Dear All,
The EFA team are proud to announce dates for two pilot cohorts of the new LD EFA course.

The LD EFA course has been developed with input and advice from a group of LD specialist workers ranging from Primary years, through Young Peoples services and onto Adult services and we hope to pilot the material to staff working in the LD community. As this course is a pilot we hope that you will help us road test the material and contribute to the final draft of this course before it will be officially launched later in the year.

Cohort 136: Portsmouth
Trainers: Janine Jupp & Paul Jetten
Venue: The Harbour School @ Milton, 151 Locksway Road, Milton, PO4 8LD
Time: 9am – 12:30pm
Dates: Tuesdays 24th April, 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th May 2012

Cohort 134: Southampton
Trainers: Stuart Gemmell & Paul Jetten
Venue: Rape Crisis, 7 Cranbury Place, Southampton, SO14 0LG
Time: 9:30am – 1pm
Dates: Wednesdays 25th April, 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th May 2012

We have 12 free places on each course so please email: paul.jetten@solent.nhs.uk to register your interest and book on a course.

Various researchers have studied attachment and there are lots of different theories.  Attachment disorder is a sense of loss from physical, love or trust.  We can be attached to things and not just people but important to deal with every child differently.  Detachment is healthy and we are all on the attachment spectrum.  As teachers, ways of promoting healthy attachment include eye contact and body language.  When children become too attached it often shows in their behaviour e.g too clingy and have difficulty forming relationships.  Prepare for detachment in schools.  Important to boost a child’s self esteem, praise and be positive.  Work on moving things from their ‘comfort’ zone into their ‘stretch’ zone so situations become easier.  Non verbal communication very important – a teacher during the last placement allowed a child to bring in a toy to help him deal with emotional distress.  Worked as a really good signal for the teacher as the toy was gone after a couple of days once all ok.  Can only do what you believe is right for a child!

Sarah Farndon
Primary PGCE Student

As an introduction to attachment we were asked to draw an image of our favourite childhood toy or comforter. This activity got us feeling sentimental and many of us dug out our toy when we got home. We discussed that we can feel attached to routines as well as places, people and objects as many of us, being so busy with university work, are finding that we are hankering for our old routines back. This reaffirmed what we learnt; that attachment is on a scale and is a continuum, which we can move along up and down throughout our lives. Therefore attachment is not a problem, it’s the detachment that can cause problems.
In the primary classroom, by giving children choices and preparing them for any changes they go through a desensitisation of situations.

Lucy Cowdrill
Primary PGCE Student

We found it beneficial to relate what we had learnt in session 2 to our teaching practice. We discussed the possibility of some subjects leading to anxieties in children,  for example: body image in PE and some aspects of science.   We thought that we would now be more aware of certain behaviours as a form of avoidance and that ignoring these behaviours is not going to make the problem go away.  The fact that teachers also experience worry and overload was also discussed along with the importance of us being able to model good coping strategies to the children.  We thought that generally the course was helping us to have more empathy towards children as we are constantly relating everything back to our own experiences and feelings and it was proposed that it is important for teachers to be able to help their class feel empathy. The course has helped us recognise that, after any significant event, there is a period of grief which is natural and shouldn’t be treated as a mental health problem. 

Sarah Hardie

Primary PGCE Student

When recalling the previous session, various topics were brought up including the different ways in which anxiety can manifest and how this is reflected through behaviour, physically and in thoughts. Children in particular often display this through physical problems. Often semantic disorders also occur where children may say they have a stomach ache because they do not have the emotional language to explain how they are feeling. We also recalled over sleep patterns.
On reflecting on own practice it was recognised that change in routine can cause difficulties for children. Such as a school trip and it was suggested that the best way to help the child is to desensitize them by talking about what/where they will actually be going or doing and maybe taking them in separately so they get used to where they are going, and realise it is nothing to worry about rather than allowing the child to catastrophes the situation. It was also recognised that your own stress and anxiety when teaching can have an impact on the children’s behaviour. Therefore it is always best to be confident, clear and well prepared to make sure that you get the best out of the children in your class.

Natalie Keen

Primary PGCE Student

I am so proud to announce we have now trained our 2nd cohort in Nakuru Kenya!
I am continually overwhelmed at the enthusiasm and commitment shown by our fellow EFA community in Kenya. They totally embrace the learning experience and to watch them unfold through the 6 sessions is humbling. There are so many areas of learning that this training takes them on that are so alien and unexpected to them – but they are open to know more – and challenging in their questioning.
On this cohort we had social workers, teachers, care staff and prison officers and they again brought so much excitement to the training. No 2 courses of EFA are ever the same and I can certainly confirm this in Kenya! I really love the way they join in with a totally new way of learning and enjoy all elements of their training. I wish we had some better video clips to use as they cannot understand the accents in our young people which loses a lot of the experiential part of the training.
After session 6 we met up with the first cohort for a large celebration! They have already planned to meet monthly and have committed to extending their learning by taking it in turns to talk about an area of the EFA course and to share their experiences with the larger EFA family. I have to admit to be a very proud parent!!!!
If it were possible to get a sponsorship for pizza boxes we could continue to spread the word and in time have trainers trained in Kenya – they are beyond amazing and are so proactive in spreading their new understanding and training.
Kenya EFAers ROCK!!!!
- Anne-Marie Tipper
Play Kenya Co-Founder

The EFA Team have just started delivering Primary EFA to a group of PGCE Students from Southampton University who will become Newly Qualified Primary School Teachers at the end of June.
At the beginning of session 2, the 12 students were split into two reflection groups and each week we have asked a student from each group to take responsibility for collating the key points from each reflection group and we will post them here as a blog. We hope you will enjoy reading their comments as we progress through the course.

