Why a Tailored Approach is Key to Stress-Free Progress

Charlotte Gater, Head of Curriculum at Explore Learning, explores how the right extra-curricular tuition can support the development of students with special needs and help them thrive in all areas of life.

At Explore Learning Tuition Centres we treat every child as an individual. Everyone comes with their own strengths, talents, motivations and areas to develop. Families seek out tuition for many different reasons and come with a variety of goals, from socialising and communication to academic progress. It’s important for us that we work with each family to harness what makes each child tick, help them thrive and achieve their initial goals and far beyond.

Create an account to read this article

£7.00+ VAT

One-off purchase

Purchase and Download today

Register for free

No Credit Card required

Register for free
Access to 3 free articles
Free TeachingTimes Report every month

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#42663"
  ["title"]=>
  string(64) "Supporting Ethnic Minority Young People From Education Into Work"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "Leadership"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(59) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/ethnic-education-work_191015/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1444925484)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-42663-0"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(378) "Considerable improvements in educational attainment among ethnic minority groups – particularly Black African and Bangladeshi students – have not been matched by sustained progress in the labour market. This paper by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation puts forward a set of recommendations for local authorities designed to support education-to-work transitions for ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(421) "... better informed by local demographics, and aremore sensitive to local employers. This report focuses on facilitating education-to-work transitions forethnic minority groups across three key areas: working with employers (demand side), brokering jobopportunities (co-ordination), and providing tailored employment support for young people (supplyside).Key Findings: ■ Local authorities ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(64) "Supporting Ethnic Minority Young People From Education Into Work"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(507) "Considerable improvements in educational attainment among ethnic minority groups – particularly Black African and Bangladeshi students – have not been matched by sustained progress in the labour market. This paper by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation puts forward a set of recommendations for local authorities designed to support education-to-work transitions for ethnic minority youth, drawing on examples of best practice in Bristol, Nottingham and Tower Hamlets.
Leadership Briefing 10.03(111)"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "progress"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(3687) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.SUPPORTING ETHNIC MINORITY YOUNGPEOPLE FROM EDUCATION INTO WORKKeywordsSafety, children,assault, childprotection,victims of abuse,support, neglect,child sexualexploitation,intervention,NSPCC,ChildLine SummaryConsiderable improvements in educational attainment among ethnic minority groups –particularly Black African and Bangladeshi students – have not been matched by sustainedprogress in the labour market. This paper by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation puts forwarda set of recommendations for local authorities designed to support education-to-worktransitions for ethnic minority youth, drawing on examples of best practice in Bristol,Nottingham and Tower Hamlets.Local efforts for supporting ethnic minority education-to-work transitions have three key advantagesover national efforts: they are more accountable, are better informed by local demographics, and aremore sensitive to local employers. This report focuses on facilitating education-to-work transitions forethnic minority groups across three key areas: working with employers (demand side), brokering jobopportunities (co-ordination), and providing tailored employment support for young people (supplyside).Key Findings: ■ Local authorities should lead on transition initiatives because they are well placed to co-ordinateothers and offer a more accountable, more targeted and more sensitive approach. ■ Local authorities can make progress in three areas: encouraging employers to recruit amore diverse workforce (demand side); working with employers and young people to brokeropportunities (co-ordination); and providing tailored support for ethnic minority young people(supply side). ■ Local authorities should be transparent about the representativeness of their own workforces andrun their own internal placement schemes for young people looking for work, targeting ethnicminority communities where there is a local need. Their planning and commissioning powersmean they can require employers to recruit apprenticeships from disadvantaged groups and toincrease transparency about the diversity of their workforces. ■ Local authorities should set up local employer and apprenticeship hubs to connect young peopleto local employment opportunities and co-ordinate apprenticeship placements, with targets forthe proportion of ethnic minority apprenticeship starts reflecting the demographic composition ofthe area. ■ Tailored schemes designed to support disadvantaged youth into the labour market should bedriven by data which should be gathered on participants by ethnicity and employment outcomes.Week Commencing 19th October 2015https://www.jrf.org.uk/file/47872/download?token=-6sF7IXhhttps://www.jrf.org.uk/file/47872/download?token=-6sF7IXhhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/359483/DFE-RR286_-_Are_free_schools_using_innovative_approaches.pdfLeadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents. ■ Local authorities should support providers to work with ethnic minority graduates as they make thetransition from university to work.WEB LINKSupporting Ethnic Minority Young People From Education Into Workhttps://www.jrf.org.uk/file/47872/download?token=-6sF7IXh"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "tailored"
        [1]=>
        string(8) "approach"
        [2]=>
        string(3) "key"
        [3]=>
        string(4) "free"
        [4]=>
        string(8) "progress"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Leadership

