Two Blaenau Gwent schools have been highlighted as an example of best practice by Estyn for their support of pupils with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Estyn’s recent report ‘Knowing your children – supporting pupils with adverse childhood experiences (ACES)’ looks at how a whole school approach and working with partners is required to support these pupils in order to build their resilience and emotional strength. Ebbw Fawr 3 - 16 Learning Community and St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary in Brynmawr are included as Case Studies in the report.
Ebbw Fawr, Blaenau Gwent’s largest 3 – 16 through school, introduced a new behaviour policy for pupils in the secondary phase, but quickly noticed that for a small number of students this did not work and their challenging behaviours continued. These pupils were identified as having suffered Adverse Childhood Experiences of varying levels and the school moved to provide tailored packages of support depending on the nature and extent of trauma. This included Mindfulness programmes; anger management sessions; Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) sessions; revised timetables, one-to-one sessions and working towards the Duke of Edinburgh Programme.
The school liaised with a number of multi-agency partners in working to support the students including Families First, Blaenau Gwent Inspire, Public Health Wales, Coleg Gwent, Blaenau Gwent Communities Trust, Careers Wales, the local authority’s Education Welfare Service and school-based counselling services.
Headteacher of the school, Huw Lloyd, explains how this has had a positive impact at Ebbw Fawr Learning Community:
“Our journey to becoming a successful trauma informed school through ACEs research and training has had a profound effect on our school and the lives of our students. In particular, the development of our Wellbeing Centre has been a great success and has led to a wide range of improvements in attendance and academic achievement for a significant group of vulnerable young people. We are proud to be at the forefront of education and to be included in this ground-breaking ESTYN study.”
At St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Brynmawr, a large cohort of boys in a year group were identified as having low levels of wellbeing and social & behavioural issues through a regular survey the school uses and classroom observations. The school decided that an intervention to build confidence and resilience through sport would be beneficial. The boys chose taekwondo as a weekly activity as it develops ideas such as discipline, commitment and self-defence.
When they repeated the survey at the end of the year the pupils’ self-esteem had improved and they were much more positive about their experience in school. Staff noted an increase in the boys’ confidence and attention to work. Incidents regarding poor behaviour decreased and, overall, the boys’ attitudes to learning improved.
Headteacher at St Mary’s RC Primary, Tim Baxter, said:
“At St Mary’s RC we understand that all our children could be affected by ACE’s. We strive to provide an environment that focuses on a whole school approach that puts every child at the centre. We create relationships with every child and understand the importance of our roles in supporting them to become confident and resilient learners.”
Blaenau Gwent Council’s Executive Member for Education, Cllr Joanne Collins says:
“It’s wonderful to see two of our schools highlighted by Estyn as best practice in this report about how we support vulnerable learners. We remain committed to improving pupil outcomes in Blaenau Gwent and as good performance is clearly linked to a pupil’s wellbeing we want to support all our pupils to attend school regularly and contribute positively to school life.
Every pupil matters and the work all our schools are doing helps to support and guide our most vulnerable learners so that they can go on to reach their true potential in life. The success of this work is evident with attendance rising, behaviours improving and more engaged learners and families. Well done all.”
The full report can be viewed here – https://www.estyn.gov.wales/estyn.gov.wales/thematic-reports/supporting-pupils-with-adverse-childhood-experiences-0
Note:
- Public Health Wales (2015) defines ACEs as traumatic or stressful experiences that
occur during childhood that directly harm a child or affect the environment in which
they live and are remembered throughout adulthood. An ACE means exposure to
one or more of these factors:
• Verbal and or mental abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Hostile parental separation
• Domestic violence
• Parental mental illness
• Alcohol abuse
• Drug use
• Neglect
• Parental incarceration (Public Health Wales, 2015)