Contents

Changes to the Original Application

Change of school

Only after the Practicum part of training were the requirements for the outdoor area fully understood. It was more challenging than expected to find suitable, safe, outdoor areas within school grounds. The training identified specific requirements for carrying out the sessions. The school we initally planned to work with did not meet the outlined requirements. To secure a safe and appropriate space we had to move the project to another school with similar levels of deprivation and need.

This school was in a significantly deprived area, where the community was massively impacted by the pandemic and further rocked by riots in 2021. During this time, the school played a vital role in supporting families, providing work from home projects, foodbank deliveries and online, evening entertainment.

The school took a 'whole-school' approach to the wellbeing of their pupils and community. This matched well with the project and it's theme of improving mental well-being. Staff reported that after the pandemic many pupils showed signs of increased dysregulation, anxiety, aggressive behaviours, and behaviours associated with ADHD and ASD. The impact of both pandemic and pre-existing trauma was significant, raising many causes for concern. After-effects of the pandemic on staff were also evident.

Extra Training

We received funding for Sensory Attachment training in two programmes:

• The Just Right State Programme
• Ecosensory Therapy Training for Professionals

After the change of school, training had to be re-planned and re-delivered for a wide variety of staff at the new school - including the site supervisor and school secretary. The majority of this training had to be delivered online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Immersive Practicum was in-person.

Additional training needs, (e.g. Wilderness First Aid Course, supervision sessions), were highlighted during the course and these had to be added into the project. It was possible to cover costs of these extra training session via savings on mileage and accommodation due to hosting more of the training online than anticipated.

Equipment Issues

The equipment recommended by the Ecosensory trainers had specific setup and safety requirements that the school was uncomfortable with, so not all equipment could be utilised. Some equipment required ‘working at height’ training for Adenydd personnel, so it also could not be utilised during this project.

Environment Challenges

Adenydd quickly found that regulation strategies and skills had to be taught in an enclosed, safe environment before being utilised outdoors, as the children otherwise became too dysregulated to safely manage. A small community centre adjacent to the school was used and his quiet, contained space proved ideal. During outdoor sessions, (weather permitting), children were found to be more dysregulated, with some specifying that they preferred working indoors.

Differences the Funding Made for Adenydd and the Community

Both the Ecosensory and Just Right State training have greatly increased the knowledge base within Adenydd, and we have shared this with the pilot school. Staff, professionals and children have been helped to develop their understanding of regulation, impacting on their access to education, relationships and life skills. Both Adenydd personnel and school staff will take this knowledge forward with them into everything that they do in the future. We learned a lot about using the school environment and naturally occurring opportunities to provide sensory regulating activities, e.g. we developed sensory walks in school corridors.

We took two children with regulation-based needs requiring additional support and members of staff from five different classes to spread the learning as much as possible. We helped staff to use existing outdoor equipment to support sensory regulation and providing structured opportunities for children to use this more constructively. Even simple things like using the water tray in new ways that supported regulation, eg blowing bubbles through a straw, were inventive ways we found to include sensory regulating activities into the typical school day.

Adenydd also guided and advised the school staff on how to increase the structure within the school day and within activities to provide the safety and security that many of the children needed. We introduced relational play activities with a sensory regulatory element to them that not only helped sensory regulation but also supported the building of relationship between the staff and pupils.

Other Differences the Project Made

• Enabled staff to devise simple strategies for transition into and out of school, using regulatory snacks and sensory walks as children arrive at school each morning.
• We were able to suggest activities to do with the older children before going to the school hall for lunch - a time when many of the children would get dysregulated.
• For some children in need of additional input, we were able to suggest after-lunch activities, so that there would be less challenges on the yard at lunchtime play - a common source of conflict and dysregulation.
• In the nursery, where children particularly struggled on morning arrival, staff were able to provide children with a regulating snack to start the say in a calmer state.
• Other snacks were made available more freely for regulation throughout the session, rather than just at a designated time. The type of snacks offered were planned for specific types of regulation e.g. crunchy foods such as apples, sucking a portable yoghurt tube through a straw for comfort and nurture.

Adenydd helped the school staff to better understand trauma responses, which are often seen as ‘challenging behaviours’ and provided strategies to support and regulate children in school, including how and when to use them. This led to fewer ‘outbursts’, ‘meltdowns’ and interruptions to learning for other children.

