"Children do well if they can"

…. if they can’t something is getting in the way.

We need to figure out what

 so we can help

(Dr Stuart Ablon)

Our vision is to provide a safe space for everyone, whether you are a student, parent/carer, member of the community or a member of staff. We aim to be a trauma informed academy with a positive approach to supporting good mental health.  We want to be proactive rather than reactive in our approach to supporting students, staff and families who have signs of mental health issues. To this end, we strongly endorse the statement in the Government Green Paper December 2017 Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision, “ There is evidence that appropriately-trained and supported staff such as teachers, school nurses, counsellors, and teaching assistants can achieve results comparable to those achieved by trained therapists in delivering a number of interventions addressing mild to moderate mental health problems (such as anxiety, conduct disorder, substance use disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder)”. We are appropriately training our academy staff to take on this task.

What are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?

Five are personal:

• Emotional abuse (humiliation / being sworn at / being put down / insulted)
• Emotional neglect (not feeling special / not feeling important / not feeling loved / not being supported)
• Physical abuse (being pushed, grabbed, slapped, things thrown at you)
• Physical neglect (not enough to eat / dirty clothes)
• Sexual abuse

Five are related to family members:

• A family member is depressed / has a mental illness
• Loss of a parent or parental separation / divorce
• A family member being addicted to drugs / alcohol
• Witnessing domestic violence
• A family member in jail

As the number of ACEs increases, so does the likelihood of a child having:

• Learning difficulties
• Poor educational attainment
• Poor attendance
• Exhibiting violent behaviour
• Being given a diagnosis of ADHD or conduct disorder.

With each additional ACE there is an increased risk of learning difficulties, obesity and becoming a serious violent offender by age 35.

Fuller-Thompson, E and Lewis D (2015) The Relationship Between Early Adversities and Attention-Defecit Hyperactivity Disorder. Child Abuse & Neglect. Volume 47 Sept 2015 Pages 94-101

Should you wish to find out further information on how we are becoming a Trauma Informed Academy, please contact Jennifer.paris@oasisenfield.org or Claudette.dennis@oasisenfield.org