Wellbeing

Berry Street Educational Model

Last term, we were lucky enough to start working with Berry Street as part of their trauma-informed approach to education. Our first day focused on their "Body" unit, which looked at some of the responses we might have when we're feeling stressed, and how we can manage them.

Some of the things we've been trying in the classroom include:

• Morning Circles, to set a calm, predictable start to each day.
• Ready to Learn plans, where students think about how they're feeling and what strategies they can use to help get them ready to learn.
• Ready to Teach plans, so staff can practise using their own strategies to help them get ready to teach.
• Positive Primers, so students have a fun, engaging activity to get them going at the start of a session.
• Brain Breaks, so students can take a couple of minutes to give their bodies and brains a break during a lesson before getting back into their learning.

Here are some templates that we're using across the school. I'm off sick at the moment so I don't have any student examples to add in, but I'll include them in next fortnight's newsletter.

Our staff are looking forward to working with Berry Street again this term for the unit "Relationships" to see how else we can make our school a calmer, more inclusive place to be.