Relational and Restorative Practice and Trauma Aware Approaches
At the heart of our practice are children and their families. We seek to be a Trust that wears the love that we have for our children on our sleeves, where it is known that children are at the centre of decision making, policy, practice and decision making.
Our approach needs to ensure that all children in our care can flourish. We need to enable them to grow as individuals and, throughout their time with us, whether that is a transitional period, an educational phase or their entire school-based journey through education. Whilst we seek to know all of our children, we do not necessarily know and understand their entire journey through life – but we can treat every single child with respect and with the kind hearts that mean that they will flourish and thrive, an approach which is indiscriminate and which means that every child is treated with respect and dignity at all times.
In the summer of 2023, we were proud recipients of Innovation Funding from Staffordshire Virtual School, which we used to help expand on out approach which means that our children should all experience life in all its fullness. This piece of work continues to grow and its impact is greater, day by day.
Solution Circles
Solution circles are meetings with a clear focus on resolving an issue. The meeting itself is divided into four parts: introduction to the issue, clarification through questions and answers, suggestions for advancing the situation, and action planning.
Following the initial meeting, which may include the child or young person when appropriate, subsequent review meetings aim to ensure the completion of all actions and to discuss aspirations, aids, and obstacles.
These meetings offer support to schools in situations that are “stuck” or do not warrant suspension or permanent exclusion.
Scripted conversations
Our commissioned Educational Psychologist has worked with teams in some of our schools to develop scripted questions, which have become embedded into daily practice in order to help staff to respond to dysregulation and to focus on the how and the why, rather than an adult describing the behaviour in a moment of (potentially joint) dysregulation.
Neurodevelopment
In understanding how best to support a child, our staff need to have an understanding of a child’s neurological development. Children need to be understood by those who support them and who surround them – to truly understand a child, it is important to have an understanding of how the brain works and its functionality. Through understanding the neuroscience, our staff can better understand our children.
