Benjamin College

MAKING LEARNING AVAILABLE FOR BRIGHT FUTURES

'Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit'  - E.E. Cummings.  

Young people who have had traumatic childhood experiences often have trouble to cope with difficult thoughts and distressed feelings. It is not unusual for them to miss out on  large chunks of their regular education whilst they are learning to deal with adverse experiences. We do not see periods of traumatic growth as missed opportunities. Learning to regulate emotions after trauma takes a lot of reflection, courage and discipline.  We acknowledge and celebrate this achievement. Our curriculum enhances our young person’s journey to emotional regulation and self efficacy. Benjamin College helps young people to overcome adversity, contribute to society and believe in themselves. This forms the foundation needed to prepare young people to integrate back into the mainstream education curriculum.

STRENGTHS AND CHARACTER EDUCATION

Each child is gifted in their own extraordinary way. When young people discover their strengths and talents it can lead to:

• resilience and confidence (a pre-requisite for healing from trauma)
• productivity and engagement in school
• hope and direction for the future.

Character education broadly refers to social and emotional learning which ultimately lead to young people developing into adults who will contribute to society and make a positive change. From a therapeutic perspective character education will assist post-traumatic growth and an interruption of the ACE cycle for the next generation. Every child and their future children deserve to have all these advantages.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Benjamin College acknowledges and understands the negative health related effects of ACEs. Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for developing life long habits for healthy living. Care and education collaborate to address maladaptive behaviours. We utilise targeted interventions for example for drug use or risk taking, a focus on good nutrition, physical activity and building strong relationships to promote health and wellbeing. These interventions form part of our integrated therapeutic model and are built upon by Benjamin College to support a learning environment where the connection of learning about health and wellbeing is supported by alignment of action across care, education and therapy. Benjamin UK LTD and Benjamin College are supported by a dedicated Wellbeing Officer who supports both staff and young people.