What it’s all about

When eight-year-old Naina was asked by her classmates on Monday mornings what she had done at the weekend, her reply was always the same: “I went to the zoo.” She gave the identical answer almost every week for a year, write Alice Hoyle and Lucy Sweetman.

In fact, Naina lived in foster care and had been moved around a lot. But she didn’t want to talk to her school friends about it.

Her story is typical of many children and young people who don’t want to speak about why they went into care, the people who care for them or their private anxieties. Instead, they find it easier to make up a fairy story, painting an idyllic life that may be far removed from the truth.

Naina is now 25, but her story is one of 10 featured in a new “In Care, In School” resources pack, developed with members of the Bath and North East Somerset In Care Council, formed of children who are in care or have recently left, and a multi-agency partnership led by Bath Spa University and Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Ten short films feature dramatisations of some of the key issues. In an additional set of documentaries, young people talk about what it is like to live in care.

“In Care, In School” includes an introduction to materials, lesson plans for primary and secondary, and a booklet on staff training and support. For more details, visit www.incareinschool.com

What else?

Read the Department for Education guide to supporting children in care at school in England. bit.lyTGF8qv. See what one Bradford school has done to help children in care succeed in a Teachers TV video. bit.lyT4SjGq.