PAC-UK and Adoption UK have published two complementary education guides, for school staff and adoptive parents respectively, to help ensure adopted children get the best possible educational start in life. The guides explain why these vulnerable children may need additional support in school, what educational entitlements they can attract and what support is available for them.
PAC-UK’s guide for school staff ‘Meeting the needs of adopted and permanently placed children: A guide for school staff‘ covers a range of topics including: what we know about our children in education, a background to early developmental trauma, whole school approaches, and support for schools and families.
Adoption UK’s guide ‘Meeting the needs of adopted and permanently placed children – A guide for adoptive parents‘ includes information about Virtual School Heads (VSHs), Designated Teachers (DTs), Priority School Admission, Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) and dedicates two pages to Intercountry Adoption and Schools.
Commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), the guides explain how The Children and Social Work Act 2017 enhances support for previously looked after children. PAC-UK’s guide includes the views of adopted teens on how their experiences in school could be improved whilst Adoption UK’s has advice from adoptive parents, who adopted both domestically and from oversees.
PAC-UK’s guide is accompanied by easy to use resources that can be implemented in individual classrooms or across whole schools. The guide and all of its resources can be downloaded free.You can read the full press release, which includes the download links for both guides (PAC-UK guide also attached) and complimentary resources on the PAC-UK website by clicking here.
PAC-UK’s Education Service offers a range of servicesand resources to enable schools, parents and guardians and education and social care professionals to meet the needs of permanently placed children. Adoption UK also has a range of resources designed to make education a successful environment for children who have suffered early trauma, neglect or abuse.
For all PAC-UK Education Service enquiries please email education@pac-uk.orgor call their Education Advice Line on 020 7284 5879 (open Wednesday and Thursday 10am until 12noon – excluding school holidays).