"What is in that young person's best interests?" It's always the right question. How do we know if we have the right answers? A Trauma-Aware Education framework considers the broad impacts of trauma upon a young person's learning and development. Our response needs to be one that restores what has been taken away. Where choice and voice has been stolen, how do we give it back? Where a sense of safety and hope has been taken, how do we see it restored? We let our students tell us. We let them not only lead the process but participate in the restoration journey of their peers as well. By the Students, For the Students is our catchcry for giving back agency to young people, for them to lead the way to their future. What they tell us, what they show us is that their capacity for working through the complexities they face is enormous. When we use a range of approaches that give them back what has been taken away, they show us the path through the insurmountable.

Children and young people that are exposed to trauma are at increased risk of suspensions and expulsions and lower results on achievement assessments. They may experience difficulties with learning and memory, a sense of self, focus and concentration, self-regulation and coping and find it very difficult to form positive relationships. Teachers and school based staff are integral to the protection of children against ongoing abuse, neglect and the subsequent impact of these. The NSW Department of Education has developed a suite of four modules of professional learning for school staff in order to support teachers, school-based staff and leaders to improve their knowledge of complex and developmental trauma. These have been based on the frameworks from Victoria, Calmer Classrooms (Downey, 2007) and South Australia, Making SPACE for Learning (Australian Childhood Foundation, 2018) and have been developed in consultation with Dr Tom Brunzell from Berry Street. A pilot was developed and implemented in 128 schools across the state. The schools from the public sector included primary, secondary and schools for specific purposes in a variety of geographic locations. Despite the pilot being evaluated positively by participants, it remains to be seen how trauma-informed practice will be sustained in those schools that have completed the professional learning modules. In becoming one of 250 trained trauma-informed practice facilitators across NSW, I have seen but a handful of schools successfully improve and sustain culture change resulting in improved outcomes for students and staff. In applying for and winning the NSW Teachers Federation Eric Pearson Study Grant in 2022, the opportunity presented itself to observe schools in various stages of the journey to becoming trauma-informed. I wanted to find out what it was that teachers felt were the essential elements they required to sustain trauma-informed practices in their schools and classrooms. What resources or supports would they require to maintain focus and, for many, change mindsets? Finally, what might that mean for schools in New South Wales, or as a system? I was able to meet with educators and visit schools in the north island of New Zealand as well as in Virginia, Kentucy and Massachusetts in the United States and observed some common elements I believe are key to sustaining culture change and support of improved outcomes for kids in our school.