Exploring perspectives of whole‐school attachment and trauma aware approaches in a specialist provision

Abstract

A recent focus on attachment and trauma awareness (ATA) in schools has led to whole‐school training programmes and evaluations. The outcomes have been positive; however, the dominant focus of research is on the implementation of whole‐school ATA in mainstream settings. This project adopted a case study to explore how the training and approaches had been implemented in a school community, including a special school and pupil referral units. Data were collected from three semi‐structured interviews with staff in varying roles, and the views of 11 pupils were obtained via a classroom activity as supplementary data. Thematic analysis highlighted five key themes which directly answered the three research questions, namely: strategies and approaches used; pupil outcomes; facilitators to implementation; barriers to implementation; and training and improvements. It is hoped that this study will help further professional understanding and implementation of ATA in non‐mainstream settings. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.