The article below discusses the benefits and impact on becoming an Attachment Aware school based on Amy’s doctoral research thesis titled: An Exploration of the Views and Experiences of Designated Teachers in Creating an Attachment Aware School. To view the thesis in more detail please click here:
What was your research about?
During the pandemic 5 primary schools in southwest London took part in a pilot project to become Attachment Aware schools. The Designated Teachers (responsible for children who are looked after CLA) played a key role in facilitating the project. The Designated Teachers were all interviewed at the end of the year to reflect on their views and experiences. Key themes emerged from analysing the interviews (using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis).
What is an Attachment Aware School?
An Attachment Aware school is a school that takes a relational approach to supporting its students. This type of school is often supported by Educational Psychologists and Virtual schools in order to create systemic changes to support children and young people who may have experienced trauma or disruptions to forming secure attachments, such as CLA. Many Local Authorities have some version of this approach although terminology used may vary such as Trauma informed Practice (TIP), Attachment Aware Schools (AAS) etc.
What motivated schools to become an Attachment Aware school?
- A desire to support the needs of children in the school (the project took place at the start of the pandemic and so there was an increase in mental health needs).
- It’s free, there was no cost to schools.
- It fitted in with the ethos of the school and other relational approaches used.
- A desire to learn evidence-based approaches.
One of the Designated Teachers stated:
“The main thing for us was to…to help with any behaviour issues and to make sure that we’re approaching it in a way that dealt with the initial underlying problem rather than just firefighting…”
How did the Attachment Aware Schools approach develop within the schools?
Schools worked over the year to develop systemic and environmental factors. Schools developed behaviour policies, transformed the environment (to create accessible calm spaces), provided staff with training based on trauma and attachment theory as well as developed restorative approaches to responding to behaviour.
What were some of the changes that occurred in the schools after becoming an Attachment Aware School?
The Designated Teachers reflected on physical/environmental and systemic changes that were occurred:
- The attitude of staff towards children, resulting in improved relationships and behaviour.
- Changes in children’s interactions (with their peers) and staff,
- Improved relationships between the schools and parents/carers
- Nurturing and inclusive environment were created, such as calming spaces (that children could use to regulate their emotions)
Which children benefited from the Attachment Aware school approach?
Schools have a statutory duty of care to support CLA by the Designated Teacher and supported through the Virtual School. Although, a key aspect of Attachment Aware Schools is to support the needs of CLA the research found the scope of children who could benefit from such an approach was wide ranging. The research found that children who were anxious, have special educational needs or who were described as shy also benefited from the approach.
Another Designated Teacher stated the wider benefits:
“I do think that Attachment Awareness helps because if children aren’t emotionally ok, they’re not gonna learn”.
Did the research identify any potential barriers?
Potential barriers identified through this research in implementing the approach ranged from:
- Training e.g. the time taken to train staff, embed the new approach and train staff due to staff turnover.
- Some staff found that the approach was counter to how they may have been raised and so there was some cognitive dissonance between the relational based approach and the punitive approach that they were more familiar with. However, once staff saw the difference that the approach could make to children displaying challenging behaviour, they were then more likely to use the approach.
How does this research fit within similar research in this area?
Research in this area is growing and provides noteworthy evidence of wide-ranging improvements. Some larger scale studies have illustrated positive improvements:
Rose and Gilbert (2017) conducted a large-scale study involving 40 schools over 2 years. This research provided hard and soft indicators of improvements ranging from increases in academic performance, staff confidence and increase self-regulation of students.
- Academic improvements in reading, writing and Maths,
- Increase in attendance,
- Improvements in staff-wellbeing; in relation to an increase in staff confidence in responding to challenging behaviour and staff becoming more reflective in their practice.
Kelly (2020) involved 77 educational establishments (primary, secondary, specialist and Pupil Referral Units). Evaluation from the research suggests all participating schools had a positive impact by for example developing ethos change within the schools and more informed pedagogical practice to support Children who are Looked After and other vulnerable learners.
Additionally, the Alex Timpson Attachment and Trauma Aware Programmes in Schools (2022) reviewed the impact of training from 305 schools across 26 Local Authorities. Some of the findings highlighted, a reduction in the use of sanctions, a positive impact on students, and increase in staff awareness of how behaviour e.g. how behaviour displayed relates to the child communicating a need.
How can I get my school involved in something similar?
- Attachment Aware Schools are a whole school approach. It is important that everyone is on board with the aims of using such an approach. Raise awareness within the school and speak to the head teacher about potential benefits of using such an approach.
- Schools can contact their local Educational Psychology service or Virtual School for more information to find out how the approach is being delivered within their local area.
