At the conclusion of the present study the school was preparing to continue the approach,extending into the full 16 HOM. The benefits for children who exhibit challenging behaviours were positively evaluated by teachers, parents and students in the present study and while this is an encouraging preliminary finding, further longitudinal and targeted research is now required. As Costa and Kallick (2009, 59) state, HOM is a lifelong journey,‘a journey of a growing capacity to be more skilful and strategic as we use the habits’. While this small-scale preliminary study must be interpreted in the light of various methodological limitations outlined, it does highlight the potential of the HOM approach specifically for students who display more challenging behaviours in schools and hopefully encourages practitioners using this approach to disseminate their own experiences to strengthen the findings presented here.