The impact of nurture group training

A group of school children and a teacher watering plants in a garden

We know that a nurturing approach can have an incredible effect on the lives of children and young people, and we love to hear about the real-life impact it has in the schools we work with. The following case study was from a school on our Nurturing London Violence Reduction Unit Programme which finished in 2022. The storyteller is a Senior Leader at a large community primary school in North-West London. 

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At the start of the programme, our challenge was to see how we could include nurture practice to complement our existing practice. The Nurturing London Programme offered us the opportunity to look at our whole-school practice. We saw it as a perfect fit which allowed capacity for a nurturing approach to grow right across our school through the training and upskilling of our nurture group staff, in the first instance, and then for all staff. The programme never felt like an add-on, but rather a way of embedding and galvanising our vision of the practice we valued.

We had a foundational knowledge of attachment theory, but we felt that a consistent nurturing approach in our classroom and curriculum was just not there. Our staff had a mixed understanding of the principles of nurture, so there was a lack of consistency based on different beliefs of how behaviour should be managed. I think this resulted from a combination of misconceptions that viewed nurture as a “soft approach”, and also a lack of specialist knowledge and training in the concepts underpinning it. Staff needed to see what the actual work looked like and to observe for themselves the links with their existing practice. If this didn’t happen, we would be fighting against a tide of “zero tolerance” philosophy.

I would say that this binary view of having to choose between the opposing “soft” approach and “zero tolerance” in addressing behaviour was our biggest obstacle in our whole-school nurturing journey. I believe that this view is prevalent amongst our parents too, and it became more prevalent during the pandemic when we were quite isolated from parents. What we know is that there is always an individual story and context behind all behaviour, but this is sometimes hard to “sell” to parents. What I have seen is that when a teacher has a greater understanding of and experience with a nurturing approach, then it is easier to get the parents on board. We encourage nurture across the board, meaning that nurture infuses all of our relationships and our priorities as a school. We constantly make reference to nurture practice and its underlying principles to our parents.

At the start of the programme, we didn’t fully realise the breadth of what was being offered to us. Our Lead Consultant (LC) was instrumental in supporting us in the implementation of the training, staff capacity, timing and roll-out of everything we had access to. They were able to guide us at each point along the journey as to how we could build on our nurturing capacity by utilising the project offer. We knew right from the beginning that we wanted to build a lasting nurturing practice and the Theory and Practice of Nurture Groups training really helped us to build the capacity for long-term, sustainable practice; the cost of doing that outside of the project would have been prohibitive.

Utilising the Theory and Practice of Nurture Groups training offered as part of the programme to upskill three male members of staff in nurturing practice has been a core element of our success in creating a broader and wider perception of using this approach. The training and using the Boxall Profile® to create a depth of understanding of the roots of behaviour really demonstrated to them that this was not a “mumsy” approach, but something very powerful to create change. We’ve seen these members of staff transform from using a “military approach” to adopting more playful, meaningful and rich connections that have been hugely successful.

We have seen that early nurturing intervention has prevented and reduced instances of fixed term exclusions which are usually centred around one or two individuals with complex backgrounds and needs. Something that really stood out for me was seeing the “PRU to prison pipeline” that was shown to us at one of the monthly networking meetings. It really hit home, because before seeing this, I had always viewed exclusions and its consequences as a secondary school problem. I know that for at least one pupil with a very complex story, that if they had been able to attend a nurture group in Year 1, the outlook would be a different one. There is always more work to be done around exclusions, but we know where we want to be and we are headed in the right direction.

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We are delighted to have been commissioned by the London Violence Reduction Unit to deliver a new programme alongside delivery partners Tender. The Inclusive and Nurturing Schools Programme aims to tackle school exclusions across 70 schools in seven London Boroughs. 

If you’d like to find out more about our Nurture Group training, please visit our website.

The Boxall Childhood Project | A whole-school approach to the Boxall Profile®

A female teacher talking to a pupil in a classroom with other pupils in the background

The Boxall Profile® is a unique online tool that assesses the social, emotional and mental development of pupils aged 4-18. We recommend that you use the Boxall Profile® to assess pupils across the whole school, as it gives headteachers and senior management teams a more rounded view of the wellbeing of the children and young people in their care. 

In 2017, we launched a two-year project called the Boxall Childhood Project which looked at the benefits and challenges that schools encountered when completing Boxall Profiles® for the whole school. 

As part of the pilot project, 40 schools in England were recruited and key members of staff were trained to use the Boxall Profile®. These key members of staff delivered training to their colleagues and put in place systems to assess all of their pupils. In total, more than 5,400 children and young people were assessed in Summer 2017 (during the first assessment period).

