Kingslea is a specialist, composite school (aged 7-19 years) for children and youth in state care and youth justice residences in Aotearoa, New Zealand. We also have community campuses for those in care and the edge of care. 

We are located  in eight locations throughout New Zealand. Typically most of our students have not attended school since Year 7 due to suspension, exclusion and truancy. Most of our students are Māori.

It is predicted that up to 50% of our students have Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and other comorbidities exacerbated by exposure to complex trauma and attachment issues. Our Māori students and families have experienced collective, cumulative and intergenerational trauma of racism and discrimination.

To build staff capability and capacity in responding authentically to trauma, culture and neurodiversity  we created our Mana Ako Practice Framework, our formal and documented approach to implementing responsive teaching strategies.

Responding Authentically to Trauma will be the focus of this presentation. This pou  emphasises understanding and ensuring all interactions with our students integrate knowledge about trauma. Relationships are core to a trauma sensitive approach and responses to students are focused on increasing their capacity to regulate, relate and reason.

We will explore the challenges our students encounter and examine how our teachers respond in ways that mitigate the effects of trauma and actively prevent retraumatisation, an essential aspect of creating a supportive learning environment

We think deeply about what works for Aotearoa New Zealand’s most marginalised learners. The framework offers guidance and practical advice to help staff to focus on and build specialist capacity within their learning spaces, their teaching and their pedagogy. The suggestions within the framework will ideally stimulate thinking, lead to action, and provide inspiration to experiment with different ways of approaching teaching and learning.