Claire Cameron. 
Driving through a wood, late at night, a streetwise 17-year-old becomes panicky as her mobile signal dies. John, her foster carer, knows she is entering her panic zone, turns the car around and sees the girl’s face relax as signs of more familiar urban environment reappear and she returns to her comfort zone. ‘Knowing that once she was in a panic zone and there was no longer any learning for her, was down to my learning on the social pedagogy diploma course I did’, he says.
Social pedagogy combines a holistic approach to care and education practice and utilises theories from psychology, education, sociology and anthropology to create a unique, empathic, democratically oriented relationship-based profession. John was a learner on the Crossfields Institute Diploma in Social Pedagogy, which was developed in collaboration with the Scaling Up Social Pedagogy project based at the IOE’s Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU).
The Diploma focuses on applying theories in practice with a high degree of critical (more…)

Claire Cameron. 
Young people growing up in care get some of the best GCSE results of anywhere in England if they are looked after in the London Borough of Hackney. This is a remarkable turnaround for what was once a ‘troubled’ borough, which remains one of the most economically deprived places in the country.
One important element in Hackney and its young people’s success is the Virtual School, run by headteacher Nick Corker. ‘Exam results are important,’ he says, ‘but they are not the only measure of success for young people.’ Just as significant are experiences such as expeditions to new places and regular poetry workshops. The strategy in Hackney Virtual School is to invest in good, purposeful and meaningful relationships, imaginative solutions, and Social Pedagogues. Social Pedagogy is an emerging field in the UK but well established in continental Europe, where theory and practice are concerned with finding solutions to social problems through an educational lens.
A new Social Pedagogy Professional Association (SPPA), (more…)

Claire Cameron
“What did you do at the weekend?” It seems like an innocuous question to ask pupils at the start of the school week. But for children in the care system it can raise a whole range of uncomfortable feelings. One child, filmed as part of a teaching resource based on real life,  gave the same answer to this harmless question every week: “I went to the zoo and saw lions and tigers.” Finally, one Monday, another child declared: “I went to the zoo this weekend and there were no lions and tigers.”
What do teachers do if they realise that their well-meaning approach, intended to be warm and inclusive, is just not working for some of the most vulnerable (more…)