Great Binfields Primary School is an attachment and trauma aware school (ATAS). We are acutely aware that a proportion of our pupils have experienced developmental trauma. Our core team of Mrs Holdsworth (Deputy Headteacher and Designated Teacher), Miss Khan (SENDCO) & Miss Thomas (Y3 teacher) have attended ATAS 10 (Attachment Trauma Aware Schools) training hosted by KCA (Knowledge Change Action https://www.kca.training/). A further team of 15 staff members (consisting of SLT, teachers, LSAs and HLTAs) have also attended Adopt South’s VR Headset trauma training. As a direct result of this training, this core team then disseminated their training to the wider school staff team. Mrs Holdsworth has since attended ‘Resource the trainer’ which means that she will be able to deliver light-touch ‘more good days’ training to other Hampshire schools, sharing best practise for the county.

Some of the aspects covered within the training are:

• Emotion coaching/response styles and how this links to our Zones of Regulation policy
• Attachment styles and accompanying presenting behaviours
• The ‘iceberg’ model
• Dan Hughes’ PACE model
• ‘Five to thrive’ model
• Dan Siegel’s hand model of the brain
• ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
• ‘Mending Hurts’ (trauma recovery)

We firmly believe that, in accordance with Maslow’s hierarchy, our children will not be ready to learn until they feel safe and secure. We feel incredibly proud of the trauma-informed approach our staff adopt at this school and feel this is reflected in the learning attitudes and behaviours of our wonderful pupils. We adopt a ‘connect before you correct’ approach to addressing the children’s needs and we are confident that our restorative, reflective approach to the choices the children make is having a positive outcome for the best interests of each and every child within our care.

In partnership with Hampshire’s Virtual Schools, the school have also joined ARC (Attachment Research Community). We are in the process of becoming a bronze accredited school – watch this space!