School and Social Care
This session helps you understand the lived experiences of social care and school for young people. Exploring what you can do to support them to feel safe, settled and able to learn.
When young people are supported by a social worker and in school they have two commitments; those of social care and those of school. What happens when these systems clash and how does that impact the child? In this session we will explore what it means to be a child engaging with social care whilst at school and what you can do to support them.
In this session we will explore the practical, procedural and cultural systems within schools and how they impact young people.
Practically we will look at what it is like for a young people who have to meet their social workers, see their parents and attend meetings, all whilst having to go to class and do homework. Procedurally we will look at behavioural management policies, exclusions and reduced timetables and explore examples showing the effectiveness of these strategies. Finally, we will look at cultural systems and how we respond to young people based on our school’s culture and our own biases. Drawing from understandings of attachment aware approaches, intersectionality and unconscious bias.
We will take a deeper look into the experiences of vulnerable young people, looking at their lives outside of school. Focusing our attention on their unstable home lives, family dynamics and the communities where they live. From this we are able to build a picture of what it is like for young people at home and how they are likely to bring challenges to school.
Within this session we provide you with practice focused, evidence-based tools and theories to improve young people’s educational outcomes. Highlighting the importance of holding high aspirations, how to hold them accountable for their behaviour without shaming and how to communicate with young people to motivate them.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the lived experiences of young people with a social worker
- Learn about attachment and trauma-aware approaches to managing behaviour
- Hear evidence-based approaches to improve the educational achievements of young people
- Recognise how social care and school systems can clash, how they have adverse impacts on young people and what you can do to help
- Develop skills to respond to young people who are showing unmet attachment needs
- Explore the impact of exclusion, reduced timetables and behavioural management on a vulnerable young persons learning
