The Trauma and Attachment-Aware Classroom

Adoption UK’s education policy adviser Rebecca Brooks, has written a new book designed to help teachers improve the life-chances of those children who have had the worst possible start in life.

The Trauma and Attachment-Aware Classroom provides the reader with a grounding in trauma, and its effects, before going on to provide practical, easy-to-follow strategies and tips for teachers to implement in the classroom for the benefit of the whole class.

Rebecca, a former secondary school teacher who now home educates her adopted children, describes her book as the one “I wish I had had when I was teaching in school”.

She said: “There is much that I would have done differently if I had known what I know now as an adoptive parent.”

For tens of thousands of adopted children in the UK, school is a daily struggle for survival. But these problems are not restricted just to adopted children. Almost half of all children will have traumatic experiences during their formative years, and many experience similar challenges to adopted children in school.

Mrs Brooks said: “Teachers have a unique opportunity to improve the life chances of children who have had the worst possible start, and I believe this book can be part of the toolkit that will help them achieve that.”

The book has received glowing endorsements from both education chiefs and members of the adoption community.

Jarlath O’Brien, headteacher and a columnist for TES, said: “Every couple of pages the text provoked in me a memory of a child, a parent or a particular incident, and I was then forced to reflect, sometimes very uncomfortably, on how I could have handled things differently. There isn't a teacher in the land that will not be a better teacher for reading this book.”

Sally Donovan, the author of The Unofficial Guide to Adoptive Parenting, said: ‘If we are serious about improving the educational and life chances of children who have experienced early life trauma, particularly care-experienced children, then The Trauma and Attachment Friendly Classroom should be essential reading for anyone and everyone working in education.”

Mrs Brooks, Adoption UK’s education policy advisor, is the author of the charity’s recently published Adoption Barometer report, the most comprehensive stock-take of the realities of modern-day adoption in the UK. She also spearheaded Bridging the Gap report, which describes a school environment that is failing children and teachers and is affecting schools’ performance in league tables.

The Trauma and Attachment Aware Classroom - A Practical Guide to Supporting Children Who Have Encountered Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences – will be released by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, on Thursday 19^th September.

To order your copy click here