5 September 2022

Today we’re discussing how to accommodate the needs of students who have been through trauma. Trauma-informed practice in education aims to achieve a safe environment for all. It provides academic, social-emotional and behavioural supports to trauma affected students and promotes their engagement and success in learning. Hear from the department’s Senior Social Worker for Children in Care and Senior Adviser for Child Protection. Plus, Merryn Gomez from Eastern Fleurieu R-12 School shares how implementing trauma-informed practice has helped their school community.

Show Notes

• Trauma-informed practice resources
• Contact the child protection and trauma-informed practice team at: Education.TraumaInformedPractice@sa.gov.au

Transcript

Intro: Teach is produced on the traditional land of the Kaurna people. The South Australian Department for Education would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay our respects to all elders past, present and emerging.

Dale Atkinson: Hello, and welcome to Teach a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia. I'm Dale Atkinson from the South Australian Department for Education.

Georga Tyson: And I'm Georgia Tyson, Largs Bay school teacher. Today, we're talking about trauma informed practice and how you can accommodate the needs of students who have been through trauma.

Dale Atkinson: And we are joined by three very experienced people in this area. We've got the Department's Senior Social Worker for Children in Care, Tanya Russo, Senior Advisor for Child Protection, Deidre Lockley, and Merryn Gomez, Assistant Principal for Inclusion and Wellbeing at Eastern Fleurieu R-12 school, a school that is implementing trauma informed practice across all their five campuses.

I think that's right, Merryn is that correct?

Merryn Gomez: Yes, that's correct.

Dale Atkinson: It's a lot of campuses, I guess the first question for people who kind of aren't sure. And this is perhaps for, for you, Tanya and you, Deidre is what is childhood trauma? What do we mean when we talk about that?

Deidre Lockley: So trauma is anything that means that we have a response that we feel is overwhelming.

It might be to a real or a perceived threat. It overwhelms our capacity to cope, and it feels like things are outside of our control. And often it means that we respond in a way that is based on fear rather than what is actually happening around us. In the department, when we are talking about trauma, we're talking about trauma that occurs for children and young people in our schools.

And usually we mean trauma that's relationship, complex, relational trauma. And so that means that the trauma is stemming from experiences of abuse and neglect or sustained witnessing of family and domestic violence. And what that means is that often children and young people can have feelings of hopelessness and shame they're associated with that.

So it's not an individual stressful event that can cause a trauma. Like we might have a car accident that we find traumatic. When we're talking about trauma informed practice, we're talking about complex trauma that is the result of abuse or neglect or sustained family violence.

Georga Tyson: And what should teachers be aware of in terms of whether their student might be experiencing trauma? Are there signs of it say difficulty concentrating?

Deidre Lockley: So sometimes people may not know exactly what's happening for a child outside of school. Often there's confidentiality when other people are involved, whether it be a psychologist or child protection, but things that we notice in schools are things like difficulty in concentrating, like you mentioned, but often it's more than that.

We might see behavioural difficulties. One thing we know about trauma is it impacts the development of children and young people, and that's because it's happening at that really early stage of their life when their brain is developing. And they're also developing understanding of relationships and complex trauma happens in relationship.

And so that means that sometimes they don't know exactly how to maintain a relationship or create new friendships. And we know that when we are in a classroom, the key way children learn is through that relationship with the teacher or the relationship with their peers. So sometimes we'll see that as a difficulty as well.

Tanya Russo:I think another difficulty that a lot of teachers see is around memory as well, and about their ability to retain information, which can be quite frustrating for some teachers. So it might be that they'd forget their belongings or be disorganised as well. And that was also a really difficult thing for young people in school, because obviously we are relying on a lot of their memory to do their learning and, and to be ready to learn in the classroom.

Dale Atkinson: So what are the types of things, Merryn, that you're observing as a frontline educator at the moment. Are you seeing those sorts of behaviours playing out in the classroom?

