Annual impact report 24/25
Innovation and engagement
Our Trauma Informed Schools pilot, BELONG, has become a beacon of success for all of our children in care and those with a social worker.
Delivered with our commissioned partners, Trauma Informed Schools UK, participating schools are trained in trauma informed practice at a leadership and whole school level. The content covers understanding the impact of trauma on the brain and body, helping us as adults to recognise this and develop strategies and whole school plans and practice to manage this and support the children to be better regulated.
To support understanding, this training also involves 3 networking opportunities across the year, support from the Virtual School to create their trauma informed action plan and a wealth of resources.
The feedback from the project initially has been phenomenal and we have now expanded this project through joint funding from the RIIA and the Virtual School to take another 20 schools through the programme in 25/26 meaning nearly 50% of the total schools in Gateshead will have been part of the project. Our aim is to have all schools through within the next 4 years.
Access to education
As a Virtual School we recognise that for some children attendance and engagement at school can be a real challenge. This could be due to significant needs, anxiety or ability to access and regulate. Last year we have introduced of AV1 pilot. These are small robots that 'sit in the child's space' in the classroom and the child can access the classroom learning through the robot's eyes and view this on an ipad or other tech device. This means children are not missing curriculum content, still feel connected to their class and enables a sense of connected belonging. It also reduces teacher workload and helps to bridge attendance and engagement back into the mainstream classroom. We are still in the early phases of our project but so far have two secondary schools and one primary school participating. Early indications show positive engagement and we lo forward to sharing the evaluation shortly.