On January 19, 2024, Professor Ana Berastegui, co-coordinator of the Let’s Care Project and member of the team at Universidad P. Comillas de Madrid, participated in the Directors’ Meeting of the Teresian Schools Network in Los Negrales, Madrid. She delivered a presentation titled “Schools that Care and Teach to Care”.
The Teresian Institution’s educational network in Spain comprises of 15 centers across the country, serving over 12,000 students and approximately 8,500 families from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and with different needs. About 850 teachers work within these schools. The event was attended by 62 directors, including members of the school management teams and the ownership team.
During her presentation, Ana Berastegui introduced some theoretical foundations of the Let’s Care Project, sharing principles of attachment theory and its developments in the educational field. She emphasized the importance of socio-emotional security and caregiving experiences in school learning and well-being. She also reflected on the privileged role of management teams in creating safety chains.
Furthermore, she outlined a roadmap to build safe and caring schools from the perspective of the management teams, organized around six key points:
- Committing to protection and the creation of safe environments.
- Recognizing the role of security (and insecurity) in the educational process.
- Valuing and supporting the teacher-student relationship.
- Staying connected with families and supporting them.
- Acting as a safe haven and secure base for educators.
- Creating a caregiving curricula.
During the presentation, the existence and objectives of Let’s Care were also highlighted, and all participants were invited to delve deeper into this perspective by following updates on the project’s website and social media channels.
