Teacher experiences of Looked After Children
I recently conducted a small survey to find out how school teachers felt about the issues that looked after and care-experienced children experience in school. I am working on developing some resources to help schools be better equipped to deal with the issues, and I believe if I’m going to have any chance of getting the schools to engage with this, I need to have a good understanding of the issues from their point of view. I know what I think the problem is, but first I wanted to hear what the teachers themselves had to say.
The summary of results is below:
What teachers are worrying about:
The top three worries from the teachers who responded were behaviour, the difficulties that the children were experiencing, and the lack of support for staff to effectively deal with these.
Behaviour could be broken down in to three categories:
- avoidant/withdrawn behaviour, including hiding, running away, refusing to engage with tasks, distraction
- oppositional/challenging behaviour, including rudeness, refusal to follow instructions
- unsafe/risky behaviour including physical violence and sexual behaviour
Difficulties that the children faced included:
- academic difficulties; not reaching potential, low ability, lack of organisation/focus
- social difficulties; friendship issues, or being overly clingy or interested in other people
- problems in their wider family, including lack of support from family members
- mental or physical health issues; not eating, lack of hygiene, self care, mental health problems
Issues around support for staff included:
- need for support from senior management
- all staff need to be on the same page with addressing the behaviours
- getting enough information when the child arrives in school/class
- availability of support from outside agencies
- the need to keep the other children in the class safe and able to learn whilst giving time and care to the student who needs it
What teachers find frustrating:
The issue that came up the most was the impact of the behaviour on the rest of the class. Teachers felt they had a lack of space and time to deal properly with issues - class sizes were mentioned a lot, and lack of time was the number one frustration when teachers were asked to list their top three. Support for staff came up second, including support from outside agencies and senior management, and the ability to access training.
Interestingly, although the behaviour and the impact it has on the other children came up a lot in the general question on frustration, when teachers were asked to list their top three daily frustrations, lack of time and support both came ahead of the actual behaviour, which was third.
This suggests to me that teachers are largely accepting of the behaviours of their 'difficult' children, as although they are obviously frustrated by them they are more frustrated by the lack of resources/support to help them as effectively as they would like to.
Difficulties the students are facing:
When discussing the difficulties the students face nearly 80% of the respondents said their children had issues with low self confidence and/or self belief. Change in staff members came second at just under 70% of respondents. The other biggest issues were concentrating for the span of an activity, and settling down at the start of a lesson.
Interestingly, none of the respondents said their children had problems with active subjects like PE and music (though it must be noted that this was a very small sample) and fewer people than I had expected said that the end of a lesson was a problem.
If you've got anything you'd like to add please do comment below!
If you've got an adopted child, or if you are adopted or care-experienced yourself, what would you like to say to your teachers? What is the one thing you would like them to understand about you? Let me know in the comments.
What teachers are worrying about:
The top three worries from the teachers who responded were behaviour, the difficulties that the children were experiencing, and the lack of support for staff to effectively deal with these.
Behaviour could be broken down in to three categories:
- avoidant/withdrawn behaviour, including hiding, running away, refusing to engage with tasks, distraction
- oppositional/challenging behaviour, including rudeness, refusal to follow instructions
- unsafe/risky behaviour including physical violence and sexual behaviour
Difficulties that the children faced included:
- academic difficulties; not reaching potential, low ability, lack of organisation/focus
- social difficulties; friendship issues, or being overly clingy or interested in other people
- problems in their wider family, including lack of support from family members
- mental or physical health issues; not eating, lack of hygiene, self care, mental health problems
Issues around support for staff included:
- need for support from senior management
- all staff need to be on the same page with addressing the behaviours
- getting enough information when the child arrives in school/class
- availability of support from outside agencies
- the need to keep the other children in the class safe and able to learn whilst giving time and care to the student who needs it
What teachers find frustrating:
The issue that came up the most was the impact of the behaviour on the rest of the class. Teachers felt they had a lack of space and time to deal properly with issues - class sizes were mentioned a lot, and lack of time was the number one frustration when teachers were asked to list their top three. Support for staff came up second, including support from outside agencies and senior management, and the ability to access training.
Interestingly, although the behaviour and the impact it has on the other children came up a lot in the general question on frustration, when teachers were asked to list their top three daily frustrations, lack of time and support both came ahead of the actual behaviour, which was third.
This suggests to me that teachers are largely accepting of the behaviours of their 'difficult' children, as although they are obviously frustrated by them they are more frustrated by the lack of resources/support to help them as effectively as they would like to.
Difficulties the students are facing:
When discussing the difficulties the students face nearly 80% of the respondents said their children had issues with low self confidence and/or self belief. Change in staff members came second at just under 70% of respondents. The other biggest issues were concentrating for the span of an activity, and settling down at the start of a lesson.
Interestingly, none of the respondents said their children had problems with active subjects like PE and music (though it must be noted that this was a very small sample) and fewer people than I had expected said that the end of a lesson was a problem.
If you've got anything you'd like to add please do comment below!
If you've got an adopted child, or if you are adopted or care-experienced yourself, what would you like to say to your teachers? What is the one thing you would like them to understand about you? Let me know in the comments.
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