The audiences ranged from teachers and senior leaders to teaching assistants, administrators and site staff. The settings and circumstances were very different, but the message at the heart of Richard's You Matter keynote remained the same: children need to know that they matter and the adults around them have far more power to communicate that message than they sometimes realise.
The first engagement was the Primitas Learning Partnership Annual Conference at Erasmus Darwin Academy in Staffordshire, where around 500 educators had gathered.
Richard had been invited to explore the impact adults in education can have on the lives of children and young people. The brief covered resilience, self-worth, empathy and understanding the challenges pupils may be experiencing beyond the classroom. It also reflected an idea central to Richard's work: what presents itself as behaviour in school can sometimes be the visible part of a much bigger story.
For Richard, that isn't simply something he has learned during more than 20 years of working with schools. It comes directly from his own experience.
While researching his latest book, You Matter, Richard returned to the social services files from his childhood and began reading them in greater detail than ever before. The first entry records his mother arriving at a social services office with nowhere to live. Richard was just two and a half years old. What follows across those files has at times been heartbreaking to read and has given him a different understanding of the young boy he once was.
The teachers who encountered Richard more than 50 years ago couldn't possibly have known everything that was happening in his life beyond the school gates. They couldn't change his home circumstances or remove the adversity he was experiencing. What they could do was influence how he felt during the time he spent with them.
As Richard explains:
“They noticed me. They encouraged me. They gave me moments when I felt safe, seen and valued. More than 50 years later, I can still tell you their names.”
One of the most personal moments in the keynote was sharing a photograph of Richard with his very first teacher, Mrs Ball, after the two were reunited 50 years later. For an audience of educators, it provided a very tangible example of something Richard talks about throughout You Matter: teachers may never fully know the lasting impact of what they do.
The feedback from Primitas reinforced that message. Of those who completed the feedback, all described the keynote as inspiring and 95% rated it extremely engaging. More revealing, however, were the comments about what people were taking away with them.
Daniel described the keynote as a “powerful reminder” of the difference teachers can make through “small, consistent actions.”
Nathan wrote: “All children need to hear about resilience and how we can as adults, model, live and show that anything is possible.”
Rebecca's response was particularly poignant: “You are a symbol of hope for those children.”
Amy reflected on the difference Richard's own teachers had made, writing that this “has to be our ‘why’,” while Ellie highlighted another important aspect of education that can sometimes be overlooked: the wellbeing of the adults themselves. “It was just what I needed today because I felt anxious coming back to work. It gave me hope.”
Another delegate summed up her learning as “trauma-informed practice, child-first thinking, connection and genuine care and empathy before punishment.”
These comments are important because You Matter isn't intended simply to tell an inspiring story. Its purpose is to encourage people to think about the children in front of them and the influence they have through the everyday interactions that form school life.
Later that same day, Richard travelled to Whitegate End Primary School and Nursery in Oldham. This time there were around 25 people in the room.
Whitegate End serves a diverse community, including a higher-than-average proportion of pupils who are, or have been, in local authority care and a significant number of children classed as disadvantaged. The school also has an on-site SEMH provision supporting children experiencing social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
The team was already committed to inclusion, relational practice and trauma-informed approaches and its school improvement priorities place pupil and staff wellbeing alongside attainment, pedagogy, preparing children for life and strong leadership. Richard's session was linked to all five priorities.
There was also a striking connection between Whitegate End's own values and Richard's work. The school states simply: “Everyone belongs.”
Belonging is one of the Seven Anchors Richard explores in his work with educators. For a child to learn and thrive, feeling that they have a place within their school community matters. That sense of belonging is built through relationships, consistency and the repeated experience of being noticed and valued.
Going from an audience of around 500 to a staff room of 25 on the same day also demonstrated something useful about the You Matter keynote. The size of the room may change, but the conversation remains relevant. In a smaller INSET setting there is simply greater opportunity to relate that conversation directly to the particular community a school serves.
The following morning, Richard arrived at Aintree Racecourse for the Liverpool Diocesan Schools Trust conference. The audience extended beyond teachers and school leaders to include teaching assistants, administrators, site staff and colleagues performing many different roles across the Trust.
The theme of the conference was Belong, Thrive, Achieve Together. Richard delivered the first keynote following opening worship from the Bishop of Liverpool and a welcome from the Trust CEO, with Sal Naseem speaking later that morning on morally courageous leadership.
There was a particularly strong connection between the Trust's aims for the day and the message within You Matter. LDST wanted its staff to reflect on how all adults within its schools can help children feel that they belong. It asked colleagues to consider how they might be that one trusted adult who spots a child, shows them they matter and helps give them the confidence to attend school, thrive and achieve.
