Arising out of my Senco experience I trained as a Caspari Educational Psychotherapist when I became aware of children who were not learning because they had 'too much on their minds'. As an Educational Psychotherapist, as well as offering clinical work to children in schools, I also offered clinical supervision to counsellors and school staff working 'at the sharp end'; and together with Educational Psychologist Dr. Tina Axup, I facilitated support groups for counsellors, Nurture group Staff and Special needs staff.  .

I worked for 7 years in a project offering psychotherapy to children affected by domestic abuse, alongside their mothers receiving their own counselling and support from Women's Aid, with links into both Education and Women's aid. As part of this project I offered both staff support and training.   

Subsequently I worked as a psychotherapist, consultant, trainer and staff supervisor at a PRU for 3 years, working where I saw first-hand the difference an understanding, nurturing relationship-based approach could make to both children and staff.

For many years I offered Inset training to school staff including an 8 session powerpoint course funded by Southend Borough Council for their school staff.  

When I retired I put all my learning and training experience into a book: "Understanding, nurturing and working effectively with vulnerable children in schools". Routledge 2020, a handbook for school staff working with puzzling and challenging children.  

It offers a comprehensive and accessible exploration of the difficulties faced by teachers and schools from at-risk and disaffected children, including repeated trauma and insecure attachment patterns. It describes how a thoughtful ‘relationship based’ approach (which sees problematic repeated behaviours as unconscious communications that can be thought about and responded to from a position of understanding, rather than purely managed or drugged away) can both alleviate such difficulties, and offer a ‘second chance attachment’ experience. This experience of being thought and ‘wondered’ about by a trusted adult can slowly enable the even most vulnerable pupils to discover it might be safe to let down their all-consuming defenses a little; thus freeing them to feel secure enough to begin to learn.     

it includes teacher friendly theory, for example understanding the effects of trauma on the brain, on the inner world and on behaviour; and of dysfunctional attachment patterns and unconscious processes which happen all the time in school.          

It also includes:

• Practical suggestions in note form – making them easy to use, refer to and assimilate
• Many case examples, and helpful ways to think together about puzzling children and situations
• A wealth of ideas for ways forward, including differentiated responses to children in the light of their particular patterns, developmental stages and unmet needs.

Over the last year I have completed a series of posters for school staff and trainers around these themes, which I hope will become useful resources for teacher and Senco trainers, and reminders for school staff struggling with challenging children. They are available to download and print out for free on my website: www.angelagreenwood.net