Some of Community Foster Care's foster carers identified that many of their children and young people who have significant relational and developmental trauma, are often misunderstood within their educational school settings. Appreciating that teachers are very stretched and under resourced, they came up with an idea of a simple introductory video to help raise awareness and understanding of foster children's possible behaviour in school. With the help of our Chair of Trustees, Jennie Dwight who is a retired teacher and our Child Psychotherapist, Chris Saltmarsh plus one of our former looked after children, Casey and our Foster Carer Rep, Maggie, we have created what will hopefully be a useful resource for teachers and other educational staff on teaching young people with trauma.
It is really important for anyone working with traumatised children and young people to be able to understand what is going on in the brain when they exhibit challenging behaviour and why. Foster children's behaviour can often end up labelling them as 'naughty kids' but actually there are complex reasons and therefore solutions are needed to be worked out with everyone who is involved in that child's life.
Our foster carer's were really keen to be able to help teachers and with one of our core values being community commitment, this was a really key project to get behind. We hope you find the information on childhood trauma and its effects on the brain and children's regulatory system useful in working with foster children and anyone with adverse childhood experiences.
Visit Community Foster Care: www.communityf... Find out more about of Foster Carer, Maggie: www.communityf... Find out more about Chris Saltmarsh: www.communityf... Find out more about our Chair of Trustees, Jennie: www.communityf...
video by Hannah Reynolds