Supporting Ethnic Minority Young People From Education Into Work

15 Oct 2015

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#40196"
  ["title"]=>
  string(34) ""Yes Miss, we'd love a challenge!""
  ["categories"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(32) "Creative Teaching & Learning"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(55) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/yesmisswedloveachallenge/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1354720472)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-40196-1"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(235) "Unlike many, the pupils of Alverstoke Infant School enjoy a
challenge. Head teacher, Marion Clist, explains how Carol
Dweck’s research on ‘Growth Mindsets’ has helped them
to become more eager, independent and resilient learners."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(368) "... yet the least well used … Motivating teachers praisepupil effort and how they tackle their work and so make pupils feel they areresponsible for success. They stress individual rather than normative progress.They avoid loading their feedback with approval or disapproval and downplaytheir evaluative role by letting pupils rate themselves as ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(34) ""Yes Miss, we'd love a challenge!""
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(235) "Unlike many, the pupils of Alverstoke Infant School enjoy a
challenge. Head teacher, Marion Clist, explains how Carol
Dweck’s research on ‘Growth Mindsets’ has helped them
to become more eager, independent and resilient learners."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(5647) "solutions to a challenge. No longer passive recipients of learning, theywere much more engaged and motivated to learn.Alan McLean makes the link between motivation, feedback and promoting amastery attitude to learning in his book, ‘Motivating Every Learner’. He writes:‘Feedback provides information that lets pupils know how they are doing. It isthe motivation power-tool yet the least well used … Motivating teachers praisepupil effort and how they tackle their work and so make pupils feel they areresponsible for success. They stress individual rather than normative progress.They avoid loading their feedback with approval or disapproval and downplaytheir evaluative role by letting pupils rate themselves as much as possible’.This endorsed what we were discovering within the school. As teachers’ useof growth mindset language and effective feedback became embedded withinthe school, we decided to stop giving external rewards (stickers) to motivateour learners. We wanted our learners to learn for the sense of achievement andnot the promise of a sticker! Children accepted this very quickly indeed and ithas had no adverse effect on their willingness to undertake and persevere witha challenging activity.Approach to participationAlongside our work on promoting the growth mindset, we began to focusmore on how children learn at staff meetings. All teachers took on a personalaction research project to complement this work with a view to increasingpupil engagement and participation. Staff meeting time was set aside to15Volume3.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningTeachingApproachesdiscuss findings, share successes and offer suggestions as to how ideas couldbe developed further. Early successful initiatives included using random talkpartners to increase the amount of pupil talk, a ‘no hands up’ policy to preventsocial domination of a few confident children and later, we adopted a wholeschool policy of using lolly sticks with children’s names on them to decide whoanswered questions. This had the benefit of ensuring that all children expectto be involved in, and contribute to, the lesson. It promoted a more discursiveapproach to learning as children were often offering tentative answers toquestions when they were unsure of the answer. Having already establisheda culture where it was okay to make and learn from mistakes, this meant thatlearning became a more social and interactive process.Changes to Curriculum: Child Initiated LearningWe had identified that learning was initially very teacher directed and our childrenwere passive recipients of learning. We noted that our most independent,engaged and motivated learners were those in the Early Years Foundation Stageand wanted to emulate the most successful features of their curriculum in KeyStage One. We took a leap of faith that our results across the curriculum wouldimprove if children had more opportunities to lead their own learning, followtheir interests and practice essential skills in contexts which motivated them.We therefore committed to providing regular sessions of child initiated learningin all year groups for extended periods of time each day.We agreed a set of guiding principles over a series of staff meetings, whichhave evolved and been refined over time. Our Child Initiated Learning sessionsare about an hour and a half in length and expectations are slightly different foreach year group. Year R children have absolute free choice to lead their ownlearning, but once in Year 1 and 2, they are expected to link their learning toa topic related interest, albeit through art, music, writing, science, maths etc.Children in Year 2 build further on their ability to be independent learners, as theyalso have to account for how they spend their time and share their outcomeswith the class in various forms. Within these boundaries, children have choiceand control over their learning and they are encouraged to make decisions aboutwhat they will do, how they will do it, the resources and equipment they willuse and their intended outcome. The sessions are designed to give childrentime to reflect and draw on their growing knowledge and skills, apply them toa range of different contexts and make connections between different areasand aspects of their learning.We have found that our children are highly motivated when they initiate theirown learning and are learning about something, which is important to them andthey find enjoyable. They work with confidence, persevere for long periods oftime and often work at levels far higher than those sometimes identified in theplanned curriculum. Providing enough time for children to develop their ideas isan essential feature of this approach so that children are not interrupted beforethey have achieved what they have set out to do and can evaluate, refine and feelsatisfied with their achievements. Children also have the opportunity to revisitand improve their learning outcomes over a period of days if they need to.Our Role as TeachersGiving children more choice in their learning requires a different sort of planningand organisation in order to provide for and extend learning. An excellentunderstanding of the curriculum and progression in key skills is needed sothat adults have high expectations of what the children can and should achieveduring child initiated sessions. All adults need to make sure that skills taughtin more formal sessions of the curriculum are transferred and built on in childinitiated learning and that further modelling and demonstrating, questioning andfeedback from an adult reinforces this prior"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "approach"
        [1]=>
        string(3) "key"
        [2]=>
        string(6) "stress"
        [3]=>
        string(4) "free"
        [4]=>
        string(8) "progress"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(32) "Creative Teaching & Learning"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Creative Teaching & Learning