That distinction is important. Creating belonging isn't solely the responsibility of a class teacher or pastoral lead. Children encounter adults throughout the school day and relationships can be built in places that have nothing to do with a formal lesson.
Richard knows this from his own childhood. More than five decades later he can still name Miss Carr, Mrs Birkenshaw, Mr Hill and Miss Ball. They couldn't have known the course his life would eventually take, nor could they solve everything that was happening outside school. Their influence came from what they were able to do while Richard was in front of them.
It is easy to underestimate the importance of those seemingly ordinary interactions. A teaching assistant noticing that a child isn't quite themselves, an administrator remembering a name, or a member of the site team stopping for a conversation can all contribute to the message a child receives about whether they belong.
The LDST conference demonstrated why You Matter works particularly well at Trust or MAT level. People may have very different job titles and responsibilities, but they share responsibility for the culture children experience when they enter their schools.
The final engagement brought another significant change of setting when Richard joined the team at Sefton Virtual School in Formby. There were just 14 people in the room, most of whom work directly with children and young people.
It was a small audience, but one for whom the themes within You Matter had particular professional relevance.
Virtual School teams understand perhaps better than most that children carry their experiences into school with them. Care, loss, instability and trauma can affect trust, relationships, behaviour, attendance and a young person's belief in themselves. The behaviour that adults see may only be the most visible part of a much more complicated story.
Even the distinction between frontline and administrative roles was challenged by Natasha from Sefton, who explained that describing three members of her team simply as “admin” didn't do them justice because “they experience the same traumas, just in a different way.”
The response afterwards demonstrated that Richard's story had connected emotionally, but also that the team had found it professionally relevant. Natasha wrote:
“My team were just in awe of you and how you have overcome so many challenges and traumas. You really are an inspiration and I feel privileged to have met you and that you shared your story with us.”
Other members of the team described the session as “very thought-provoking, inspirational and real”, while another commented:
“He knew the audience and drew upon their needs and knowledge. He was fantastic.”
One respondent described “the resilience, inspiration, humour and knowledge” as invaluable, while another summed up Richard's approach as combining “humility, humour, empathy and wisdom. Absolutely unforgettable.”
All Sefton respondents said the session was useful and engaging, with five of the six rating it extremely valuable, inspiring and relevant.
That relevance matters. A keynote dealing with childhood adversity can undoubtedly be moving, but being moving isn't enough, particularly when speaking to professionals who work with vulnerable and care-experienced children every day. Their expertise and experience need to be respected. Richard's lived experience provides another perspective through which to consider the child behind the behaviour, the attendance figure, the case file or the presenting difficulty.
Taken together, the three days demonstrated the versatility of You Matter.
Within a single-school INSET, it can provide space for staff to reflect on the children they know, the community they serve and the difference their everyday interactions can make. At MAT, partnership or Trust level, it can bring together teachers, leaders, teaching assistants, administrators, site teams and support staff around a shared purpose. For Virtual Schools, the same core message can be explored through the particular lens of professionals supporting children and young people affected by care, trauma and instability.
The content and emphasis can be adapted to the audience without losing the central message. You Matter is ultimately about relationships and what can happen when a young person encounters an adult who sees beyond the behaviour, notices what others might miss and helps them understand that they are seen, valued and capable.
The feedback collected across Richard's September education engagements provides useful evidence of how that message was received. Across all responses, every respondent rated the sessions as valuable and engaging, while 98.8% described them as very or extremely inspiring and 98.8% said they were useful.
For Richard, however, the more important measure comes afterwards.
“For me, the real measure isn't whether somebody enjoyed the presentation. It's what happens when they go back into school. Do they look differently at the child who's struggling? Do they pause before responding to challenging behaviour and wonder what might be sitting behind it? Do they notice the child who has become very good at not being noticed?”
One of the challenges of working in education is that adults don't always get to see the long-term outcome of their influence. Something said or done during an ordinary school day may feel insignificant to the adult involved, yet stay with a child for decades.
The educators who made a difference to Richard didn't rescue him from everything that happened afterwards. His journey remained complicated for many years. What they did provide were moments of encouragement and evidence that he had ability, that he was worth noticing and that somebody could see more in him than his circumstances.
Richard has now delivered more than 3,500 talks over 21 years, but those three days across four education settings provided another reminder of why this particular work remains so important to him.
The educators at Primitas, Whitegate End, LDST and Sefton Virtual School already knew that their work mattered. Sometimes, however, those working hard to make a difference for children need reminding of the difference they themselves make.
As Richard puts it:
“Somewhere in our schools today is a child who may remember an adult in that building for the rest of their life. The adult probably won't know it at the time. But the child will.”
If your school, Trust, MAT or Virtual School team would benefit from being reminded of the extraordinary difference its people can make, You Matter can be tailored to the context and challenges of your education community.
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