Attachment-aware schools

As a virtual school head for looked after children, I have been working with schools for several years to develop “attachment-aware” and “trauma-informed” practice.

This helps schools to understand the behaviours of their most disengaged or “difficult” pupils, particularly where those pupils have experienced abuse, neglect or other trauma which inhibits their learning within the school.

Teachers always point out that the training is equally applicable to many pupils who are not in care. Indeed, such understanding can really shift the way that teachers approach behaviour management and improve the engagement of their most vulnerable children.

Attachment was described by the psychologist John Bowlby as the “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” (Bowlby 1969). The quality of the earliest and most fundamental relationship – usually between mother and baby – creates connections in the brain which affect the way that we view ourselves, and the world, in later years.