The Compassionate Schools Programme offers school leaders an opportunity to explore current practice in promoting the wellbeing and inclusion of children and young people, particularly those who have been affected by prolonged and unpredictable stress and trauma. The programme brings together thinking and research in three key areas as part of an integrated and coherent whole school approach: 

• The power of relationships on promoting wellbeing and the crucial role of empathy and compassion in schools.
   
• An understanding of the potential impact of prolonged and unpredictable stress on the wellbeing of children and young people and principles of effective support. 
  
  
• The need for a holistic and strengths-based perspective, building positive resources within the school community and building hopeful futures for children, young people and families.

150 school leaders have now participated in the programme from across Surrey and beyond and we look forward to welcoming more in this new school year. We have established the Compassionate Schools Community of Practice which provides an ongoing forum for sharing new thinking and research, sharing practice across schools and providing a supportive network of colleagues. We had the second Community of Practice meeting in September, with a focus on building ‘professional structures of support and supervision in schools’. We explored the steps in building reflecting teams in schools to promote the wellbeing of staff as well as resilient school systems by enhancing understanding and provision around a child or young person. We look forward to hearing how things have gone in schools at our next meeting in November.

We’d like to thank all the school leaders who have participated so far. We hope that the ongoing collaboration through the community will enable us all to deepen our learning around building and maintaining relational approaches in schools. We are also thrilled to share that Woodfield School, who participated in the Compassionate Schools Programme in 2019 as part of ongoing work in building relational approaches, has been shortlisted for the Alex Timpson award for being Attachment and Trauma Aware!

For further information on Compassionate Schools please talk to your link EP or contact Kirsty Quinn, Area Senior EP at kirsty.quinn@surreycc.gov.uk.