave as they do, and how educators can respond in supportive, skill-building ways
- unpack practical, real-world strategies for meeting children’s needs, reducing conflict and supporting emotional regulation
- strengthen shared language and understanding around behaviour through reflective activities and solution-focused examples
- explore how educators can act as change agents within their service, embedding needs-based approaches and sustaining reflective practice beyond the Masterclass
Participant outcomes
By the end of this Masterclass, participants will have:
- a strong understanding of behaviour through a needs-based lens, recognising behaviour as an expression of unmet needs and developing skills rather than misbehaviour
- increased capacity to support children’s emotional regulation and co-regulation, including recognising early signs of escalation and responding with attuned, nervous-system-supporting strategies
- practical strategies for fostering social competence, empathy and peer relationships, moving beyond managing interactions to intentionally teaching and modelling skills
- skills to create autonomy-supportive, predictable learning environments that uphold children’s rights and reduce power struggles and stress-based behaviours
- confidence in applying needs-supportive practices that strengthen the behavioural, emotional and social foundations required for a successful transition to school
Theoretical underpinnings
Play Based Learning Theory
Recognises play as the most effective context for developing self-regulation, social competence and flexible thinking. BESST helps educators embed play experiences that strengthen the emotional and behavioural capacities essential for school readiness.
Guidance Approach
Dr Louise Porter
Positions behaviour as a reflection of unmet needs and developing skills rather than something to reward or punish. The course encourages educators to respond with empathy, co-regulation and support, rather than control.
Self-Determination Theory
Ryan & Deci
Supports educators to recognise that autonomy, competence and relatedness are essential for healthy development and regulation. BESST helps educators design environments that meet these psychological needs and reduce stress-based behaviours.
Contemporary Neuroscience
Dr Lisa Feldman-Barret
Shows that children’s behaviour is shaped by stress, prediction, nervous system states and developing brain architecture. BESST teaches educators how to support children’s nervous systems through connection, predictability and co-regulation.
National alignments
Quality Area 1: Educational Program and Practice
- Element 1.1.1 – Approved learning framework
- Element 1.2.1 – Intentional teaching
- Element 1.2.2 – Responsive teaching and scaffolding
Quality Area 5: Relationships with Children
- Element 5.1.1 – Positive educator to child interactions
- Element 5.1.2 – Dignity and rights of the child
- Element 5.2.2 – Self-regulation
Standard 1.1 – Understanding child development and social and emotional learning.
Standard 1.2 – Differentiating for diverse learners’ emotional and behavioural needs.
Standard 3.5 – Responding to behaviours that challenge us through supportive strategies.
Standard 4.1 – Creating positive learning environments.
Principle 1: Child safety and wellbeing are embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture. Children’s emotional wellbeing, safety and dignity guide all educator responses as a shift away from controlling approaches toward prioritising children’s psychological safety.
Principle 2: Children are safe, informed and participate in decisions affecting them. Plan for children’s agency, voice and meaningful choice, where children’s perspectives matter.
Principle 5: People working with children are suitable and supported. Educators build the competencies required for safe, attuned, child-focused practice.
Social & Emotional Skills
- Strengthens educator understanding of children’s stress responses, emotional development and the role of unmet needs in behaviour.
- Supports educators to foster resilience, flexibility, and confidence in enhancing children’s readiness for the transition to school.
Access & Inclusion
- Promotes relational, needs-focused and guidance-based practices that reduce barriers for children experiencing vulnerability, trauma or developmental differences.
- Helps educators identify and adapt to children’s unique emotional, sensory and social needs, ensuring equitable opportunities for participation.
Culturally Safe, Inclusive and Responsive Practice
- Encourages educators to reflect on assumptions, avoid behaviourist interpretations, and respond to behaviour through a culturally respectful, trauma-aware lens.
- Supports practices that honour children’s identity, cultural ways of expressing emotion, and diverse communication styles.
Executive Function
- Teaches educators strategies to strengthen children’s working memory, impulse control, emotional flexibility and persistence.
- Encourages play-based experiences that build planning, problem-solving and adaptive thinking, all of which are essential for school readiness.
Access & Inclusion
- Recognise diverse social-emotional profiles, neurodivergence, trauma histories and cultural ways of expressing emotion.
- Helps educators adapt environments, expectations and interactions to ensure all children, including those requiring additional support, can participate meaningfully.
Communication (language, literacy and numeracy)
- Deepens educator understanding of “emotional vocabulary” and how naming feelings builds language and regulation simultaneously.
- Supports educators to model language for problem-solving, negotiation and expressing needs, contributing to children’s overall communication competence.
Online Course Option:
Prefer to engage in this training from the comfort of your own home? We get it!
That's why we created the self-paced online course, with video content and downloadable workbooks.
More on behavioural and emotional skills
Interested in behavioural and emotional skills of children? You can read all about it in our blog.