Testimonials
"The Reach has been instrumental in supporting us in providing a calm, nurturing and focused learning environment. As a school with a highly challenging catchment, we are aware that many of our families face, or have faced highly traumatic situations. Having a safe, professional, and integrated therapeutic service available has ensured that our children’s emotional needs are met through the collaboration of therapist and teachers. It has created highly trained trauma informed teachers who are able to focus on pupils' academic needs. The integration of therapeutic support has been a strong driver in ensuring we have eradicated disruption to children’s education through disruptive behaviour and unmet needs". Jo Keeley. Head Teacher. Westglade Primary & Junior School
"The Reach service has been an integral part of the safeguarding network for a child and family I have been supporting over the last 3 years. The service has exceeded my expectations in terms of the commitment, compassion and skill."
​
"The Reach has genuinely been the difference between whether a family has been able to address longstanding trauma to be able to sufficiently care for a child or whether they have not had the opportunity to do so, and therefore not be able to sufficiently care for a child. There have been some really challenging times for the family and I do not know that without support from the Reach service, the necessary changes would have been possible. There was a very real possibility that the child in question would have been placed into Local Authority Care but for the support, commitment and multi-agency approach which the Reach was an integral part of. As a social worker, it has been useful to me to have a clinical perspective which has informed decisions. The way of working supports reflective and good practice standards and I really think this is a service that all schools in Nottingham can benefit from. When I began working with the child, she told me that all she wanted was to be at home and her mother and father to be in her life. With the support of the Reach service, this has, in part been possible. The work done by the Reach service has literally changed the course of this little girl’s life. I cannot thank you enough!”
Lutangu Sando. Social Worker. Central Fieldwork Team. C04. Nottingham City Council
"I have experienced many children change their demeanour and succeed in school, and at home, because of the trauma-based approach I adopted when teaching them - and this was taught to me by The Reach. Some of the strategies used as part of our SEND response only scratch the surface with some of the children, and The Reach is a place where teachers can go to ask for advice, where we can think together about what to do next when we feel stuck, and more importantly, The Reach is a place where we can discuss the dimensions of children's behaviour that, as teachers, we do not own the skills and knowledge to explore by ourselves. When dealing with deeply troubled children, I have experienced some triggering of my own childhood traumas and this is a tricky situation to navigate through without having any specialist support. I do not believe I would have grown as a teacher the way I did, or even become an inclusion manager, without this. In fact, I am not even sure I would have continued in teaching without this support. The Reach nurtured me in becoming the best I can be as a teacher and a human being. I cannot speak highly enough of this service and I cannot say enough times how much the education system needs The Reach and their counsellors.​ The more I work in education, the more I believe a service like The Reach is the answer to reduce negative and anti-social behaviours of children later in their lives and even positively impact the bigger picture of current crime rates and unemployment rates in the UK".
Monica Reis. Teacher & Inclusion Manager. Portland Spencer Academy