In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica is joined by educator, researcher, and headteacher Nicola Lace to examine one of the most pressing challenges in modern education: school exclusions, suspensions, and the growing NEET/LEET population.

With over 18 years of experience across mainstream, specialist provision, and alternative provision (AP) settings, Nicola shares critical insights into why current mainstream structures often fail vulnerable young people. Together, they explore the shift from deficit-based discipline to relational, trauma-informed practices, the essential role of adult regulation and staff supervision, and the complex reality of alternative provision.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

• The Scale of the Exclusion Crisis: Unpacking the rise in suspensions, exclusions, off-site AP placements, isolation, and elective home education—and why the NEET count has reached 1 million in the UK.
• Relational Practice & Adult Regulation: Why regulated, emotionally available staff create safe environments, and how supervision and non-punitive frameworks prevent punitive escalation.
• The "Repair and Return" Myth: Addressing unrealistic expectations placed on AP settings and advocating for high academic aspiration alongside social prescribing and trust-building.
• Ethical Inclusion & Systemic Reforms: Exploring community cultural wealth, unconditional positive regard, intersectionality, and how upcoming educational reforms can better support neurodivergent and marginalized learners.
• A Journey of Hope: Nicola shares a powerful success story demonstrating how targeted coaching, diagnostic understanding, and consistent adult support transformed a young person's educational trajectory from exclusion to university.

Resource

• Pennacchia, J., & Thomson, P. (2016). Complementing the mainstream: An exploration of partnership work between complementary alternative provisions and mainstream schools. Pastoral Care in Education, 34(2), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2016.1154094

Guest

Nicola Lace is an accomplished educational leader and researcher with over 18 years of dedicated experience across the education sector. Throughout her career, Nicola has held a wide range of roles - from classroom teacher to senior leadership and primary/secondary headship - with a primary focus on specialist provision, alternative provision (AP), Further Education, and SEND/NEET intervention. Currently transitioning into consultancy, training, and doctoral research, Nicola specialises in investigating the structural, social, and policy dynamics surrounding school exclusion, institutional belonging, and relational practice. She is a passionate advocate for replacing deficit-focused discipline with trauma-informed, non-punitive approaches, unconditional positive regard, and system-wide collaboration between mainstream schools and alternative provisions.

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In this episode of Trauma Informed Conversations, host Jessica Parker is joined by Elle Snookes to explore the transformative power of wonder - a gentler, deeper, and more spacious approach to working with children, young people, and each other.

Together, they unpack how slowing down to "wonder" serves as a crucial protective factor against quick assumptions, institutional burnout, and reputational fatigue. Drawing on lived experience, relational practice, and personal vulnerability, Elle shares how asking different questions can break down barriers and fundamentally alter a young person's trajectory.

Key Highlights & Takeaways:

• The Difference Between Curiosity and Wonder: Why standard curiosity can sometimes feel like an assessment or interrogation, whereas wonder gifts us time, presence, and non-judgmental space to understand what sits behind observable behaviour.
• Trauma-Informed as an Identity, Not a Lanyard: Moving away from tick-box compliance and two-hour online courses to embrace a whole-person philosophy that applies equal care to colleagues, clients, and ourselves.
• "Be More Pirate" & Challenging Deficit Narratives: Refusing to be a passive bystander when young people are labelled as "vile" or "disengaged," and using warm, constructive challenge to disrupt institutional preconceptions.
• Finding the "Seam of Gold": How community initiatives, unhurried presence, and psychological safety give young people - often disconnected, dissociated, or isolated - a space to build genuine self-worth and pride.
• Attendance, Dissociation & The Isolation Pandemic: Examining the root causes of school avoidance and community disconnection, from digital safety nets to unresolved intergenerational trauma.
• Protecting the Capacity to Wonder: Practical insights for leaders and frontline practitioners to manage their own energy, regulate their nervous systems on difficult days, and foster learning environments over punitive ones.

About the Guest:

Elle Snookes is a dedicated advocate for trauma-informed practice, bringing over 30 years of experience working alongside vulnerable children, young people, and families across youth justice, children's services, education, and community settings. She is the Director of Yellow Brick Road Projects, a Hampshire-based charity committed to helping young people find their "seam of gold" through relational support and community connection.

Elle is also a postgraduate researcher currently undertaking a Master's degree focused on "Be More Pirate" - using constructive disruption and good trouble to drive positive systemic change. As an independent consultant and trainer, she works across sectors (including youth engagement officers in the Royal Navy and Marines) to embed trauma-informed principles into everyday practice, drawing deeply on her own neurodivergence, childhood lived experience, and passion for human connection.

Join us for a rich, hopeful, and deeply human discussion on refusing to let today define a child's tomorrow.

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In this episode, host Jessica Parker is joined by Beth Gibson MBE, Head of Attendance and Inclusive Pathways at Birmingham City Council and former mainstream secondary leader. Together, they dive into why school attendance must be understood as a form of communication - reflecting safety, relationships, and belonging - rather than just a percentage or compliance metric to be managed.

Jessica and Beth explore:

• Data as a Signal, Not the Story: How rich attendance data can automate workload and serve as a curiosity hook, helping educators ask the right questions at the right time rather than obscuring the human child behind the numbers.
• Redefining Inclusive Pathways: Unpicking complex attendance challenges like EBSNA (Emotional Based School Avoidance/Non-Attendance) layer by layer, and recognising that inclusion applies to every learner - from children navigating friendship shifts to those communicating distress through behaviour.
• Combating Isolation & Restoring Joy: The cumulative impact of shrinking social spaces, reduced extracurricular access, and child loneliness, alongside practical ways schools can introduce play, options, and felt safety during unstructured social times.
• Building Authentic Home-School Partnerships: How schools can lower parental anxiety, remove shame and blame from attendance communications, and foster open, honest collaboration focused on the shared goal of a thriving child.
• Accountability, Leadership & Culture: Balancing trauma-informed compassion with a child's right to education, and embedding attendance as a shared, whole-school responsibility across every tier of senior leadership and staff.

About Beth Gibson MBE

Beth Gibson MBE has spent nearly 20 years working in mainstream secondary education, spending over a decade leading pastorally on attendance, inclusion, and belonging. Her background includes working with the Department for Education (DfE) on attendance data systems and supporting school teams across the country.

Currently, Beth heads up Attendance and Inclusive Pathways for Birmingham City Council - the largest local authority in Europe - where she works on a macro scale to develop inclusive practice, strengthen multi-agency approaches, and champion trauma-informed, child-centred education.

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