QUESTION 1:Why do we feel an urgency to become a trauma-sensitive school?
Schools address this question by engaging in the following activities:
1. Sharing Learning with all staff
READ:
The Impact of trauma on learning, behavior and relationships:
Helping Traumatized Children Learn, Volume 1
The first step in creating trauma-sensitive schools is to help educators become aware of trauma symptoms. Chapter 1 of this report describes the trauma response and the specific ways trauma can impact learning and behavior in the classroom. Teachers can use their existing expertise more effectively when they understand that many of the academic, social, and behavioral problems of traumatized children involve such difficulties as failing to understand directions, overreacting to comments from teachers and peers, misreading context, failing to connect cause and effect, and other forms of miscommunication.
2. The need for a school wide approach
BLOGS AND VIDEOS:
The first attribute of a trauma-sensitive school is that leadership and staff share an understanding of trauma’s impacts on learning and the need for a school-wide approach. This is the critical first step in creating a trauma-sensitive school. Read more…
Sal Terrasi, Ph.D., Executive Director for Pupil Personnel Services in the Brockton Public School System discusses how school and district administrators can work to create the infrastructure and culture to promote trauma-sensitive school environments. Watch the video.
Creating a trauma-sensitive school is about engaging in a process of change that embraces the uniqueness of each school community. It is not about a list of things we have to do.
Read More.
The key to creating a safe and supportive school community is identifying the urgencies that your school has and then taking small, but effective steps to address them, aligned with a set of norms and values that are articulated in we what we call the Attributes. Watch the video.
ARTICLES:
A pathway to creating a school culture where every child living through adversity can grow alongside peers
BY SUSAN F. COLE
School Administrator, February 2019
3. Growing a coalition within the school
BLOG:
Our work has shown us that schools that can articulate why they are ready and can identify the priorities that are the catalyst for their decision to undertake the work of becoming trauma sensitive are much more likely to have success with it taking hold.
One way to go about building consensus is by sharing information to deepen staff’s understanding of the impacts of trauma on learning, behavior, relationships and student well-being. There are a variety of ways to go about learning together to develop a coalition within the school.
4. Role of leadership and the role of the District
BLOGS AND VIDEOS:
Creating a trauma–sensitive school can be the vehicle to improvements in school culture. By holding the vision, making trauma-sensitivity one of the school’s priorities, and being a key member of the steering committee, a principal or headmaster plays an indispensable role in making sure that trauma-sensitivity is woven into the fabric of the school and aligns with other important initiatives on campus (e.g. bullying prevention, PBIS, Social Emotional Learning). School leaders can also play a critical role in setting the conditions for the work of creating a trauma-sensitive school to move forward.
Although many schools have successfully worked to become trauma sensitive, the best opportunity for sustained trauma-sensitive safe and supportive culture change comes when multiple schools become trauma sensitive with the support of their district. This allows the schools to learn and build capacity together, strengthens motivation and facilitates the free flow of information and ideas among schools, including the creation of pilot efforts. District support for creating trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive schools helps minimize interruption when an administrator or other staff members leave or transfer to another school.
Sal Terrasi, Ph.D., Executive Director for Pupil Personnel Services in the Brockton Public School System discusses how school and district administrators can work to create the infrastructure and culture to promote trauma-sensitive school environments. Watch the video.
5. Establishing a steering committee representing all school staff
Part 3: Visions of a Trauma-Sensitive School Questions
Question 1: Why do we feel an urgency to become a trauma-sensitive school?
Question 2: How do we know we are ready to create a Trauma-Sensitive Action Plan?
Question 3: What actions will address staff priorities and help us become a Trauma-Sensitive School?
Question 4: How do we know we are becoming a Trauma-Sensitive School?