"Yes Miss, we'd love a challenge!"

5 Dec 2012

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#34376"
  ["title"]=>
  string(41) "Higher Standards - Better Schools For All"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "Leadership"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(70) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/higher-standards-better-schools-for-all/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1130803200)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-34376-0"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(215) "Higher Standards Better Schools For All More Choice for Parents and Pupils is a 104page Education White Paper which sets out the governments plans to radically improve the school system and increase parental choice."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(321) "... tailored lessons.There will also be much tougher rules for failing schools:· Schools in Special Measures will be more quickly turned around; and where no progress is made after a year, a competition for new providers will be held. Schools that receive a notice to improve from Ofsted will enter ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(4) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(41) "Higher Standards - Better Schools For All"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(215) "Higher Standards Better Schools For All More Choice for Parents and Pupils is a 104page Education White Paper which sets out the governments plans to radically improve the school system and increase parental choice."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(5651) "ResourceHIGHER STANDARDS, BETTER SCHOOLS FOR ALLOriginal DocumentHigher Standards, Better Schools For All – More Choice for Parents and Pupils is a 104-page Education White Paper which sets out the government’s plans to radically improve the school system.KeywordsWhite paper, school system, higher standards, choiceSummaryThe government aim is to ensure that every child receives an excellent education by freeing up schools to innovate and succeed and putting parents and the needs of their children at the heart of the school system:· Every school will be able to acquire a self-governing Trust similar to those supporting Academies, which will give them the freedom to work with new partners to help develop their ethos and raise standards;· Academies will remain at the heart of the programme, with continued and new opportunities to develop them in schools and areas of real and historical underperformance and underachievement;· Independent schools will find it easier to enter the new system; and· A national Schools Commissioner will drive change, matching schools and new partners, promoting the benefits of choice, access and diversity, and taking action where parental choices are being frustrated.This will create a system of independent non-fee paying state schools, where schools can decide whether they wish to acquire a self-governing Trust or become a self-governing Foundation school.Choice needs to be more widely available to everyone within an increasingly specialist system, not just to those who can pay for it. Key to choice is the provision of more good places and more good schools. This will be supported by:· Introducing better information for all parents when their child enters primary and secondary school, and dedicated choice advisers to help the least well-off parents to exercise their choices;· Extending the rights to free school transport to children from poorer families to their three nearest secondary schools within a six mile radius (when they are outside walking distance) and piloting transport to support such choices for all parents, which will help the environment as well as school choice; and· Making it easier for schools to introduce banding into their admissions policies, so that they can keep a proportion of places for students who live outside traditional school catchment areas within a genuinely comprehensive intake. Some specialist schools and Academies already successfully use this approach.To ensure parental engagement, the government will ensure that:· Parents receive regular, meaningful reports during the school year about how their child is doing, with opportunities to discuss their child’s progress with their teachers;· Parents have the chance to form Parent Councils to influence school decisions on issues such as school meals, uniform and discipline (such Councils will be required in Trust schools);· Parents have better local complaints procedures and access to a new national complaints service from Ofsted where local procedures have been exhausted;· Parents have access to more and clearer information about local schools, how to get involved and how to lever change; and· Parents are able to set up new schools supported by a dedicated capital pot.The reformed school workforce and a greater availability of ICT gives teachers the opportunity to tailor lessons to the individual needs of each pupil:· Targeted one-to-one tuition in English and maths in the schools with the most under-performing pupils, to help those falling behind to catch up with their peers;· More stretching lessons and opportunities for gifted and talented pupils;· Extended schools, offering many new opportunities to learn and develop beyond the formal school day;· More grouping and setting by subject ability; and· A national training programme to enable each school to have one leading professional to help develop tailored lessons.There will also be much tougher rules for failing schools:· Schools in Special Measures will be more quickly turned around; and where no progress is made after a year, a competition for new providers will be held. Schools that receive a notice to improve from Ofsted will enter Special Measures within a year, if progress is not made;· Competitions will be required for new schools and the replacement of failing schools, for the first time providing a straightforward route to bring new providers into the system. All new schools will be self-governing Foundation, voluntary aided, Trust schools or Academies; and· Parents will be able to urge Ofsted action or request new providers, and where there is strong demand or dissatisfaction with existing choices, local authorities will have to respond to their concerns.The government also recognises that good schools should have greater freedoms, and that includes a lighter touch from inspectors and other agencies:· Good schools to be able to expand or federate more easily with other schools to increase the supply of good places, improving choices for parents;· The best specialist schools able to acquire extra specialisms and be funded for new responsibilities such as teacher training;· Ofsted to consult on an even lighter touch inspection system for high-performing schools.Poor pupil behaviour, particularly low-level disruption to lessons, will be dealt with by:· Introducing a clear and unambiguous legal right for teachers to discipline pupils, backed by an expectation that every school has a clear set of rules and sanctions;· Extending parenting contracts and orders, so that schools can use them to"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "tailored"
        [1]=>
        string(8) "approach"
        [2]=>
        string(3) "key"
        [3]=>
        string(4) "free"
        [4]=>
        string(8) "progress"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Leadership"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Leadership

