PEP:mk

Build safe, supportive learning environments by embedding trauma-informed approaches through the 5Rs: Reach In, Relate, Regulate, Reflect, and Restore.

Purpose:

Start by reaching inward — building awareness of what trauma is, how it manifests in the classroom, and how it affects thinking, behaviour, and relationships.

Key Areas Covered:

• Definitions of trauma and ACEs

• Stress responses: survival brain vs learning brain

• Recognising behaviours as communication

• Introduction to the 5Rs framework

Resources:

• Trauma lens quick guide

• Behaviour is communication prompt sheet

• Self-audit reflection tool (Reach In)

Purpose:

Explore how strong relationships and predictability support recovery and learning for all pupils.

Key Areas Covered:

• Attachment and attunement

• The importance of connection before correction

• Building classroom safety and belonging

• Key adult consistency and co-regulation

Resources:

• Relationship-building strategies

• Daily connection activities

• Safe adult/anchor map

Purpose:

Focus on how to help pupils regulate their emotions before learning can happen, and embed regulation into daily practice.

Key Areas Covered:

• Recognising signs of dysregulation

• Using co-regulation before expecting self-regulation

• Sensory strategies, movement, and brain breaks

• Regulation stations and classroom setup

Resources:

• Class regulation toolkit

• Zones of Regulation visuals

• Sensory diet ideas for classrooms

Purpose:

Support staff to reflect on their own triggers, responses, and practices to better respond to challenging behaviour in compassionate, consistent ways.

Key Areas Covered:

• Emotional literacy and role modelling

• Adult stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout

• De-escalation and rupture repair

• Embedding reflective practice in teams

Resources:

• Staff self-reflection journal prompts

• Emotion coaching scripts

• Repair and reconnect strategies

Purpose:

Move from individual actions to collective impact. Learn how to restore and sustain a trauma-informed culture across your setting.

Key Areas Covered:

• Whole-school culture and consistent language

• Staff wellbeing and peer support

• Policy, pupil voice, and environmental audits

• Small changes, big difference – sustaining the 5Rs

Resources:

• School audit & action plan template

• Trauma-informed principles poster set

• CPD cascade toolkit for staff sharing