Invisible Walls School Zone provides trauma-responsive one-to-one support tailored to each child’s individual experiences and needs. Practitioners create a safe, trusting space where children can talk openly, process difficult emotions, and make sense of their situation. Using consistent, compassionate approaches, the support helps build resilience, improve emotional wellbeing, and strengthen confidence—enabling children to better engage with school and feel less isolated.

The Family Education Exchange is a trauma-responsive initiative that connects children, their schools, and a parent in prison. It creates opportunities for meaningful communication and shared learning, helping schools better understand each child’s circumstances while enabling parents in custody to stay involved in their child’s education. The FEE supports improved wellbeing, strengthens family relationships, and reduces stigma for children affected by parental imprisonment.

Once a month in the visit hall, children spend one-to-one time with their father, doing age-appropriate school-related activities, like reading together or exploring stories and pictures. Meanwhile, mothers and carers can join a peer group in the Family Lounge, sharing experiences and support with others.

For parents who are not local, or where family contact has been difficult, we help facilitate virtual meetings with schools. With consent from the child’s mother or carer, these sessions give families another way to hear about school life and stay engaged, always with safeguarding and prison procedures followed.

Parents in prison receive termly updates on their child’s school progress. These reports help open communication between the school, the family at home and their parent in prison, giving everyone a clear picture of how the child is doing.