One of the residents, Toby, moved into the children’s home in March, a month after it had opened. He had experienced a lot of change. Toby had been moved from his long-term foster family where he had been living with a sibling, into a number of emergency homes, before arriving at the home. Toby’s social worker plus his support officer (who he had good relationships with) also left Toby’s world for various reasons, so his only consistent place was school.
Lighthouse Pedagogy Trust invested a lot of their time over the first few months simply getting to know Toby – they discovered a boy who loves to make people laugh, who thrives with attention, nurture and care and who was slowly but surely working out his identity. They learnt that school was the safest space for Toby to express his complex emotions as they were the relationships that were strongest and most familiar – this meant that the school committed to Toby as best they could but also expressed concerns at being able to support his education.
The trust recognised that an environment that was hands on and allowed for creativity would best suit Toby’s learning style. As a result, they were able to work with Toby’s wider network of adults and pull together a curriculum based on core subjects plus enrichment opportunities with a 1-2-1 tutor. This has enabled Toby to build up the confidence and self-esteem to access a school environment again, and the friendships and other relationships he was able to make.
