How can teachers support vulnerable children at school?

In almost every class, there will also be those who find learning a challenge – the children who perhaps cause teachers to wake in the night, or to feel that they are having to manage certain behaviours beyond their usual areas of expertise.

In my role working to improve the educational outcomes of vulnerable children and young people – specifically those in care and looked-after by the local authority – I have become aware that many will not be in a good place, emotionally, socially or developmentally, to learn. Although the children I work with represent the tip of the “vulnerable” iceberg, there are numerous other children who are on protection plans or identified as children in need. There will be those, too, who are not known to any service but come to school every day having faced significant hardships.Teachers I work with often report that schools’ more general behaviour policies don’t seem to work for these particular students – so what can we do to best support these children? Here are some pointers.

Focus on why

Behaviour is always a communication, even though we may not always realise it. Imagine a really bad day – you go home and within minutes you find yourself arguing with someone in your family. You probably didn’t plan to take out your frustration on those closest to you, but that’s effectively what happened.

Many vulnerable students are likely to have had times when they haven’t felt safe – and end up reacting to all sorts of triggers in order to keep themselves safe or feel safe (which of course may be very different things). Similarly, they’ve often experienced multiple rejections.

Many will have accompanying attachment issues and sometimes will “reject” before they can be rejected. They may push you away because this may be less painful than allowing you to reject them. Or it may be that certain behaviours give them access to a person they are developing an attachment to, so their message is “I need that person”. By acknowledging this, and recognising that what a student needs more than anything is to build relationships that help them feel safe, we may be able to adjust our reactions appropriately.

Consider their age and stage

Social and emotional levels of development and maturity in vulnerable children often won’t match their chronological age. In schools, we’re usually good at supporting children when they have gaps in their academic learning – and many of the vulnerable students will have these – but they will almost all have some gaps in their social and emotional development.

They may not have developed the skills their peers have, and also by virtue of their experiences have developed certain “street-wise” skills that can lead a teacher to think they are much more mature than they are.

Bring nurture into itAll children need boundaries, and some of these students either won’t have had those or will have had a lot of inappropriate, overly severe boundaries. But while consistent, firm boundaries can help a child to feel safe, it’s important to remember that nurture also plays a part.

By nurture I mean the consistent care that we would expect a parent to give a child. If any of your students end up being among the tiny minority of children who are actually taken into care (approximately half a percent) it seems reasonable to assume that they will not have received the consistent, nurturing parenting that enables physical, mental and emotional wellbeing (it’s also worth noting that the rate of mental disorder among looked-after children is 46.4% as compared to 8.5% in non-disadvantaged children and young people).

Some children may need therapeutic intervention but all children, especially those who are vulnerable, would benefit from schools that promote emotional well-being. As teachers, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of smiles, kind words, acceptance following behavioural incidents and appropriate physical proximity.

Pick your battles carefully

The behaviour of many vulnerable students will be driven by emotions, and their former experiences may impact on how they react to situations. There may also be very few sanctions that will influence them, simply because they may have experienced far worse in their lives to date.

I would always avoid a public showdown in front of the class. If you need to talk to a student, choose the time and environment carefully to lessen the conflict, and give yourself space to go over the issues.

There may also be some things that they will find hard to do, because of the impact that attachment issues and trauma has had on them. Things like maintaining eye contact or regulating their impulses might be incredibly difficult. There will be children who have experienced issues with attachment in almost every school, so ensuring school staff understand the impact of this would seem an important part of staff development. Virtual schools, focused on the education of looked-after children, will run training on such topics.

Look after yourself

It might sound obvious, but what vulnerable students need more than anything is consistency. Those students need you to stay well and keep turning up every day to be their teacher or teaching assistant. They need you to be physically present and emotionally robust enough to support them - so it’s important to look after yourself by eating well, exercising, and sleeping well.

It’s helpful to make sure you create some form of support group so you have opportunities to discuss with colleagues what went well, what went less well and what new approaches could be tried the next day. Be aware of how you’re doing with the vulnerable children in your class, and seek input from other professionals or further training if necessary.

Sheila Mulvenney is head of a virtual school and author of Overcoming Barriers to Learning: How a Culture of Care in Schools Helps Troubled Pupils to Learn

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