The day will consist of inspiring speakers and workshop sessions led by the best and brightest from different sectors, all looking to provide a fresh and creative perspective on how you could approach attachment within your school or setting.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to meet your peers, share experiences and exchange views and ideas to take back with you.

See who is talking

• Professor Judy Sebba, Rees Centre for Research in Fostering & Education at the University of Oxford Improving outcomes of vulnerable children and young people through changing school cultures
• Lisa Cherry, Author & International Trainer Creating Social Change One Relationship at a Time
• Dr David Colley, Chair of SEBDA & SEN/Inclusion Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University Attachment-Punishment-Exclusion: exploring the contradictions in current policy and guidance
• Sally Kelly, NAVSH Chair & Head of Inclusion at Greenwich Virtual School The role of the Virtual School Headteacher in supporting development of attachment aware schools

Plus a performance from a Young People's Choir

Workshops

Take part in a wide range of breakout sessions where you can hear from schools and teachers that have made huge steps forward on their attachment aware journey. Also you will meet other professionals that will provide you with support and guidance on your own journey.

• Thriving Beyond Attachment – Lessnesshealth Primary School

  This bespoke workshop is designed for any professional who is keen to explore, effective ways of creating a safe, emotional space, for vulnerable pupils to thrive in education. The workshop will deliver a combination of theoretical, experiential and practical ways to help embed a philosophy of a well-being culture, for best possible outcomes.

  • Gain an understanding of attachment, attachment related behaviour and how trauma affect outcomes
  • To identify the challenges of teaching relationships with vulnerable pupils and ways to protect staff wellbeing
  • Ideas to develop school development plans, that are supportive in creating an attachment friendly environment in school
  • Explore ways to create strategies for supporting well-being in education
  • Engage with effective way to measure and monitoring pupil wellbeing
• North Birmingham Academy’s journey: A look at SEMH provision impact on attendance and behaviour – North Birmingham Academy

  The workshop will look at the provisions we have put in place at North Birmingham Academy in the past 2 years and the support, training and advice we have received to best implement them. The impact these provisions have had on school attendance and behaviour. The final part will look at the next steps we are taking in relation to whole school training to become an attachment aware and trauma informed school.

• The Boxall Profile in Practice – Nurture UK

  Many practitioners and teachers use the Boxall Profile to assess the social, emotional and wellbeing of children and young people and put in place interventions. As part of this workshop, delegates will discover how attachment underpins the Boxall Profile, and in particular how attachment awareness can help practitioners better understand the needs and difficulties of children they are working with.

  Using three case studies of primary age children, the Boxall Profile assessments, plans and interventions will be discussed. Practical strategies used in the nurture group and beyond will be also shared.

• The Home-School Front: Working together with parents and carers of adopted and permanently placed children – Adoption UK

  More than 60% of adoptive parents report that their child’s schooling is a significant source of stress in their family life. Four out of five adoptive families feel that their child needs more support in school. The dynamics of the home-school relationship for children with attachment difficulties can be complex. This workshop will explore the experiences of previously looked-after children and their parents and carers, based on Adoption UK research with thousands of families, and consider strategies to combine the expertise that is brought to the table by both parents/carers and educators, and maximise the potential of the home-school partnership.

• Dust off those old board games – INSPIRE – DIG DEEP

  A practical approach that looks at the incorporation of board and card games within an educational setting as a reward and therapeutic attachment and resilience building device.

• Adoption and Attachment – Inspired Foundation

  This workshop will look at the journey that children take through the care system and into adoptive placements. Participants will learn about the definitions and causes of early trauma and attachment difficulties, as well as behaviours that may present as a result of these issues. There will be the opportunity to consider a variety of approaches and strategies to support adoptive children and their families.

• Including children with SEND in the life of a school – Rodney House Specialist Support School

  The workshop will very briefly cover the challenges and joys of making adaptations for children who have additional needs. I will share my experience of working in both mainstream and specialist settings to illustrate that anxiety is an underlying factor for many children who may present as challenging and offer some suggestions to make life easier for both the child and the staff at school.