Higher Standards - Better Schools For All

1 Nov 2005

array(8) {
  ["distinct_key"]=>
  string(10) "post#44520"
  ["title"]=>
  string(55) "Reducing the Impact of Trauma for Looked After Children"
  ["categories"]=>
  array(4) {
    [0]=>
    string(38) "Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties"
    [1]=>
    string(6) "Family"
    [2]=>
    string(21) "Looked After Children"
    [3]=>
    string(13) "Special Needs"
  }
  ["url"]=>
  string(45) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/impactoftrauma/"
  ["post_date_timestamp"]=>
  int(1543937079)
  ["objectID"]=>
  string(12) "post-44520-0"
  ["_snippetResult"]=>
  array(2) {
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(318) "The single most common factor for children who develop resilience is having at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. Tony Clifford explains how teachers can use attachment theory to help Looked After Children cope with the stress of their experience."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(2) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(325) "... work with them by giving them access to key information about how the brain works, how enough stress can drive its learning but how toxic stress created by abuse and neglect can damage it. In healthy child development, the baby learns to manage the stress of entering a strange new ..."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
    }
  }
  ["_highlightResult"]=>
  array(6) {
    ["title"]=>
    array(3) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(55) "Reducing the Impact of Trauma for Looked After Children"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(4) "none"
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(0) {
      }
    }
    ["author"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(13) "Tony Clifford"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["excerpt"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(318) "The single most common factor for children who develop resilience is having at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. Tony Clifford explains how teachers can use attachment theory to help Looked After Children cope with the stress of their experience."
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(6) "stress"
      }
    }
    ["content"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["value"]=>
      string(5688) "What is it like to be a child in care in school? Imagine you are this child starting a new school, perhaps your school. The fact that you have survived abuse and neglect will not be uppermost in your mind. The key thing will be the immediate: these new people, this new space, how to read the situation and work out the rules. So, to that extent you are not much different from a new teacher with a new class. You may actually be much quicker to read the patterns than this new teacher, because you’ve had to work hard to survive this far, had to learn how to avoid sudden violence, get your needs met amidst the chaos and build walls to protect you from the silence, from the times no one came and from all the times no one was there. The problem is that these skills are not on the curriculum, and so when it comes to learning, the part of your brain that is needed to focus on maths, is too busy dealing with potential threat and managing the reverberations of yesterday, when you were taken from your home and your siblings to somewhere a social worker you met for the first time said would be better and safer. When your new teacher tries to make the connections, you may not be there, may not yet feel safe enough to learn.It is essential that we support children in care and those who work with them by giving them access to key information about how the brain works, how enough stress can drive its learning but how toxic stress created by abuse and neglect can damage it. In healthy child development, the baby learns to manage the stress of entering a strange new world by attuning to a key care giver. Through this ‘attachment’ relationship the child learns. Children in care and many others miss out on this strong, safe baby-parent attachment bond.For schools and settings, understanding attachment and trauma cannot be seen as an optional extra: Schools and other education providers should ensure that all staff who may come into contact with children and young people with attachment difficulties receive appropriate training on attachment difficulties.1‘Designated teachers must…understand the impact trauma, attachment disorder and other mental health issues can have on looked-after and previously looked-after children and their ability to engage in learning.’2As with all new guidance, there is the issue of how to implement it in schools and settings already facing multiple