Thornwell Primary School
Protecting Childrens Rights
We all experience different challenges as part of life. Sometimes we cope and manage quite quickly with help from family and friends. But sometimes things happen that cause distress or frighten us.
Trauma is any experience that is unpleasant and can cause us distress or anxiety. Trauma can also refer to the effects of a traumatic event.
Trauma can be a one-off event, a series of events, or an ongoing situation.
Trauma can happen because:
● we experience abuse or neglect
● someone you love gets a serious illness or dies
● people get divorced or separated
● we feel unsafe
● we are threatened or bullied
● we’re involved in an accident
● we see a crime or violence
● of a fall when we’re older
● we can’t afford to pay for heating, food and other basic needs.
It can affect:
● how we feel about life
● our mental health and emotions
● our physical health
● our ability to do everyday things
● our ability to learn new things
● our relationships with family, friends and other people.
Different people find different things traumatic, but there is support to help us feel better and stop things getting worse. This framework was co-created with people and organisations across Wales and supported by the Welsh Government.
This new framework will help make sure:
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Everyone knows about adversity and trauma and understands how they affect people.
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Everyone knows how to step in and stop adversity and trauma happening.
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Everyone knows how to support someone affected by trauma.
The framework is for everyone in Wales. It’s everyone’s business.
It’s for everyone of all ages.
It helps everyone work together — organisations, services, schools, communities, families and you.
It’s about making sure everyone has their rights. Human Rights and Children’s Rights as set out by the United Nations. In Wales our rights are also set out in law and government policy that help us to:
● to be safe from harm
● to have a healthy life
● to have a say in decisions that affect your life
● to be treated fairly and not discriminated against.
This framework aims to help everyone in Wales understand how adversity and trauma can impact people and how to support people who are affected. This will help improve people’s health and well-being.
The goals:
● Everyone in Wales understands what we mean by adversity and Trauma-informed.
● Everyone in Wales can get the right support from our communities and any services we need.
● Everyone’s life is better because the community, services and organisations are working in the best ways to help.
● The community, services and organisations work together, bring together good practice, training and resources to improve lives.
Universal
This is important for everyone in Wales. We all need the right support and when this is provided it should not cause harm.
Person Centred
Putting people first, involving them in decisions and making sure they get the right support.
Relationship-focused
Safe and supportive relationships between people, families, professionals and communities are important. People need trusting relationships to feel understood and get support.
Resilience and strengths-focused
Building on the strengths people already have so they can cope now and in the future.
Inclusive
Making sure everyone in Wales can get the support they need, and no one is held back because of who they are, where they are from, how they identify or what they have experienced.
We are an Ace Aware School and a Trauma informed School.
ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. If you want to know more about how adverse experiences during childhood can affect your child you can speak to us in confidence.
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Our staff are ACEs aware.
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We are here to listen.
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We are here to support
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Staff have undertaken training to support children who have experienced trauma.
The Trauma Informed Approach ensures that relationship is at the heart of every interaction and supports the whole school community including our pupils, parent(s)/carers, staff and all other agencies. We strongly believe that by identifying the barriers to learning, we can provide an inspiring and relevant curriculum that considers the whole child and provides the necessary support for pupils to achieve, develop and reach their true potential.