Could a Trauma Informed Approach Reduce Exclusions?

The child who throws a chair or bolts from the room often isn't choosing to. Repeated fear or neglect can rewire a young brain so that fight, flight or freeze becomes its default, and a child in that state can't take in a sanction or a lecture.

Alternative provision and pupil referral units often manage to help these children thrive, and their approach works in mainstream schools too. You'll learn to make a child feel safe as well as be safe. You'll also learn to look calm when you don't feel it. Slow, low speech helps, and so do a few "broken record" phrases such as "It's OK, you're safe, I'm here with you." There's help with repairing things after they go wrong, and with working alongside parents who may have been through trauma themselves.

The brain keeps changing, so every calm response gives a child something to build on.