A Trauma Informed UK School

Our ‘Principles of Nurture’ remain at the core of our approach towards our learners, our families and each other.  They are defined as:

• We will always treat you as an individual, responding to your emotional wellbeing and enabling you to progress at your own rate.
• We will aim to offer a safe, secure and caring learning environment for everyone.
• We will always encourage you to be happy with who you are, to respect yourself and to have self-belief.
• We will empower you to explore and understand your feelings and emotions with the right expressive words, and we will provide safe spaces and time to listen.
• We will always try to understand what your behaviour is saying about how you feel.
• We will aim to make changes smooth, safe, understandable and manageable for everyone.

As a fully registered Trauma Informed School UK, all our staff have extensive training in Adverse Childhood Experiences and how those troubled times impact on readiness for learning.  Adopting a trauma informed approach means we are ready to listen, respond and react in a way that supports healing.  We understand that children can be troubled for long periods of time, resulting in gaps in learning, loss of interest or motivation due to the very trauma they experience.  Adopting theoretical trauma informed models that are steeped in research, our intention is to support our learners through difficult times and help them to create strategies for coping with adverse mental health and move on positively.

We continue to offer a learning journey that is similar to that of any secondary school that includes GCSE pathways, or equivalent, along with access to vocational and foundation subjects.  We believe it is important that all our learners, whatever their experiences, whatever the barriers, must be given the opportunity to succeed like any other.  Our focus is upon securing foundational knowledge, strong reading and literacy skills, expressive vocabulary and writing stamina.  The same is said of strong numeracy skills, so that learners are well-prepared for the challenging GCSE, or equivalent, curriculum.

To achieve this, we offer small class groups and identified spaces for targeted support with specialised staff to support those who require focussed work on phonics, for example, or letter formation.    And for those troubled times, we offer a range of therapeutic interventions that includes talking therapy, relaxation therapy and physical therapy.

Our aim is to make the school experience a highly positive one, helping to heal trauma, helping to fill the gaps, helping to move into post 16 destinations as independent, able and successful young people.