Reducing Exclusions Through a Trauma Informed Approach

Children who've lived with trauma are more likely to be excluded. Sometimes that's a formal exclusion after a big, angry moment. Sometimes it's quieter: the child who stays in their seat, causes no trouble and has switched off completely.

Both are a fear response, and this course helps you get underneath it. You'll learn why a brain shaped by danger jumps to fight, flight or freeze, and why every calm moment helps to change that. You'll learn to make a child feel safe as well as be safe, and to calm them with your voice using "slow, low, low": slower, lower in tone, lower in volume. When their behaviour tests you, you'll get curious about what's driving it rather than furious.

Nobody gets this right every time. There's a section on repairing things after it goes wrong, which may be the first time a child has seen how that's done.