Claire Cameron.

Amidst all the gloom, and concerns about what effect the lockdown is having on children, there is a small group of young people finding positive benefits.

Children in foster care were thriving under lockdown, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services told the House of Commons education select committee. In residential care homes, where about ten percent of young people looked after by local authorities live, the national restrictions have created opportunities for them to take up new skills, get fit and get along better with those around them.

Staff at Care Visions, Scotland’s largest independent provider of residential services for children and young people who have complex needs, say young people are less distressed than before lockdown, and fewer are running away. Danny Henderson, one of Care Visions’ managers, says that many young people seem happier than they were before the measures were (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…)