School support for children with adverse childhood experiences

Information about the school

Headlands School is an independent special school, situated in a residential area of Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan.  It is part of the Action for Children charity.  The school provides term-time residential and day placements for pupils aged 7 to 19 years with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).   

The school currently educates 68 pupils from key stage 2 to post-16.  Nearly all pupils come from Welsh local authorities, with a very few from English local authorities.  All pupils have a statement of special educational needs (SEN) and 20 pupils have looked-after child (LAC) status.   

The school’s aim is to develop young people’s wellbeing and independence through an individual approach to education and care.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

The question of how to support children and young people who have experienced early trauma and adverse childhood experiences was the starting point for developing our whole-school approach.  The impact for children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is both well documented by a series of reports by Public Health Wales published in 2014 and highly concerning for those providing services for such children.  Thankfully, what is also well known is the impact of having a trusted adult in the life of the child to ameliorate the consequences of adversity.  Therefore, the school’s aim was to ensure it provides trusting relationships and a trauma-sensitive service to our pupils and their families at all times.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The strategy proceeded from the vision that the school should be an emotionally safe and secure space where every staff member responds to the needs of our pupils in a trauma-sensitive way.  To achieve this, leaders implemented a significant programme of learning and development on trauma, attachment and relational approaches, and the skills required by staff to implement them effectively.  This is supported by regular reflective practice facilitated by the leadership group.  

The school then embarked on a process of aligning its practice in the classroom with the aim of increasing emotional safety and reducing shame.  It worked in partnership with NHS consultant clinical psychologists to consider the question: what does a trauma-sensitive, compassionate school look like?  The resulting action plan inspired change throughout the whole school.  Staff considered everything from policies and procedures and leadership issues down to moment-by-moment interactions in the classroom, so that all practice was infused with a sensitivity aimed at meeting pupils’ needs in a way which increased safety and reduced felt shame.

The school ensures it can best meet pupils’ needs by prioritising opportunities for staff to reflect on their previous experiences and history.  This helps staff to understand how pupils might be feeling about themselves, the world and others.  To do this, the school uses a psychological formulation approach which allows us to tailor relational-based interventions for each pupil.  These individual interventions sit within a whole school framework that aims to create safety for staff and pupils.  Our philosophy is based on bringing about change through modelling of healthy relationships and positive experiences.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

The school’s evaluation processes have found several interesting outcomes.  They include:

• An improvement in the quality of feedback to pupils.  Observations noted that teachers now tend to include more acknowledgement of the emotional context in their feedback, for example: “I really enjoyed seeing how you applied the ideas we discussed today and how you kept trying even when they weren’t successful.  That must have been hard.  Why do you think they didn’t work?”
• An increase in empathy and compassion.  As part of a research project we conducted semi-structured interviews with staff, parents and pupils to find out the impact our approach was having.  A key finding was that pupils are more empathic with each other and as a result are able to manage their emotions and tolerate the classroom environment for longer.
• An improvement in the quality of relationships between staff and parents and carers.  Parents noted that school staff communicated with them in a way which developed trust and cohesion. This made coping with emerging tricky and complex issues easier and more collaborative.    

How have you shared your good practice?

We have shared our model and practice at an international conference on dyadic developmental practice in England.  We have also facilitated training and workshops at national conferences, schools and universities.