BOOK
Becoming an Adoption-Friendly School
Emma Gore Langton | Katherine Boy | Claire Eastwood
(2017)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
Adopted children who have experienced loss, abuse or neglect need additional support for their emotional development, and are more likely to have special educational needs. This useful resource provides a complete plan for creating adoption-friendly environments in primary, secondary and specialist schools.
The book is grounded on new research which gathered together testimonies from over 400 school staff members, adoptive parents and adoption specialists. With realistic consideration of pressures and limitations currently faced by schools, it gives advice on eight key areas for school development, including communicating with parents, training staff, using resources wisely and recognising children's individual needs. Completing the toolkit is a broad selection of photocopiable and downloadable plans for establishing adoption-friendly frameworks, and for demonstrating good practice to staff, pupils, families and school inspectors.
This excellent comprehensive guide has been compiled with tremendous insight into the challenges faced by adopted children and those who live and work with them. Informative, accessible and authoritative, it gives educators the practical tools to implement a more empathic and thoughtful approach in their schools.
Daniela Szmigielska Shanly, proprietor/founder of Beech Lodge School and adoptive parent
Dr. Emma Gore Langton is an educational psychologist and Head of the Education Service at PAC-UK, the UK's largest independent adoption support organisation. Katherine Boy is a Research Assistant at PAC-UK.
This authoritative book has the power to inspire and transform school practice in supporting not only adopted children but the entire school community. How? The authors present a text brimming with practical wisdom that is confidently underpinned by psychological theory, leading to compelling reasons for sustained change in schools.
Laura Dunstan, Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist for Children in Care & Post Adoption and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreword | 13 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 15 | ||
| Preface | 16 | ||
| Using the Guide and Resources | 16 | ||
| Adoption-Friendly Schools Charter | 19 | ||
| 1. Why Focus on Adopted Children? | 21 | ||
| Understanding the early lives of adopted children | 21 | ||
| What’s unique about adopted children? | 22 | ||
| Adopted children are an increasing priority for the DfE | 27 | ||
| How do adopted children get on at school? | 28 | ||
| Challenges facing schools that work with adopted children | 29 | ||
| Is school the place to address adopted children’s needs? | 29 | ||
| Isn’t this guide just for primary schools? | 30 | ||
| Who will benefit from schools becoming adoption-friendly? | 31 | ||
| 2. Effecting Change in Your School | 33 | ||
| Senior leadership sets the tone for change | 33 | ||
| Getting started | 34 | ||
| Your school’s team for change | 34 | ||
| Your school’s values drive your change | 36 | ||
| When should you start changing? | 37 | ||
| Your roadmap for change | 38 | ||
| Roadmap 1: The problem-solving approach | 38 | ||
| Roadmap 2: The appreciative inquiry approach | 40 | ||
| More on the discovery stage | 42 | ||
| Making change happen | 42 | ||
| Sustaining change | 43 | ||
| Confronting obstacles: winning hearts and minds | 43 | ||
| 3. Identifying Needs | 47 | ||
| Needs commonly experienced by adopted children | 47 | ||
| Identifying adopted children’s needs | 51 | ||
| Know who your adopted children are | 51 | ||
| Assessing adopted children’s needs | 52 | ||
| Choosing measures of social and emotional needs | 53 | ||
| Gathering children’s views of their needs | 56 | ||
| Thinking of children’s needs developmentally | 57 | ||
| Thinking of children’s needs in terms of skills | 59 | ||
| Interventions to meet adopted children’s needs | 61 | ||
| Setting targets and measuring progress | 61 | ||
| Trouble-shooting when nothing is working | 62 | ||
| 4. Prioritizing Relationships | 65 | ||
| Adopted children’s early experiences of relationships | 65 | ||
| What adopted children need from relationships | 67 | ||
| Relationships in schools | 68 | ||
| Key adults | 69 | ||
| The key adult’s role | 70 | ||
| Who can be a key adult? | 72 | ||
| How does the key adult role work? | 75 | ||
| Myth-busting: confronting common worries about key adults in school | 76 | ||
| Team around the child | 77 | ||
| The role of the team around the child | 78 | ||
| Who forms the team around the child? | 79 | ||
| How does the team around the child work? | 80 | ||