Merryn Gomez: Yeah, we are certainly seeing those behaviours R-12. We are in reception to year 12 school, so we're able to have that whole sort of educational journey to reflect on and it doesn't matter what year level, I guess, or what age a student is in. If they have been impacted by trauma in those early years, or as their brains are still developing, then it will impact the way that they are able to cope in a classroom. And for some students even walking through the door of a classroom and being in a situation where they are around a group of peers and not I guess experiencing that felt sense of safety for them as an individual can come out as behaviour difficulties. So that is certainly something that I think every teacher at the moment can relate to and something that's really important for people to be aware of that there is always more to the behaviours that we are seeing and it's our job to understand them.

Tanya Russo:I was just going to add to that. We may not always know what the triggers are and the children might not be able to articulate that either. Because I think some teachers do want to know, you know, is there way I can prevent this? Or is there something that I can notice in that young person or prevent from happening, but we might not always know what they are.

Because it could be a smell. It could be a tone of voice. It could be the look of a person. And I guess that makes it a little bit tricky for teachers. So, we really do need to get them to know the children, to sort of identify what those stress cues are and really observe them and record, because that is a bit of a tricky thing, understanding their triggers.

Georga Tyson: You mentioned there, you know, about supporting the teachers. What is available to teachers to help accommodate the needs of students who have been through traum?

Deidre Lockley: So, we have a series of programs or professional development that's available to staff within the department around trauma informed practice.

They range from the Strategies for Managing Abuse Related Trauma program, otherwise known as SMART. We've been working alongside of the Australian Childhood Foundation for the SMART program for 17 years now. And so people can access that online through plink, through face to face training that we often hold at at EDC, but we also provide that in schools for the whole school, if they'd like it, or for small groups, if that's say a school has a small set of SSOs who they would like to provide some more information to around trauma, we have the SMART program, but then we have a large program called the Trauma Aware Schools Initiative. And that's where we have non-government providers who are experts in trauma, come and assist our schools to really build strong understanding of what trauma might mean, what it might look like in their school and different approaches that they might take. And I think Merryn will talk a little bit more about that in a minute and what it means in her school, but we've had over 200 schools in the last five years, undertake some kind of training through that initiative.

We also provide scholarships each year to graduate certificate in Developmental Trauma programs. We have a master classes for school leaders in Implementation of Trauma Informed Practice. We have an online learning community for anyone who undertakes any of this kind of training in Flinders Street, we have a team called the Child Protection and Trauma Informed Practice team who will very happily chat about any of these in more detail, if that's useful.

Dale Atkinson: So, Merryn, what was your journey as a school and professionally, individually at Eastern Fleurieu what was your journey in terms of coming towards implementing more trauma informed practice at the school?

Merryn Gomez: So, Ian Ken, our principal, identified pretty early on that we were seeing some really challenging behaviours across all of our campuses and that a lot of those students were sort of being stuck in that cycle of suspension and exclusion and relationship rupture without the opportunity to repair and reflect and look at how we were doing things and how we could do things differently.

So in his sort of investigation we thought what can we do differently? How can we look at this differently? In another way, he came across the Trauma Aware Schools Initiative, which Deidre talked about and signed us up straight away as a leadership team. And what that meant was that he was able to choose between three external providers to provide some training to all of our staff. Initially, we went as a whole leadership team and R-12 leadership teams and we did the four day Berry Street education model. That looked at understanding trauma, its impact on students, in a really practical way where there were strategies that you could take out of that and implement in your classroom the next day. The experience that we had as leaders involved in that training, it had so much impact on us that we actually decided that our entire R-12 staff, so teachers and SSOs included really needed to be immersed in that training and that understanding to be able to have the impact that we wanted to have on our students. So, from there, we went on to put our whole school through that four day training, interrupted here and there by COVID, which was really, really tricky, but that was the initial steps.

And from there, what we did was we identified a key team of leaders across our R-12 staff who would be the key implementation team. And we called them the, the TIPI team, the Trauma Informed Practice Implementation team to work on our whole school strategy and our whole school approach. And to monitor the effectiveness of that.

