City schools shortlisted for prestigious award

Two schools in Wolverhampton have been praised after being shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

Broadmeadow Special School and previous finalist St Michael's Church of England Aided Primary School were both shortlisted for the 2024 Alex Timpson ARC Attachment Award at the Attachment Research Community’s annual conference in Birmingham last month.

The award celebrates best practice in attachment and trauma-aware schools and settings and recognises those that have made a profound and lasting contribution to attachment and trauma-aware practices.

Attachment issues are sometimes experienced by children who have had difficulties early in life and can make it hard for them to form healthy relationships and cope with the demands of school. Attachment-aware schools are sensitive to these difficulties and very skilled in helping vulnerable children to thrive.

The two schools were nominated by the Wolverhampton Virtual School, which monitors the educational progress and achievement of children in care in the city.

Councillor Jacqui Coogan, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, said: “Every year, our Virtual School has the pleasure of shortlisting a number of educational settings it works with for the Alex Timpson ARC Attachment Award.

"Attachment and trauma awareness within schools is vital; it makes them better schools and it benefits all their children, not just those who have attachment issues.

“I would like to congratulate Broadmeadow Special School and St Michael's Church of England Aided Primary School for leading the way in embedding these key areas in their schools – to be recognised as a finalist for a national award of such importance is quite some achievement.

"We are proud of everything all our schools do to help their children, and I am sure the success of Broadmeadow and St Michael’s will motivate and support other schools, in Wolverhampton and beyond, to further develop their practice."

Jackie Proffitt, Designated Safeguarding Lead at Broadmeadow Special School, said: "Our trauma-informed, attachment-aware practice has spanned over 20 years; we have always strived to keep our work fresh using ongoing continuous professional development and strong induction processes. 

"School leaders recognise the importance of being trauma-informed and is considered a priority in our school development. This ensures our culture and ethos remains strong across our school community, having a positive impact on pupils, families and staff.

"We were absolutely thrilled to be shortlisted for the national Alex Timpson Award in the Special School/PRU category and we'd like to thank the Virtual School for recognising our work and nominating us. It was the first time we had entered the competition, so to be shortlisted felt just amazing."

St Michael’s Headteacher Kate Jackson said: “We are delighted to have been recognised as one of the shortlisted nominations for this year's Alex Timpson Award in the Primary category.

“At the heart of our school is our vision and together we strive to enable every child to flourish. We initially identified that traditional strategies were not meeting the needs of our most vulnerable pupils. We needed a better way to help pupils, a more holistic approach based on trusting relationships, and so our attachment-aware, trauma-informed approach began.

“We have invested in extensive training to build a highly skilled staff team, developed a support group for carers and worked with families to develop our policies and practices within school, reflecting our inclusive ethos.

“As we move forward, we will be sharing our good practice as part of the ARC Learning Hub, developing workshops and conferences, investing in further training for staff, developing pupil to pupil support and encouraging other schools to adopt a trauma-informed approach.”

Highfields School in Penn was named winner of the 2023 Alex Timpson ARC Attachment Award for helping vulnerable pupils to thrive.