• Love in the professional context – how does it feel to be attachment aware – Derbyshire Virtual School

  This workshop will facilitate discussion about the lived experience of being a professional who works with children and young people.

  We will explore our human capacity to empathise with others in the context of understanding attachment as a fundamental need for all human beings.

  We will examine what we bring as individuals into our professional relationships, allowing you time to reflect and deepen your understanding of how you can thrive in the complex environment of schools and the wider world of education.

• Sparkles Project Going Forward - SPARKLES

  S.P.A.R.K.L.E.S. is an 8-week programme aimed at parents and prospective parents who are facing life challenges, feeling isolated and/or are vulnerable or who just wish to develop a more supportive network . A short film will provide an overview of the course and introduce delegates to some of the participants from Stoke. There will be an update to explain how the course has developed and details of how the programme may be accessed outside of Stoke will be shared

• An action research project exploring the use of emotion coaching in an educational setting – St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy

  The project is continually evolving and is about to enter its second phase. Our workshop shares the journey so far including details on the project design, useful literature, the successes, the barriers and the next steps.

  The project hopefully provides evidence demonstrating that emotion coaching is a valuable teaching approach, that helps improve adult skills and student behaviour, particularly for those who have difficulty regulating their emotions in the classroom. The research was carried out at St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy (secondary school) and the 8 primary schools, together which make up the Newman Collegiate in Stoke-on-Trent.

• Living & Breathing Attachment Theory and The Impact of Trauma

  This workshop will explain how we combine the most compelling scientific evidence with appealing and accessible examples, such as everyday fears, football, superman, meerkats, films and theraplay. We use all of this to ensure those attending remember and internalise the fundamental importance of attachment and trauma. We will discuss how we have brought this approach to professional groups with the help of the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust. We will also discuss how we deliver this training as a whole school approach to primary and high schools, using bingo to check the training has been implemented in everyday practice and policy.

• From attachment awareness to whole school improvement: Achieving Wellbeing – Achievement for All

  Achievement for All has developed a unique school improvement programme that seeks to unlock academic progress and lifelong achievement by improving emotional wellbeing and mental health across a whole learning community.

  By addressing the climate and culture of the classroom, developing professional understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and neglect, and building core strength within cohorts of identified learners, barriers to progress can be dismantled.

  Virtual Headteachers around the country have been quick to seize on the opportunities afforded by this programme to transform outcomes for CLA (Children Looked After): unsurprisingly, the journey begins with “Making Sense of Behaviour”.

• Managing anxieties & challenges in schools – ARC EP Group

  To consider the anxieties arising from managing children and young people with difficulties related to attachment and trauma and how these impact on individuals, institutions and communities at both a neurological and a practical level. We will consider how schools and settings can become effective containers for the anxieties emanating from within their own institutions and those coming from outside of themselves. We will also look at how schools and settings can maximise the impact of outside agencies, including Educational Psychologists in becoming effective containers of anxiety and distress.

• Attachment Awareness Project in Cheshire East – Cheshire East Virtual School

  In 2016/17 ten primary schools in Cheshire East took part in an attachment awareness project. After attending an initial conference these school chose to undertake further training on emotion coaching and building resilience and also to take part in a piece of school based action research.

  The topics varied from improving the way that children are met in the school yard, to considering how emotionally aware staff are when they speak to children. Schools devised their own questions and ways to assess impact and these finding will be shared in the workshop.

• You can’t care for others if you don’t care for yourself – Meadow View Farm School

  In this workshop we will explore and unpick the impact of working with SEMH. We will look to share systems and processes that ensure staff wellbeing is of key importance. We will challenge ways in which we work that can lead to negative outcomes for the amazing people on the frontline day in day out. Through focused activities, case studies of success, questions and answers this content packed workshop will be future focused with the aim of developing systems and practice to better outcomes for all. This workshop is open to anyone but is particularly appropriate working with young people with SEMH in mainstream or specialist settings.

Members £189 + VAT

Non-members £239 + VAT

To redeem your discounted members price you need to log into the ARC members dashboard and follow instructions at the top of the page.