In the year in which it becomes a requirement for each school to have a Designated Teacher responsible for promoting the welfare of its most vulnerable children in local authority care, I was horrified to read Mike Kent’s unashamed account of his own unacceptable treatment of children in his care.
These children have no clear idea of appropriate empathic or cooperative behaviour and, when exposed to stress at school which they are unable to regulate, it doesn’t need an educational psychologist to know which route they are most likely to take. Further physical assault or terrifying threat will not address their needs. Mr Kent may see compliant children in his presence, but does he see the results of his ‘management by fear’ when they leave his ‘care’?
The challenge for teachers is recognising why these children are behaving in this way. Is it because they have received no consistent nurture or boundaries from their parents and carers? Or has their early development already been impaired by exposure to an aggressive, threatening or unloving environment? The most vulnerable children in our schools (those whose early development has been impaired) are already relating to the world with a brain very differently assembled from those who have experienced a healthy attachment process and no overwhelming trauma.
It is clear from Mr Kent’s ill-informed views that our future training of Designated Teachers and other education professionals will need to focus even more strongly on understanding why the children they are teaching are behaving “badly” and how to deal with this appropriately. Perhaps the local authority which employs Mr. Kent as a headteacher will ensure that, at the very least, he receives quality training in Child Protection.
Tags: Designated Teachers, education, looked after children, training, traumatised children
