CPD Reflections: Seeing Trauma-Informed Approaches In Action

By Lauren Swain

‘Be curious, not furious!’ I hope everyone is having a great week! In term 3, a group of us were lucky enough in our PLC to have the opportunity to visit St Augustine’s School in Kilburn. It was an eye-opening experience that showed us how trauma-informed approaches can be applied to a school in a broader sense to benefit all students, not only those who may have experienced trauma. The opening quote is one that I think is incredibly powerful and something that has been taken on at St Augustine’s; are we ensuring that we are curious and not furious? Are we making sure we are asking the questions as to why behaviour is happening so we can address it at the root? In this post I am going to outline a few of the things I learned on this visit and share how I think we can use this in our ongoing journey to apply more trauma-informed approaches at WA.

What was clear from the start was the calm atmosphere within the school. Outside every classroom was a sticker that showed both the zones of regulation and suggestions of how students might cope with those feelings. It was clear that teachers feel empowered to have a calmer approach as there were reminders of helpful strategies such as lazy 8 breathing. Students who were having a minute out of the lesson to regulate were greeted by teachers on the corridor with a caring non-confrontational conversation, which often referred back to the zones of regulation, such as “What colour are you?”. Starting the conversation in this way enabled staff to support students in regulating, resulting in them often being able to return to the classroom and learning quickly. A second idea I saw on the visit was the use of reflection sheets during detentions. Asking students to complete a structured reflection can help them think more deeply about their behaviour and the positive and negative impacts this can have on their learning. Jojo Laber, Axelle Diot and Ben Law-Smith have all been trialling these recently and have noticed that students have responded very positively and it created a way for students to learn from their mistakes in a more meaningful way. A WA example I made can be found here if you are interested in trying this with your own students. Another simple, yet easy thing to implement is a trusted adult list. A form was sent to every student in which they were asked to name 1-2 staff members they trust or would go to if they had something to disclose or report. This can then be utilised if students need support or are not responding and is also a great resource to help with restorations or difficult conversations. Alongside this, there was also a staff buddy list. This was for staff to have someone they can go to for support, to regulate with, and to have support in specific classes if needed. This allows for the support of staff and gives them a space to be calm for the students. The key takeaways were that we are adults. We need to model adult regulation for them and use positive language. This does not mean letting students get away with things, but it means having conversations in a way that helps mentor and coach students. Allowing our students a safe environment to learn how to regulate and to have conversations gives them the preparation they need to enter society and be thoughtful and considerate individuals able to regulate and engage in society fully. I hope this was enjoyable and please grab me if you would like to chat about this further!