Reflections from Week 1:
Group One: Clarity Jacobs. Primary PGCE Student.
We all found Session 1 really interesting, especially as you start to make links between the behaviours and children that you work with. I think the course is going to make us better teachers and we all think we will finish the course feeling more confident that we are prepared to support the wellbeing of the children in our classes, as this is something that is incredibly important. As PGCE students, we are taught about specific subjects and behaviour management, but we lack information on how we can care for the wellbeing of the children in our class and this is an integral part of teaching. We are all glad we have opted for additional support from the course on the emotional issues that may be faced by the children in our classes as this is something most new teachers may feel least confident in addressing.

The reflective nature of the course is very valuable, thinking about applying ideas and how, it is useful and helps you to develop your own approach. Not only reflecting on the issues raised in class but reflecting on your own experiences as a child helps you to approach the children from their perspective rather than your own, seeing the importance of the little things and being empathetic to the child’s perspective. We all discussed that the reflection is something we would like to take into our own classrooms, perhaps in the form of a day diary where you note any particular behaviours or discussions of importance to enable you to reflect and look at the bigger picture for individual children rather than looking at behaviours in isolation.

Group Two: Simon Emerton. Primary PGCE Student.
One of the most important messages taken from last weeks session was that behaviour should be seen as a form of communication whether intentional or not. The importance of empathy was discussed as it is difficult to figure out where a child is coming from and why if you can’t remember what it was like being that child’s age and so put yourself in their position.

Emotional distress and how to recognise it was covered and how it can often be indicated by a collection of behaviours or change of behaviour. Then trying/finding/identifying ‘solutions’, and sometimes even when those don’t work, still persisting with them i.e. the issue of ‘emotional stuckness’.
The zones of comfort diagram was recalled with the ‘comfort zone’ in the middle, the ‘stretch’ zone outside that, and the ‘panic’ zone around that. It had served to stress the Importance of early intervention to prevent things becoming more serious and so more difficult to deal with later on.

A key thing throughout all these discussions was trying to find out the reasons behind the behaviours i.e. what is motivating the child to do this, rather than just seeing and dealing with the resultant behaviour, so that the situation can be more intelligently managed and hopefully resolved.

We are hosting an annual call-back for anyone who has attended an EFA course in Kent on Thursday 29th March 2012 from 2-4pm at:

Oakwood House
Oakwood Park
Maidstone
ME16 8AE

www.oakwoodhousehotel.co.uk

This will be an opportunity to network with other EFAer’s in your locality and share best practice in terms of embedding EFA in your work.
For those of you who have attended training, but not received your certificates there will be a certification celebration at the end of the call-back.

Even if you have attended a call-back before, we would still love to see you and hope that we can continue to host these events to build upon the fantastic network which you have created during the training.

If you are unable to attend the call-back, please let either us or your trainer know and we will forward on any information from the event to you, or post it on the community forum.

We look forward to seeing you all and celebrating the amazing work you do.

Dear All,
We are really sad to announce that our wonderful administrator Ally Krause is leaving the EFA team on Thursday 10th November 2011.
Stuart and I recognise the hard work and dedication that Ally brings to everything she does and has done for EFA as I am sure you all do too.
We wish Ally all the best in her future employment and know she will remain a strong advocate for Emotional First Aid and the emotional well-being of children and young people.

As you will all agree Ally is irreplaceable and will leave a huge hole in the EFA team. Currently we do not have a dedicated replacement administrator and we would ask that you all bear with us in this difficult time of transition.

We will do our utmost to maintain as efficient a service as we can provide, however there may be delays in responding to enquiries and systems may not run as smoothly as we have all become accustomed to.

We recommend that if you know you will be delivering an EFA course or have bulk orders of pizza boxes you need access to in the next few months that you contact Ally as soon as possible to make arrangements. Please remember that all of the course material for EFA trainers can be found on the community forum. If you have still yet to register we recommend doing this before you are due to deliver any training.

Please note that there may not be anyone manning the office telephone as Stuart and I may be away delivering courses. In this event, please either email me directly as I will have access to emails on my blackberry, or you can leave a message on my work mobile below.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and we hope you join us in wishing Ally every success in the future.

Stuart Gemmell & Paul Jetten

Paul.jetten@solent.nhs.uk
07825 753114

The EFA Team would like to say a huge thank you to all our EFA’ers in Southend & Thurrock who attended the annual call-back yesterday. We were delighted to welcome 34 EFA’ers at the event, and to those of you who could not make it, you were sadly missed.
Stuart & Paul were truly humbled by the incredible work that is being carried out by staff working across Primiary & Secondary schools and the amazing Foster Carers who have all attended either Primary EFA or EFA for Young People courses, and we would love to share some of the stories we heard of how the Emotional First Aid material is being used and changing the lives and outcomes for Children and Young People experiencing emotional distress.

If any of you would like to share a case study of the amazing work you are doing, please get in touch with the EFA Team and we would love to publish it here on the site.

You can also share your strategies with other EFA’ers across the country on the EFA Community Forum.