Learning in an environment that conveys confidence and trust

Principles and strategies for building schools that care

The education of children is one of the most valuable and exciting tasks in today’s world. It is an enriching and complex scenario that wants to offer children the best starting point: a reliable base to grow. In order to develop the key educational competencies in the different stages, the child must learn specific contents and skills, but he must also be able to part from their parents with confidence and trust, to establish bonds with new adults of reference, to train his emotional regulation, to interact with his peers, to train basic skills with his body and to dare to play. Trust in relationships is one of the foundations of learning.

Affective trust at school is consolidated in a very particular way in the child’s relationship with his teacher; but it is also essential that there is an alliance of caring between the teacher and the family, and that the management team is capable of helping the entire educational community to take part in the care of the child, building schools that care.

This book presents the basic principles and strategies of Learning in an environment that conveys confidence. This is a program that aims to strengthen links in the educational field (between teacher and student, between teacher and family, and in the school) as a strategy to promote learning and the comprehensive development of students. Since 2017, this program has trained and accompanied early childhood education teachers, focusing on the links at these three levels and putting into practice the principles of the theory of attachment to school. Its ultimate purpose is to promote and consolidate attachment-sensitive cultures at schools.

This book is the result of experience with numerous teachers and their educational teams. His valuable contributions have enriched the reflection of the authors and have made it possible to check the usefulness and novelty of this care approach in daily work.

Ana Berástegui, Amaia Halty and Carlos Pitillas, authors of this book, are members of the First Alliance Project, which is developed at the University Institute of the Family at Pontificia Comillas University. Since 2012, this team has been committed to strengthening the attachment relationships of boys and girls, disseminating the key to the bond at all levels of psychosocial and educational intervention, including the school.

I. PROMOTING TRUST IN THE CLASSROOM

1. The importance of the bond in the school context. Reliable relationships, key to school success

2. Understanding the student self-consciousness

3. Student trust in difficult times

II. PROMOTING TRUST IN THE TEACHER-FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

4. Keys to building a Caring Alliance

5. How to build trust with families in different settings

III. PROMOTING TRUST IN EDUCATIONAL TEAMS

6. Trust chains. A model to transmitting care

7. Institutional care scenarios: classrooms, teachers, families

8. A model to reflect as a team in difficult situations

9. Schools that care and teach care. Children, families and educators who care for each other.