Building Safe and Caring Schools to Foster Educational Inclusion and School Achievement

Secure attachment is associated with emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take challenges and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which is associated with higher achievement compared to insecure attachment5. The relation between attachment security and safe learning variables tends to be stronger for high-risk students: a significative emotional connection with adults is perhaps the most important factor to foster higher levels of engagement, motivation, and academic performance. Providing positive educational experiences leads to improved learning and cognitive development, and to emotional, social, and resilience growth. School bonding is a powerful predictor of and/or is associated with health and academic outcomes. Ecological systems theories explain the ways in which the characteristics of the individual, the family, the school, among other dimensions interact and have an impact on the individual’s learning and behaviour. Secure attachment relationships play an important protective role against the intergenerational transmission of social exclusion. LETS CARE aims to comprehensively understand and improve the caring dimension of educational inclusion and school success.