We are a group of teachers, support staff and a psychotherapist who meet once a week to discuss the emotional transactions of our teaching practice. Each week a member of the group brings a case study of a student who is worrying them or whose behaviour is upsetting. We work in a complex environment; many of our students have special educational needs and many of them live in poverty. Our school is diverse and lots of our students are first and second generation immigrants, facing racism and growing intolerance in the wake of Brexit. We are trying to see the behaviour in our classrooms as communication, to understand what is being communicated and to try to explore positive and emotionally healthy responses to the challenges we and our students face every day. This blog is a record of some of the themes and interactions we discuss.