Simple Steps Towards a Trauma Aware Classroom

The pupil who shouts out all lesson, or crashes around after break and can't settle, is rarely just choosing to. After early trauma or disrupted care, a child's stress response can go off at things nobody else notices, and a sanction won't reach them while they're in that state.

You'll learn two simple models to make sense of it: the window of tolerance, and "regulate, relate, reason" for the order in which to respond. Then come everyday adjustments, like seating a hypervigilant child where they can see the door, or rethinking the baby-photo and family-tree lessons that can land hard on a child in care.

It's taught by a former secondary teacher who went on to foster and adopt, and who shares the things she wishes she'd known in the classroom.