The recognition of the importance of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the life chances of our children is, without doubt, one of the biggest - and at times most controversial - ideas to hit Scottish education in recent years.

Since NHS Scotland released a handy research guide on how preventing and responding to ACEs could help tackle the attainment gap in 2017, policymakers and educational thinkers have become very keen to look in more detail at how trauma and adversity affect a “child’s readiness and ability to learn and participate in school life”.

Last year, the Scottish government held a ministerial event where education secretary John Swinney invited government ministers and key stakeholders to discuss progress being made in tackling the effects of ACEs and next steps. In their 2018-19 programme for government, ministers also committed to “preventing ACEs and helping to reduce the negative impacts of ACEs where they occur”, promising to help children, families and adults to overcome adversity.

But perhaps the biggest boost to the public awareness of ACEs came with the publication in November 2017 of Poverty Safari - the Orwell Prize-winning book by Glasgow-born rapper Loki, aka Darren McGarvey, who was Tes Scotland’s 2018 Person of the Year (bit.ly/McGarveyTes). Having lived through extreme poverty, violence, familial addiction, drug abuse and homelessness, his call for increased understanding of the effects of a toxic childhood on mental and physical health in adulthood has struck a chord with many - not least teachers - who are looking to make a change in Scottish society and the lives of young people.

Not everyone is convinced that, by concentrating on some aspects of the emerging ACEs campaign in Scotland, the country is taking the right approach to helping people who have been through childhood trauma. Writing for Tes Scotland in November, University of Glasgow researcher Gary Walsh questioned some of the research conducted into ACEs and whether it was rigorous enough when much of the published work “only cites studies that back up its claims” (bit.ly/WalshTes). Together with educational psychologist Whitney Barrett, he has also countered the use of the 10-point ACE score as a reliable way of assessing trauma (bit.ly/BarrettTes).

The score looks at five aspects of personal trauma - sexual, verbal and physical abuse, physical and emotional neglect - and five aspects related to family members, including domestic violence, alcoholism, incarceration, mental illness and the absence of a parent through divorce, abandonment or death. There are, of course, many other examples of trauma that are not mentioned. Racism, homelessness, bullying, abuse of siblings and involvement with the youth justice system are just a few situations that are not covered by the ACEs score. Also, focusing only on the number of negative events a child has experienced, says Barrett, leaves children and their families feeling “further disempowered and potentially retraumatised”.

Schools need to look at how they address these issues. Whether the use of a 10-point scale is an effective way of analysing the complexities inherent in individual pupils’ reactions to hardship is obviously still open for debate. What should not be up for discussion, however, is whether or not we need to recognise the effects that trauma and ACEs have on pupils in our classrooms.

Some pupils will leave their problems behind on entering the school each day, but many more will be constantly troubled by past and present experiences. Raising awareness of how these experiences can affect our children may be key to allowing them the opportunities to make mistakes, to learn from them and to improve their attainment.

Confronting the issues

Several important tools can be used by school leaders to raise staff awareness about ACEs. Firstly, there are the professional standards for teachers, which have a strong theme of social justice running through them. Teachers should always take into consideration how adversity outside of school affects a child’s ability and readiness to learn.

However, putting this into practice in a busy classroom - especially in schools in areas of deprivation where there may be any number of children experiencing such adversity every single morning - is difficult to do. And inevitably, there will be certain individuals who do not take the time to read the details given to them about the specific needs of pupils; they will believe that all should be treated in the same way, with little recognition of personal circumstances and additional needs. Getting these teachers to change their practice can be an onerous task.

So we could reissue the professional standards and highlight certain parts to staff in their professional review and development, but this is an unconvincing way to ensure engagement. School leaders should think about the make-up of their staff body and how they would react to discussion of ACEs in their school, before coming up with a plan to increase knowledge. It could be that a very small minority would take such discussions as an excuse from leadership for poor behaviour. To prevent them from dominating any continuing professional development session, then, it may be better to give staff a chance to reflect on the issues on their own.

One option available would be to purchase a site licence for Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope, the documentary film that looks at the science of ACEs and how it has been taken forward in the US. Deciding on the best way to release this to staff requires some thought. From personal experience, watching it with a group of educational professionals can leave participants feeling unmoved by its message; watching it alone can be more emotionally challenging, as viewers are faced with the opportunity to think in more depth about the issues. Some staff - those who have suffered from ACEs themselves - will also find this way of watching to be a more comfortable option.

The film comes with a guide to encourage discussion at group viewings - including questions and activities on how to define resilience, how to recognise toxic stress and how to build a nurturing school - and these can be adapted for staff.

Using resources such as this at my own school, many staff were visibly moved by what they saw. Some had taken the ACEs test themselves and had found the results to be surprising and occasionally worrying, but developed a greater understanding of our pupils in the process. Afterwards, it was important to provide the opportunity for further discussion, through departmental meetings, for instance. Again, though, not everyone will want to discuss the impact the film has had on them, especially those who themselves suffered from childhood trauma. Opportunities for quieter reflection must be made available for these staff, and it may be that, for some, uncomfortable truths have emerged for which engagement with external counselling services would be needed.

Following a viewing of the film, help can be sought from other professionals with more experience of trauma-informed practice than teachers. Positive-behaviour specialists and educational psychologists may be available to run CPD sessions on emotional literacy to help develop strong pupil-staff relationships (as well as those between staff). Evidence from the NHS and others shows that adopting a nurturing approach can provide strong gains for some pupils affected by ACEs; developing this approach with all staff, especially those new to the school, will reap benefits. The increasing recognition of poverty as a risk factor and the high numbers of ACEs in areas of deprivation should also help staff to adapt their practice without being seen to be soft on poor behaviour in the classroom.

Tricky balancing act

Increasingly, events are being held around the country in which staff may want to take part, to learn about how the recognition of ACEs can influence practice in schools. ACE-Aware Scotland, for instance, organises regular conferences with experts from around the world - including one in Glasgow with Darren McGarvey, scheduled for June. While school guidance staff may be the ones most readily called upon to attend such events, opportunities should be opened out to all staff, especially those who will come back and spread knowledge among colleagues. For the rest who cannot attend, there is a continual drip-feed of current research on ACEs and its application through websites including NHS Health Scotland (bit.ly/ACEsNHS) and the Scottish Recovery Network (bit.ly/ACEsSRN).

With ACEs in education, there is a tricky balancing act to be had between caring for pupils affected by adversity and managing the effects some of their behaviours may have on the attainment of others in the class. School staff can be incredibly forgiving with the children in their care, but there are limits to what they can tolerate - especially as class sizes increase and support is cut in these times of financial crisis. Increasing the knowledge of school staff is only one small part of ensuring they have the tools to support some of our most vulnerable children. Society as a whole, too, must recognise the toxic stress that is endemic in many of our communities - and work to bring it to an end.

John Rutter is head of Inverness High School

This article originally appeared in the 22 March 2019 issue under the headline “When you’re dealt an ACE, make it count”