| All adults in school | 80 | ||
| The role of adults in the school | 81 | ||
| Who do we mean by all adults? | 81 | ||
| How can all adults in school contribute? | 81 | ||
| Myths about acceptance, validation, and empathy | 84 | ||
| ‘It means I’m agreeing with them’ | 84 | ||
| Whole-school systems | 85 | ||
| The school system contributes structure | 86 | ||
| The school system contributes timetabling | 86 | ||
| The school system contributes continuity | 86 | ||
| The school system contributes contingency plans | 87 | ||
| The school system contributes nurture | 87 | ||
| Relationships amongst adults | 87 | ||
| Finding the joy | 88 | ||
| 5. Rethinking Behaviour Management | 89 | ||
| What behaviours mean | 90 | ||
| Behaviour as communication | 90 | ||
| Assessing behaviours | 92 | ||
| Rethinking attention-seeking | 93 | ||
| Thinking about traditional behaviour management approaches | 95 | ||
| Reward and consequence systems | 95 | ||
| Traditional systems often clash with adopted children’s needs | 95 | ||
| Exploring your school’s behaviour management approaches | 98 | ||
| Reimagining behaviour management: what’s its purpose? | 100 | ||
| Retribution or justice | 101 | ||
| Repentance | 101 | ||
| Deterrence | 102 | ||
| Reform | 104 | ||
| Protection | 105 | ||
| Common ‘Yes buts…’ | 106 | ||
| What does your school want from its behaviour management approach? | 107 | ||
| 6. Responding Empathically to Behaviour | 109 | ||
| Developing emotional literacy and regulation | 110 | ||
| Empathic behaviour management | 111 | ||
| Time in and safe spaces | 111 | ||
| Pick your battles | 112 | ||
| Praise and reward | 113 | ||
| Consequences | 114 | ||
| Non-violent resistance | 114 | ||
| Restorative approaches | 115 | ||
| Dealing with strong emotions | 116 | ||
| Responding to children’s strong emotions | 116 | ||
| Addressing adults’ strong emotions | 117 | ||
| Developing exibility | 119 | ||
| De-escalation strategies | 121 | ||
| Repair and reconnection | 122 | ||
| Reflecting on your behavioural management approach | 124 | ||
| 7. Working in Partnership with Parents | 125 | ||
| Barriers to partnership | 125 | ||
| Setting up the partnership | 127 | ||
| What is partnership? | 127 | ||
| Making space for everyone’s expertise | 128 | ||
| Show parents you prioritize partnership right from the start | 130 | ||
| When and how to begin | 130 | ||
| Communication in the partnership | 131 | ||
| What to communicate | 131 | ||
| Positive or negative? | 133 | ||
| How to communicate | 133 | ||
| Sustaining the partnership | 134 | ||
| When things are going well | 134 | ||
| When things are difficult | 134 | ||
| Supporting families | 135 | ||
| 8. Sharing Information | 139 | ||
| Decisions facing adoptive families | 139 | ||
| Inviting parents to share information | 142 | ||
| Making clear information-sharing agreements | 143 | ||
| Clarifying assumptions | 143 | ||
| Clarifying who needs to know what | 143 | ||
| Clarifying the purpose of sharing | 144 | ||
| Including the child | 144 | ||
| Communication within the school | 144 | ||
| Breaking barriers to within-school communication | 145 | ||
| Multiple systems | 145 | ||
| Who needs to know? | 145 | ||
| School hierarchies | 146 | ||
| Decision-making processes for information-sharing | 146 | ||
| Thinking ahead | 147 | ||
| 9. Reflecting Adoptive Families | 149 | ||
| Reflecting adoptive families in the curriculum | 149 | ||
| Dealing with curriculum hotspots | 150 | ||
| Avoiding and modifying triggering content | 151 | ||
| Removing children from triggering classes | 152 | ||
| Asking families for their input | 153 | ||
| Appropriate adoption language | 154 | ||
| Dealing with curious peers | 155 | ||
| 10. Protecting Adoptive Families | 157 | ||
| Peers, bullying, and discrimination | 157 | ||
| Anti-bullying practices for adopted children | 159 | ||
| When adopted children bully others | 161 | ||
| Playground politics and negativity from other parents | 161 | ||
| Safeguarding children’s identities | 162 | ||
| Online safety for children | 164 | ||
| 11. Supporting Staff | 167 | ||
| Staff training | 167 | ||
| Who needs to know what? | 168 | ||
| Identifying your training needs | 169 | ||
| Supporting iterative training | 170 | ||
| Supporting staff | 171 | ||
| Secondary trauma | 172 | ||
| Blocked care | 173 | ||
| Looking after staff | 174 | ||
| 12. Using Resources Wisely | 181 | ||
| What are we already doing? | 182 | ||
| What resources does your school have? | 183 | ||
| How could you use your resources? | 184 | ||
| Pupil Premium Plus | 187 | ||
| What’s the difference between Pupil Premium and Pupil Premium Plus? | 187 | ||
| How does the funding work? | 187 | ||
| Identifying who is eligible in your school | 187 | ||
