This Principle guides the school to provide a physically, socially and emotionally safe environment for all community members including children and young people, school staff, parent/carers and the wider community. This incorporates emphasising the importance of safety in physical activity, treating students with respect at all times, being sensitive to individual differences, and providing an inclusive learning environment that recognises and respects the diversity of all students and accommodates individual strengths, needs, and interests. This Principle also guides the school to ensure the safety of school staff is considered and attended to, including staff wellbeing, job satisfaction and reduced risk of burnout.

This Principle guides the school to acknowledge and respect all its members regardless of their backgrounds, experiences, and capabilities. This also includes that there is a shared understanding of diversity in all its forms and an understanding of what respect means.

Children or young people’s behaviour in the family or school setting may change following adversity or traumatic event. These behavioural changes may be indicators of the child or young person’s underlying or ongoing distress and uncertainties. Children and young people respond to adversity and trauma in a range of ways, including changes in capacity for learning and physical and psychological wellbeing. They may become withdrawn or display challenging behaviours or moodiness, regression or requiring more attention or direction than usual. A range of support processes and strategies are likely to be beneficial for children, young peoples, families and members of the school community. A continuum of responses within schools is necessary to address both the variety of student needs and the staff capacity to work with student’s issues around adversity and trauma. This Principle guides the staff and other school community members to understand signs and symptoms of vulnerability and be aware of response pathways to address these issues in children and young people.

It is well documented that a child’s reaction to trauma can “commonly” interfere with brain development, learning, and behaviour – all of which have a potential impact on a child’s academic success as well as the overall school environment. By understanding and responding to trauma, school administrators, teachers, and staff can help reduce its negative impact, support critical learning, and create a more positive school environment. Programs should be supported with a quality professional development program based on up-to-date, relevant, evidence based best practice. Relevant education and training programs for schools include the effects of adversity and trauma for children and young people and the processes that may facilitate their healthy adaptation and when referral systems may be needed. Professional development and training should be available across a range of levels within the education system and be designed to address the challenges integral to experiences of adversity and trauma. Professional development should be appropriate to the context of the school and the relationship that school personnel have with students and their families, as well as having core elements relevant to all staff, with additional levels of expertise as required.

A resilience-based approach to youth development is based upon the Principle that all people can overcome adversity and succeed despite their life circumstances. Resilience is a strengths-based construct, meaning its focus is on providing the developmental supports and opportunities (protective factors) that promote success, rather than on eliminating the factors that result in failure.

The strengths-based approach is a move from a focus on deficits to a focus on abilities and strengths (i.e. competencies, resources, personal characteristics, interests and motivations) of individuals, family or community. The benefit of a strengths-based model for education is that it builds upon the personal competencies associated with healthy development that everyone has. A strengths-based approach identifies the resourcefulness and resilience that exists in all students. The underlying philosophy in strengths-based practice is that each individual is an expert in their own life and should be central in decision making about any changes that impact on them. In focusing on the positive (but not ignoring risks), this approach helps teachers to reframe how they see students and to view behaviour from a different perspective, as well as to recognise the incredible resilience of students, especially those facing immense challenges in their lives.

Positive relationships in schools are central to the well-being of both students and staff and underpin an effective learning environment. Developing positive relationships between a teacher and student is a fundamental aspect of quality teaching and student learning. This Principle guides the school to assist with supporting the generation of positive teacher-student relationships to promote a sense of school belonging and encourage the entire school community to participate, communicate and interact cooperatively.

As part of building and sustaining a caring and trauma-informed school community, school leaders and educators work in respectful and collaborative ways with families, communities, and services to identify and respond to trauma. Through this process, partnerships are built and sustained. The identification of trauma is free from stigma and informed by a strong understanding of the evidence in this area, and an appreciation of the significance and worth of a trauma-informed approach. Responses to trauma are collaborative and supportive of all involved.

Children and young people are better able to thrive in school and in life when they are taught skills beyond academics. Teaching social and emotional skills to children and young people empowers them to feel secure in themselves, build relationships with others, and navigate transitions and change.

This Principle guides the school to provide a balanced environment that is predictable yet flexible and responsive. This includes a focus on being structured and predictable, to ensure continuity and stability for all learners, but with opportunity for flexibility to ensure that everyone can thrive. This Principle guides the school to generate and teach an understanding and appreciation of the value of this approach for their whole school community, including those children and young people who have experienced and/or who may be living with trauma. This Principle means the school is dynamic in prioritising what the young people must have to flourish physically, socially, emotionally, and academically and seeing that structured and predictable environments are crucial to this. The school accommodates all children and young people with recognition of their rights, identities, and the impact of trauma on children and young people. The school further implements its plan, as purposed, to satisfy students’ expectations and negate apprehension.

Becoming Trauma Informed is an ongoing process that requires the staff to first assess the needs of their school, identify and adopt innovative, evidence based trauma informed strategies and then reflect on the impact of these strategies. Once the impact has been evaluated and the needs reassessed, the process begins again. Effective strategies may result in a change in student needs, ineffective strategies would be replaced by other, evidence-based practices.