ABSTRACT
A child with a background of trauma will require a caring and nurturing school environment that is child-centred, trauma informed, and attachment focused, and in which they are viewed in the context of their unique humanity. The following pedagogical stances are suggested for any trauma informed approaches used in schools: The conditions for growth
Developmentally sensitive: informed by the developmental needs of the child and evidence of what environmental features nurture healthy child development, rather than pathological paradigms (i.e. what has gone wrong in the child’s brain).
Strengths-based: implemented through the lens of critical hope and resilience, where children are recognised for their strengths, talents and interests, as opposed to their deficits, disabilities or disorders.
Relational: concerned with valuing, nurturing and restoring positive and healthy relationships, especially safe and secure attachments with trusted adults – rather than using ‘one-off’ programmes.
Eco-systemic: considered against the backdrop of the child or young person’s timeline and wider community, including socio-economic, educational, and cultural conditions.
Ecological: underpinned by a whole-school and community ethos of safety and care, where everyone acknowledges the part they play in a child’s wellbeing and resilience to adversity.
Each of these five foundational stances provide the fertile conditions for therapeutic interventions to be more effective, thereby ensuring that we enable, rather than disable a child’s innate resiliency potential (Ttofa, 2021).
For further information about key protective factors, strategies and approaches that can enable a child’s resilience within a school setting, a ‘Nurturing Resilience Card Deck’ has been created that may be a helpful accompaniment to this guide for the school as a whole (Ttofa, 2020).