Children and young people bring their experiences with them into education. For those who have experienced trauma, adversity, abuse, neglect or disruption in their early lives, those experiences can have an impact on their relationships, development and ability to engage with learning.
For education professionals, understanding what may sit behind a child or young person’s behaviour can be an important part of providing the right support.
Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recognises this, recommending appropriate attachment training for education staff who may come into contact with children and young people with attachment difficulties.
This includes understanding how attachment difficulties can present, how they may affect learning, education and social development, the consequences of maltreatment and trauma, and how staff can support the children and young people affected.
Looking beyond the behaviour
Education professionals are often well placed to notice when a child or young person may need additional support.
But understanding the reasons behind behaviour is not always straightforward, particularly when a young person has experienced trauma or adversity.
Attachment and trauma-aware practice provide another lens through which professionals can consider a child or young person’s experiences and needs. It is not about diagnosing attachment difficulties or excusing behaviour but developing the knowledge to understand the wider context that may be influencing how a young person engages with learning, relationships and the education environment.
This is particularly important for professionals working with care-experienced children and young people and others who may have experienced maltreatment, trauma or disruption.
NICE guidance also highlights the importance of stability and consistency for children with attachment difficulties, alongside effective collaboration between education, health and social care professionals.
For those working in schools, colleges and virtual schools, this reinforces just how important their role can be within the wider network surrounding a child.
Turning knowledge into practice
Understanding trauma and attachment in theory is important. Translating that knowledge into day-to-day professional practice can be more challenging.
How do we help professionals consider an experience from a young person’s point of view? How can we encourage meaningful reflection on the impact of trauma? And how can training support conversations about situations that may be difficult to understand without having experienced them?
Experiential learning can provide one way of bridging that gap.
Virtual reality (VR), for example, can place professionals within an immersive scenario and allow them to experience events from different perspectives. Instead of simply hearing or reading about an experience, participants can observe how situations develop and then reflect on what they have seen and felt.
Used alongside discussion, reflection and supporting resources, this can create opportunities to connect learning about trauma and attachment with professional practice.
Seeing situations from a different perspective
Cornerstone VR, part of the Antser Group, works with education providers including schools, universities and virtual schools to deliver immersive learning around trauma, safeguarding and other experiences affecting children and young people.
The organisation is also an approved Attachment Research Community (ARC) training provider.
ARC works to support schools and education settings to become attachment- and trauma-aware in their practice, bringing together research and good practice with the aim of benefiting the whole learning community, particularly its most vulnerable members.
Cornerstone VR’s immersive programme complements this approach by enabling professionals to experience scenarios from the perspective of children, young people and the adults around them.
The aim is to encourage reflection and professional curiosity, helping participants consider the experiences that may be influencing a young person’s needs and behaviour.
“Our VR experiences offer a unique and immersive way to learn about complex issues like child exploitation, social media and the digital world, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. By fostering empathy and understanding, we’re helping to create a more compassionate and supportive environment across education settings.”
Understanding the wider context
Trauma and attachment are also part of a much broader picture.
Education professionals may encounter children and young people affected by a range of experiences and circumstances, and understanding those issues can form an important part of safeguarding, pastoral support and trauma-informed practice.
Cornerstone VR’s immersive content explores areas including early-life trauma, child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, social media and the digital world, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), and knife crime and serious youth violence.
Rather than considering these subjects solely in isolation, immersive learning can provide an opportunity to explore experiences from the perspective of the child or young person at the centre of them.
For education teams, this can support discussion and reflection around what they have experienced through VR and how that learning relates to their own professional roles.
Supporting a trauma-aware education community
No single training session or approach can provide all the answers when it comes to supporting children and young people affected by trauma.
Developing attachment- and trauma-aware practice is an ongoing process that involves building knowledge, reflecting on practice and working collaboratively across the network of professionals supporting a child or young person.
NICE guidance makes clear that education professionals have a place within that network. It recommends training that helps staff understand attachment difficulties and their impact, while also recognising the importance of consistency, appropriate support and collaboration between education, health and social care.
ARC’s work to develop attachment- and trauma-aware education communities reflects that same need for a whole-setting approach.
Immersive learning can add another dimension, giving professionals an opportunity to consider difficult experiences from a perspective they may not otherwise encounter.
Ultimately, looking beyond the behaviour does not mean having to know everything that has happened in a child or young person’s life.
It means recognising that experiences matter and that greater understanding can help education professionals make informed decisions about how they respond, communicate and support the children and young people in their care.