25SUM06 Leading Attachment and Trauma Aware Teaching & Learning

How do school leaders protect and promote well-being of pupils and staff when it is evident that some children have come through, or are continuing to live with serious adversity and trauma? Challenging behaviour and disruptions to teaching and learning threaten the well-being and safety of children, teachers and SNAs.

This DE approved course will help school leaders and learning support co-ordinators to understand learning, behaviour and ways of relating through the lens of early attachment experiences and development. It will explain the impact of trauma in terms of breaches of attachment and disruption to development, and offer an effective approach to address disrupted learning and challenging behaviour in children.

Many behaviour management strategies simply do not work with some children. Seeing behaviour as communication and understanding it with a ‘trauma aware lens’, however, can help teachers to manage and support children in a positive and nurturing way.

The benefits for staff are just as great. Understanding our own responses to stress encourages adults to regulate ourselves too, helping teachers to cope more effectively with pressure in the classroom and in the yard. Becoming ‘trauma aware’ helps to develop nurturing relationships throughout the school, cultivating an environment that is safe and beneficial for all.

This course is aimed at school leaders and SEN co-ordinators who are working to develop whole school attachment and trauma aware practice and policy.