Abstract
The educational attainment gap that children in care usually have at the start of their school career often stays with them through primary school. Research suggests that whole school, inclusive approaches where high aspirations are also in place are most likely to successfully address the needs of children in care. This chapter describes part of a project in England where the concept of Caring Schools was developed, with four domains: ethos and leadership, child focused practice, relationships with parents and carers, and interagency working. The aim is to set out what might be considered benchmark indicators of good practice in a holistic approach.
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Notes
- 1.
England is the largest of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The educational and social care policy environment is diverging across the countries. In this chapter we focus on England.
- 2.
Tapestry is an online Learning Journal tool used in the Early Years Foundation Stage for tracking children’s progress and sharing learning between home and school.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Virtual School, the staff and children in the schools, foster carers, social workers and other participants in the research. This study was funded by the local authority and the Department for Education but the views expressed are the authors’ own.
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Cameron, C., Quy, K., Hollingworth, K. (2019). A Holistic Approach to Educating Children in Care: Caring Schools. In: McNamara, P., Montserrat, C., Wise, S. (eds) Education in Out-of-Home Care. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26372-0_11
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