AHPS Trauma Informed School

As a school we place a strong value on understanding our children to ensure they are supported emotionally, physically and educationally. We have high expectations for and of our children and school community. All staff at AHPS are trained in a trauma informed approach. This knowledge and the trauma informed approach is shared with our whole staff team, it underpins all we do. Trauma informed schools' vision and rationale is as follows,

'On average it takes a child 10 years to receive help for a mental health problem'

(Centre for mental health 2015)

Let's change that...

'Our vision is to provide appropriate training for schools, communities and organisations so that they become trauma informed and mentally healthy places for all. This means we aim to help children and teenagers BEFORE they get mental health problems – to catch them as they are falling not after they have fallen.'

Trauma Informed Schools in an organisation committed to improving the health and wellbeing and ability to learn of the most vulnerable schoolchildren in the UK, namely those who have suffered trauma, abuse, neglect and/or have mental health problems or attachment issues.

This vision resonates with us as a school. We have high expectations for our all of children's educational outcomes but this needs to be underpinned by children feeling secure, safe and healthy. As a school we commit to the following,

• Further develop how to relate to children and young people in ways that alleviate their suffering, support their learning and make them feel cared for and appreciated
• Further enhance how we respond to children who are in distress/ stress states in ways that help them to emotionally regulate, feel psychologically safe and develop the capacity to handle stress well over time
• Further develop how to relate with children in ways that enhance their self-esteem, confidence and feelings of psychological safety.
• Know how to listen and empathise when children want to talk about painful issues and help them reflect and resolve
• Develop an in-depth understanding of what it’s like for a child or teenager to suffer from specific mental health problem (e.g. depression/ anxiety and feel confident in offering them accurate empathy, understanding and key psycho-education without inferring meaning
• Develop an in-depth understanding of the long-term impact of specific adverse childhood experiences and how to enable the child or teenager to work through feelings of anger and traumatic loss.
• Employ strategies for early intervention (early indicators of mental health difficulties) know limits of competence and refer on to other agencies, when these are available

As a school staff and the wider school community this approach underpins and drives our children's educational offer here at AHPS.