Dale Atkinson: What has the effect been? What have you seen?

Merryn Gomez: Oh wow. That's a huge question. We've seen not only a change in student engagement in the classroom, but what we've also seen that was quite unexpected, was a shift in the understanding. I think of ourselves as educators and how our own brains were functioning and window of tolerance and the strategies that we could use for ourselves when we are stepping into a classroom or when we are alongside a student who is dysregulated to be able to ensure that we are staying regulated ourselves in order to be able to help co-regulate those students. So, we've seen a huge change in behaviour. We're still seeing some really tricky behaviours. I think we always will because that's the nature of putting that many kids in one place and trying to teach them. But what we are seeing is the way that we are responding to those behaviours has changed and the way that teachers understand relationships and the importance of that has really shifted in a positive way so that we are now able to intentionally plan moments throughout our day to create positive interactions, even with the kids who are resisting that the most. And what then happens is over time that builds into them feeling that felt sense of safety and being able to participate in learning in the classroom. So, it's been, I could talk for hours about the difference that we've seen in individual students. But an increase in engagement for sure. And a decrease in those difficult behaviours, but the most impact has been the change has been the change, that paradigm shift to understanding behaviour as communication, and then looking at how do we respond to that and how can we ensure that those ruptures and that cyclical suspension process, we can interrupt that and create more understanding for that student around self-regulation co-regulation and most importantly, repairing those relationships.

Dale Atkinson: It sounds like there's a really profoundly positive impact on the experience that the student has through this, but is there also a personal benefit to the teacher around their own mental health wellbeing, their ability to cope with these scenarios?

Merryn Gomez: I think when you walk into a classroom, right, and you've got 30 or so kids, and there's always going to be a few who you need to do things differently for, to get them feeling calm and regulated and to be able to engage in the learning.

And initially, you know, as a new teacher, you often think that when you're seeing those behaviours it's to do with your lesson plan or your topic, or the way that you've sort of structured that lesson. And look, it really can be, but it's often about those relationships. So, when you understand that as an educator, you're not so upset that your lesson hasn't gone to plan because you understand that at the moment, what that child needs is connection. And once I get that connection, then I can focus on the learning because if we don't have that connection, no learning is going to happen.

Georga Tyson: Merryn, how do you bring a team together to support a child?

Merryn Gomez: We use a team around the child approach that Ian brought in when he came to Eastern Fleurieu School. And it's around a set of protocols that bring all of the providers or stakeholders or important people in that young person's life together with a team around the child. So, we call it a TAC. And what we do is we work really closely with support services. And if the children and care team are in involved, any other providers, DCP anybody involved with NDIS and we bring everybody together and have a discussion about that young person, identifying their strengths, identifying what their growth points are and how we can support them to move forward.

Whether that is with a new enrolment in the school or whether it. Some difficulty that they're having or whether it is just things are going well. And it's a check in and a time to, as Tanya said earlier, celebrate those successes. The team around the child approach has been absolutely crucial in supporting some of our young people in care and has really been the difference between there sometimes being, I guess, conflicting priorities between different providers to bringing a whole team together with that young person at the very heart of every decision that is made and really making that clear. That is what that team is there for regardless of anybody else's sort of motives and wants and needs for that child, it's about them and what they need and the importance of working together so that we can create that consistent and predictable routine for them in an environment where they begin to feel safe and feel seen and heard is what makes that successful.

Dale Atkinson: That sounds like an enormous relief in some respects to have that awareness around, you know, your own professional practice.

Georga Tyson: Are we seeing more and more schools becoming trauma informed, more and more sites?

Deidre Lockley: So, we see more and more people who are interested both as individuals, but as sites. And I think that's because in every classroom and every school, we are seeing children who have more complex needs and more complex behaviours. And I think we have staff across our system who are really seeking to know how they can contribute and how they can help out.

We're also seeing that in other systems that work alongside us, like the Child Protection System, where we see more and more children who are coming into care.

