How Fostering People Nurture School Success

Approaching barriers to success at school 

At Fostering People, we believe every child deserves a good education, but we also recognise the barriers foster children face. That’s why our approach is holistic, focusing on each child’s entire well-being. Here are just some of the ways we help foster children feel safe, confident, and ready to learn so they can achieve academic success. 

Creating a stable foundation 

Trauma can impact a child’s brain development, cognitive functioning, emotional regulation, and overall well-being. This has a knock-on effect on their experience at school and ability to achieve in the same way as their peers.  

A child’s relationship with education begins at home. When a child lives in an unstable environment where they’re constantly in fight-or-flight mode and finding ways to survive, learning will be difficult. But when they’re in a safe home that nurtures every aspect of their well-being, they have space to explore the world with curiosity and develop a passion for learning.  

That’s why at Fostering People, we carefully match children with the right foster families. Those with the patience, understanding, and compassion that children in care need to feel a sense of stability, which will help them thrive at home and in school. 

Providing high-quality training  

As an independent fostering agency, we have the resources to provide high-quality therapeutic training that helps children heal from their experiences and feel more confident at school.  

We’ll teach you how to apply PACE, a therapeutic parenting approach which can help children in your care feel safe, heard, and understood. You’ll also learn about trauma and attachment, as well as nurturing academic success and bullying.  

Through these courses and our library of educational resources, you’ll develop the knowledge and skills to support children on their healing journey and help them have a more fulfilling school experience. 

Understanding success for each child 

At Fostering People, we know that success means something different for every child. For some children, it might mean improving their attendance, whereas for others, it may be sitting their GCSEs. Whatever it is, we are proud of the progress that every child in our care makes, no matter how big or small.  

As part of our support for children in care, we have an education coordinator who communicates regularly with each child’s school or college and stays up-to-date with their academic progress. They can also help advocate for the child in your care to ensure they’re receiving the support they need.  

In 2025, our individualised approach to each child’s education helped 23 children take their GCSEs, of which 82% gained a grade 4 or above, with 47% of those achieving a grade 5 – 9.  

Supporting children through their exams 

Before exam season arrives, our supervising social workers will complete a monitoring form with you. This will record your foster child’s upcoming exams, their predicted grades, and any additional support already in place to help them.  

To prepare children for their exams, we provide SATs and GCSE revision guides, workbooks, and exam pencil cases if needed, which our current foster parents say are extremely useful.  

Once exams are over, we include the whole foster family in celebrations, and this year, we gave every young person in year 11 a gift voucher to recognise how far they’ve come. 

Going the extra mile 

In 2023, Fostering People Scotland secured funding from the Corra Foundation to develop a resource called School Through My Eyes. This project aims to understand the barriers foster children face at school and take steps to improve support.  

This highlights the lengths we’ll go to as an agency for children in our care. We listen to their experiences and use them to make a real difference to the way foster children are supported both in their foster homes and at school.