Trauma Informed Schools

What is a trauma informed school?

A trauma informed school is one that is able to support children who suffer with trauma or mental health problems and whose troubled behaviour acts as a barrier to learning.

Why do we need trauma informed schools?

‘Rising numbers of children are presenting with mental health difficulties in schools and current teaching environments are struggling to keep up. Many children have a high ACE score (meaning multiple adverse childhood experiences) known to leave children at risk of mental and physical ill-health later in life and even early death' (The ACE study Felitti and Anda, a study involving over 17,000 people).

With over 1 million children in the UK with a mental health problem, schools are often best placed to support children at school.

Trauma Informed Schools UK

Their vision is to provide appropriate training for schools, communities and organisations so that they become trauma informed and mentally healthy places for all. 
This means they  aim to help children and teenagers BEFORE they get mental health problems – to catch them as they are falling not after they have fallen. Towards this aim TISUK strongly endorse the statement in the Government Green Paper December 2017 Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision:

“There is evidence that appropriately-trained and supported staff such as teachers, school nurses, counsellors, and teaching assistants can achieve results comparable to those achieved by trained therapists in delivering a number of interventions addressing mild to moderate mental health problems (such as anxiety, conduct disorder, substance use disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder)”.

TISUK are appropriately training school staff to take on this task. Their objective is to bring about a whole school /organisational cultural shift where the wellbeing of all is the highest priority. Miss Greenhalgh is an accredited TIS practitioner, having undertaken a 10 day diploma, and is leading TIS at Ribble Drive. In January 2023 we successfully gained the accredited Trauma Informed Schools Award.