challenges. Virtual Headteachers for children in care – a statutory post in all local authorities from 2015 – have concerned themselves with this question since the post was first introduced. How and why do schools take on attachment and trauma? There are really two reasons: attachment is at the heart of learning and not understanding it is not good for children or for adults, in both cases leading to additional and sometime overwhelming stress. On the other hand, when schools gain an understanding of the ‘basics’ of brain development, attachment and trauma, it frees up adults to be creative and responsive to children’s needs in their context. The ‘basics’ are not complex and have been summed up as ‘The brain is survival oriented and pattern seeking’, or ‘Connections on the outside of the body build neural connections on the inside’.3So, let’s go back to our new teacher and her new child in care. In response to whole-school-training from the Virtual School’s educational psychologist, who provides follow-up consultations, the new teacher creates an environment for optimal brain functioning in her classroom and she knows why she is doing what she is doing. For example, the teacher works with the foster carer to make a space in the classroom with objects that the child associates with the foster carer and safety. They both use the same language to help the child name difficult feelings and seek out a safe space to calm down. The child in care finds a safe pattern and with consistent and persistent support from the adults around her, begins to normalise to this pattern. For this child, the downward spiral of school exclusion and care placement breakdown is stopped. As well as the change for the child, the costs of residential care and special school education are saved. As a Virtual Headteacher, I saw this hopeful pattern created by the work of dedicated schools and allied professionals over and over again.The approach did not rely on rules, discipline, behaviour policy – the focus was on learning. In this respect, helping children to overcome trauma and abuse is like helping children to learn anything: it really helps to build from a sound understanding of the basics. In reading we might begin with phonics; in dealing with trauma we begin with attachment. In the past, teachers who had felt disempowered when their own rote learning methods did not work, found that understanding phonics unlocked their ability to teach reading. Teachers working with children who have experienced neglect and abuse have found understanding attachment and trauma has a similar impact: ‘It gave me a light-bulb moment about children I knew in school, the way they behaved and how I responded. From then on, my mind-set started to change.’ Deputy Head‘It took a series of children with needs that we just found hard to identify until we started to apply attachment theory thinking.  And it just unlocked these children and made us able to understand what was going on with far greater clarity. As a result, we got to make much more progress with them.’ Headteacher‘Even if we were to express it in terms of crude economics (and it is"
      ["matchLevel"]=>
      string(7) "partial"
      ["fullyHighlighted"]=>
      bool(false)
      ["matchedWords"]=>
      array(5) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "approach"
        [1]=>
        string(3) "key"
        [2]=>
        string(6) "stress"
        [3]=>
        string(4) "free"
        [4]=>
        string(8) "progress"
      }
    }
    ["categories"]=>
    array(4) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(38) "Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(6) "Family"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(21) "Looked After Children"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [3]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(13) "Special Needs"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
    ["tags"]=>
    array(6) {
      [0]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "attachment"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(29) "Attachment Research Community"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(17) "attachment theory"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [3]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(21) "looked after children"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [4]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(7) "parents"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
      [5]=>
      array(3) {
        ["value"]=>
        string(10) "Resilience"
        ["matchLevel"]=>
        string(4) "none"
        ["matchedWords"]=>
        array(0) {
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

Reducing the Impact of Trauma for Looked After Children

4 Dec 2018