Dale Atkinson: And who should teachers contact to access support?

Tanya Russo:So, for children that are actually being removed, so we've got the Children in Care service. So that service was established by the Department for Education in mid 2019 as a systems improvement response to increase and support education outcomes for children in care.

So, we actually sit as part of Student Support Services and work alongside the Multidisciplinary Team in Support Services. But we also work really closely with Deidre's team in the Engagement and Wellbeing section, but also with schools. So, a lot within our agency, but also across with DCP, in their service as well.

So what we realise, what we need to do is to improve the visibility of children in care within our department and really promote those trauma informed practice principles that we've been talking about, about a safe and predictable environments and I'm increasing those safe relationships with trusting adults.

And I guess our job really is about building that educated capacity to be empathic toward these children and have an understanding about what their needs are. Having opportunities to celebrate the success. Success for these young people might look a little bit different to others, so we need to really tap into that and celebrate those things.

But also, and that not give up attitude. These children have got a right to be educated as well, and they should be at school and a lot of our children in care, actually in part-time for a whole range of reasons, but we are there really to advocate at an individual level, but also at a system level about their needs and their right to be at school full time. As part of our role, we are actually identifying some of those system gaps and working collectively with DCP to work on those.

We have a joint action plan with DCP, which we work very closely with Deidre's team. So, every year we have a number of actions. It's about 11 actions for 2022. So, we have a joint commitment to try and identify and collectively support these young people at a really high level. And we know that from research that none of this can be done in isolation.

So, the children in care service can't do it on their own. And a teacher at a school can't do it on their own, really need to collectively do it with our policy people, but also alongside our DCP partners as well. So, and we really want to promote that school can actually be a place of healing as well. With those really strong relationships school can be one of the most protective factors that they've experienced before they were in care, but certainly afterwards as well. Because we do understand that some of the placement options for young people in care are not ideal at the moment. And there's lots of resource issues around that as well.

So, it's really about trying to support them. And we have a duty social worker available at our office, so you can contact us through Felixstow Education Office and we have a duty social worker to help and we provide some consultation and advice and information, and that could be from a child in care, being enrolled in a new school that could be about identifying what's the process around ISP funding. It could be about how do we use our transition funding money for children in care, or it could be that we can't get in touch with DCP, we don't know what to do. Because we understand that a lot of the communication barriers are impacting young people actually engaging in schooling too.

So, we need to sort of refocus on what the child needs and be really child centred about our practice.

Dale Atkinson: And we'll have information about contact details and other programs in the show notes. One of my final questions, I think probably for you, Merryn, is what's the message to other teachers and educators, other schools who might be considering undertaking some training in trauma informed practice?

Merryn Gomez: I think acknowledging that it's a journey that there's no end to, you know, we've been on this journey since 2018 and initially I thought we'll have a list of things to do, and then we'll be a trauma informed school, but it is certainly not a checklist and we can always continue to improve. And that's really a part of that continuous improvement cycle that all schools go through.

But I think that probably the key message that I would love for every teacher and leader and SSO to know is that as Deidre said earlier, she was talking about relational trauma. So, trauma that happens within relationships, particularly for young people where their brains are still developing. And the way that we heal brains from relational trauma is within relationships.

And as educators, as individuals and as collective sites and partnerships, we can actually make a really significant difference in healing trauma within those relationships that we develop. And if we don't do that, and if we don't do that together, then those young people's brains, they won't heal, and they will continue on that same process and that same cycle.

So, I guess what I want people to know is that every single one of us has the opportunity to have a huge impact on that healing and that it does happen, it happens in schools, in those little micro moments every single day. So, when you're running welcome circles or brain breaks or whatever it is that you are doing with your class, those moments of connection are the moments that are making a difference for those kids.

Dale Atkinson: I think that's a lovely way to wrap up the podcast. Merryn, Deidre, and Tanya, thank you very much for joining us to talk about trauma informed practice.

Tanya Russo:Thanks for having us.

Georga Tyson: Catch you next time on teach.