School staff felt equipped and empowered to support the children more effectively. Children learned awareness of different feelings and what makes them feel ‘just right’, with some children accepting nurture from an adult for the first time – pseudo-independence is not healthy for children.

Improving Mental Well-being

School staff were massively impacted by the pandemic and were witnessing the effects on the children, which was hard for them to see. Staff were encouraged to also look after their own mental well-being. We discussed ways for staff to recognise their stress and developed strategies to help support them and be modeled to the children. 

The children (and staff) were empowered to recognise when they were feeling ‘just right’ and what they could do to help them feel that way. Many children were in a constant state of fear and were unable to recognise these feelings.

In one session a little boy said “It feels like someone is kicking in my chest” whilst pointing to his heart area after doing some physical exercise – it was as if it was the first time he had noticed his heart beating hard. This is interoception, one of the senses which tends to be underdeveloped where there has been trauma. Adenydd staff told him: “It's your heart’s way of showing you that you have been working hard”. He loved this idea.

How Many People Benefited

The entire school staff received Sensory Regulation training in preparation for the project and individual staff members involved in the project received additional training during practical sessions with the children. The interest was so great amongst the staff that we were unable to take a lunch break on the days we attended the school, as so many staff wanted to discuss the needs of the children in their classes, even when they weren't directly involved in the project. We also had a high level of interest from parents and carers and would welcome the opportunity to develop some support for them in the future.

• Age range worked with: 2-57
• Forecasted number of people worked with: 45
• Actual number of people directly worked with: 79

All pupils in the school were able to indirectly benefit from their peers who get more easily dysregulated being less disruptive to learning, as evidenced by comments from school staff. Strategies employed with children who presented with more significant challenges were also implemented for less challenging children who still needed support but had possibly previously been overlooked.

The Flying Start Manager at the school told another Flying Start Manager and the Flying Start Additional Learning Needs Manager about the impact of the project. We were also able to hold an impromptu training session for the Community Focus School Manager when she visited the community centre during our time there.

We have already received a new request for input from a school in another Local Authority that heard from school staff about the work we were doing and it's positive impact.

How Was News of the Funding Distributed

• Website - our website also contains information about how we ran the project
• Word of Mouth - We informed everyone we told about the project that it was funded by the Postcode Community Trust and referred to it as 'The Postcode Community Trust Project'.
• Social Media - We posted about it on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Lessons Learned

• Not many schools within the local area have enough, or the right kind of, outdoor space for Ecosensory work. General sensory regulation work is more accessible and easier to facilitate.
• Ecosensory is unsuitable for more dysregulated children who need Just Right State input to learn greater regulation first.
• Ecosensory work is best done with qualified therapists who are able to support the child and parent therapeutically through the process as things emerge during sessions.
• It is just as important for the staff to learn about their own sensory needs and how to support their own regulation so that they in turn can support the children.
• We need to support the staff as much as the children, especially when asking them to work in a new way with new understanding.
  • Discussing and raising awareness of developmental trauma is a sensitive topic as many staff will have experienced some ACEs themselves.
    • Some may have had protective factors and support, formed a creative narrative and healed from this.
    • However, others may not have healed and may need access to support as they become aware of their own challenges.
• 10 sessions were simply not enough to develop and establish a project of this nature; more sessions would be needed needed to consolidate the work already done and to support the staff as they embed this work into their practice.
• Whilst we had a significant impact in the school, to build on this and make the most impact we need to involve parents, carers and the wider network around the children.
  

Next Steps

• Younger children did not have sufficient core strength/control to manage some of the sensory regulating activities that they would have benefited from.
  • We have found another training package that would develop this as a foundation to sensory regulation work.
  • Two of our Associates hope to attend this training to enable us to be able to facilitate this work as a foundation.
• School staff have said that since the pandemic the children are generally less socially, emotionally and physically developed than previously. This school is in an area of significant deprivation and has been particularly badly affected by both the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

  • We run another project called ‘Sunshine Circles’ that teaches social and emotional skills as well as including regulating activities. Some of the children would greatly benefit from this, including those with ASD and/or developmental trauma.

  • We will seek funding to be able to provide this to the school and also to engage parents.

• There was a great deal of interest in the work from parents with many wanting to know what we were doing and how we could support them to help their child at home.

  • There was not the time within this project to support that work but it would be an excellent development to pursue.

This work has been made possible by an award from Postcode Community Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People's Postcode Lottery.

Donations from people like you also make our programmes possible. Please consider making a donation today.