IRCT in partnership with Warwickshire Virtual School and Trinity School held a BPF for VSHs and Schools last Friday. It was an excellent day with three sought after speakers, who gave their precious time to talk about their work. Betsy de Thierry presented a framework for use in schools to identify what support and help children and young people who have experienced trauma will need, and demonstrated quite vividly how professionals can recognise those children who are struggling. Dr Alex Hassett then gave us an overview of brain development in childhood. He moved on to explore how development of the brain during adolescence can impact on learning and pro-social behaviour. After lunch Professor Robin Banerjee presented his research on peer relationships, and how teachers can identify children who struggle to make good social relationships with their peers, and that a whole school approach geared to developing good social skills and positive relationships can help all children.
We had very positive feedback from the professionals attending; leaving us thinking we should do more BPFs like this.