Public Forums

Hi Sarah, it's difficult to recommend specific schools as things can quickly change if a new head teacher comes in - a school that was great five years ago might be terrible now. Hopefully some parents fairly local to you will know the current state of play in schools that they're familiar with. There are two independent schools I'm aware of that specialise in attachment/trauma - Beech Lodge in Berkshire, and Mulberry Bush in Oxfordshire (although I think that one may be residential only).

Auditing the attachment-aware status of schools is time-consuming and not something that Adoption UK is able to do, but there is a training organisation that operates an 'Attachment and Trauma-Sensitive Schools Award'. This is not externally accredited as far as I know, but the trainer does regularly audit the schools as they work towards each level of the award, and there is a framework within which they are supposed to be working. I cannot recommend any of these schools personally, but the list of schools participating in the scheme is available here: http://www.attachmentandtraumasensitiveschoolsaward.com/participants-and-partners.html - if a school in your area is listed, it might be worth taking a look as a starting point.