Hunt Scholars is an out of school setting that works with children who are in elective home education, are requiring provision outside of or additional to a mainstream school or are on an EOTAS package through the Local Authority (LA).
We work with a range of children with trauma around education, adverse childhood experiences and/ or Neurodiversity. We seek to support a path that allows for the development of skills to facilitate learning in a more mainstream setting or work in a traditional workplace, but also the skills to identify our own needs and advocate for them effectively to aid self-regulation. Children arrive often unable to share adult attention or work on adult led tasks, or with sensory or social communication needs which they cannot identify and leave them dysregulated. Often the only identified ”cause” is anxiety.
Our small team work together to help the child or young person identify their needs and find workable solutions to both the underlying issue and the dysregulation it causes. With patience and consistency and constant positive regard for the child or young person, we offer a strong foundation for building a trusting relationship. When regulation and relationships have been established we begin to deliver appropriately challenging curriculum in key areas of traditional learning, but also use a wide arts based program to support the development of study skills and confidence in working with peers and adults.
Due to our specialized approach training and personal professional development in delivery of specific speech and language approaches, and techniques we rely on as a setting such as the Regulate, relationship and Reasoning (3Rs) approach to working with children with trauma are given in setting as part of induction. What is most important is the attitude of our team towards the children and each other, to provide the supportive environment to start these journeys.
Children and young people in our setting are often extremely vulnerable. Many are disabled, suffer from mental health problems or have experienced adverse childhood events. Some are outside of other safeguarding pathways and we are their most regular contact with a setting. As such we take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously and provide regular ongoing professional development to make sure our team fully understand their role in keeping children safe.
We follow Safer Recruitment in Education protocols and as such this role will require a DBS check or application, including checking of barring lists and references from a recent employer and an additionally from an other professional source.