| Spending the Pupil Premium Plus | 188 | ||
| Using your resources wisely | 191 | ||
| Demonstrating the impact of Pupil Premium Plus spending | 191 | ||
| Afterword | 192 | ||
| Words of encouragement from a school on the journey | 193 | ||
| Glossary | 194 | ||
| References | 199 | ||
| Further Reading | 203 | ||
| About adoption | 203 | ||
| About attachment, trauma, and loss | 203 | ||
| About interventions and support | 204 | ||
| For children and young people | 205 | ||
| Adoption information and support organizations for families and schools | 206 | ||
| Resources | 209 | ||
| Resource 1.1 Myth-busting factsheet about adoption [AQ] | 211 | ||
| Resource 2.1 Building your mission statement | 213 | ||
| Resource 2.2 Our taskforce’s members and skills | 215 | ||
| Resource 2.3 Our school’s values | 216 | ||
| Resource 2.4 Stages of change checklist | 217 | ||
| Resource 2.5 Appreciative inquiry stages checklist | 218 | ||
| Resource 2.6 Example appreciative questions and script | 219 | ||
| Resource 2.7 Potential challenges to sustaining change and your contingency plans | 220 | ||
| Resource 2.8 Effecting change tracker | 221 | ||
| Resource 3.1 Functional Behavioural Analysis worked example | 223 | ||
| Resource 3.2 Functional behavioural analysis chart | 225 | ||
| Resource 3.3 Blank developmental wall | 228 | ||
| Resource 3.4 Taking a skills-based approach worksheet | 229 | ||
| Resource 3.5 Thinking critically about interventions | 232 | ||
| Resource 3.6 Important to and important for | 234 | ||
| Resource 3.7 Using goal nattainment scaling | 235 | ||
| Resource 3.8 It’s not working – trouble-shooting worksheet | 236 | ||
| Resource 3.9 Identifying needs tracker | 238 | ||
| Resource 4.1 [Child’s name] team | 240 | ||
| Resource 4.2 Staff interactions log | 242 | ||
| Resource 4.3 Finding the joy | 243 | ||
| Resource 4.4 Prioritizing relationships tracker | 244 | ||
| Resource 5.1 What have we tried to manage behaviour? | 246 | ||
| Resource 5.2 Functions of our behaviour system | 247 | ||
| Resource 5.3 What’s our purpose? | 250 | ||
| Resource 5.4 Thinking again about behaviour management tracker | 251 | ||
| Resource 6.1 Ways to feel calm | 253 | ||
| Resource 6.2 Reducing anxiety management plan | 254 | ||
| Resource 6.3 Recognizing emotions evoked in us by children who have experienced trauma | 255 | ||
| Resource 6.4 Responding empathically to behaviour tracker | 256 | ||
| Resource 7.1 Engaging parents at each stage of the ladder of participation | 258 | ||
| Resource 7.2 School policy | 259 | ||
| Resource 7.3 Checklist for initial conversations with parents | 263 | ||
| Resource 7.4 How do we communicate with parents about…? | 265 | ||
| Resource 7.5 Positive information sharing framework | 266 | ||
| Resource 7.6 Partnership with parents tracker | 267 | ||
| Resource 8.1 Suggested questions for admissions form | 269 | ||
| Resource 8.2 Template letter about designated teachers | 271 | ||
| Resource 8.3 Template letter about pupil premium plus | 272 | ||
| Resource 8.4 Information-sharing agreement | 273 | ||
| Resource 8.5 Pupil passport template | 277 | ||
| Resource 8.6 Information-sharing tracker | 282 | ||
| Resource 9.1 Curriculum hotspots | 284 | ||
| Resource 9.2 Reviewing curriculum hotspots | 288 | ||
| Resource 9.3 Lesson planning checklist | 289 | ||
| Resource 9.4 Reflecting adoptive families tracker | 290 | ||
| Resource 10.1 Template anti-bullying policy | 292 | ||
| Resource 10.2 Template policy for images and film | 293 | ||
| Resource 10.3 Protecting adoptive families tracker | 296 | ||
| Resource 11.1 Reviewing training needs | 298 | ||
| Resource 11.2 Handout for burnout and secondary trauma | 299 | ||
| Resource 11.3 Self-care wheel | 300 | ||
| Resource 11.4 Whole-school perspective on self-care | 301 | ||
| Resource 11.5 Self-care tips for staff [AQ] | 302 | ||
| Resource 11.6 Supporting staff tracker | 303 | ||
| Resource 12.1 Our riches as a school | 305 | ||
| Resource 12.2 Template personal education plan for primary-aged pupils | 306 | ||
| Resource 12.3 Template personal education plan for secondary-aged pupils | 313 | ||
| Resource 12.4 Using resources wisely tracker | 320 | ||
| Table 2.1 Actions to take at each stage of change | 40 | ||
| Table 2.2 Appreciative inquiry stages and actions | 41 | ||
| Table 3.1 Social and emotional assessment tools for schools | 55 | ||
| Table 3.2 Using goal attainment scaling | 62 | ||
| Table 4.1 The role of the key adult | 71 | ||
| Table 7.1 Engaging parents at each stage of the ladder of participation | 128 | ||
| Table 9.1 Thinking about how we talk about adoption | 154 | ||
| Table 11.1 Self-care as a whole school | 178 | ||
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