Findings

The data from these assessments showed that in an average primary school classroom, one in three children may have some social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. It also identified the following:

  • 19 children had no apparent needs
  • 7 children had some form of social/emotional or behavioural difficulties
  • 4 children had high levels of needs in both social/emotional and behavioural difficulties (typically, three boys and one girl)

These figures show just how important it is to use the Boxall Profile® across the whole school as it helps schools to identify children and young people who need additional, more focused support through nurturing interventions, or as part of a nurture group

Teacher reports also showed that 43% of children with high levels of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties do not access any form of wellbeing or mental health support – either at school or outside. There could be many reasons why these vulnerable children do not receive the support they need, for example schools may not be aware of the scale of difficulty experienced by these children. 

The Boxall Childhood Project highlighted just how many children are affected by these social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, whilst also raising awareness of the importance of nurture, attachment and neuroscience, so that teachers can better understand and respond to difficult behaviour and the social, emotional and mental health needs of their pupils.

Our recommendations to schools

We believe the most effective way to support every child with their social, emotional and mental health needs or adverse childhood experiences, and equip teachers with the necessary tools for teaching to meet these needs, is to implement a whole-school nurturing approach. 

That includes support for pupils and staff, working across the curriculum and involving pupils, governors and parents. It means provision for developing the wellbeing and resilience of everyone and targeted support for those who have significant difficulties. This can only happen with senior leadership commitment, staff development and a supportive culture. 

The National Nurturing Schools Programme is a programme that allows staff to develop personally and professionally while embedding a nurturing culture throughout their schools, enhancing teaching and learning, promoting healthy outcomes for children and young people. This is achieved by focusing on emotional needs and development as well as academic learning in a whole-school environment. This involves embedding the Six Principles of Nurture and using the Boxall Profile® across the whole school.

The National Nurturing Schools Programme equips staff with the tools they need to implement a whole-school approach to supporting the social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing of all pupils and staff, allowing every child to become able to learn.

 

Beyond the Boxall Profile® for Young People: Whole-Class Strategies

Three school children standing next to each other with other school children in the background

We are delighted to announce the release of a new Boxall Profile® book – Beyond the Boxall Profile® for Young People: Whole-Class Strategies. Authors Adele Wilkinson and Carrie Thorne tell us more about this vital resource.

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The original version of this book was released in 2019 and has proved to be an invaluable resource for schools who want to use the Boxall Profile® to help groups and classes of children, not just individual pupils. This made us want to create something similar, but with a secondary age focus.

We wanted to provide educators with a ‘dip in, dip out’ resource which would be really practical and useful; something which could provide simple but effective strategies that can be used throughout the school day. Whether they are used in the whole class or in small groups, the strategies aim to help young people build the social and emotional skills they need to succeed, allowing them to engage with their own behaviour and learning, and make the most of secondary school.

We intended for this resource to be used in multiple different ways and contexts; for example, if a teacher was aware that many young people in their class or group were struggling in strand A, they may ask themselves, ‘What can I do to help them? What will enhance my quality first teaching here?’ The book we have created has multiple ideas to help with questions like this. It is straightforward, practical and contains very simple starting points that as practitioners we might want and need.

A couple of our favourite sections include looking at form time and also thinking about the power of play in secondary – sometimes there is little thought given to these areas and yet so much time is spent in form for most secondary pupils! Are we always getting the most out of it? Is form time nurturing in all schools? If not, what can we do about that?

And play, is it considered ‘not very secondary’? Yet research tells us how important this fundamental right is for young people, for skill development and wellbeing. Do we think about this enough?

We know more and more schools are keen to support the social and emotional wellbeing of all the pupils in their care, and to this end assess every young person in their setting using the Boxall Profile®. For teaching staff, form tutors and support staff, using the Boxall Profile® as a classroom resource allows them to establish where social, emotional and behavioural needs lie and can help them to put in place strategies to target and respond appropriately to those needs. This will not only help the young people but will also help staff to implement what would be useful and more effective interventions as part of teaching and learning. Staff will be able to support all students, while ensuring a focus on inclusive practice and removing barriers to learning.

The resources included in the book have been trialled, tested and specifically selected to be used within secondary environments to allow staff to support the wellbeing of every young person, while at the same time fitting within the secondary curriculum. We are also grateful to the staff from our partner schools and settings who were so instrumental in the development of this resource. This was so helpful, and ensures that the book is relevant, realistic and current too.

It is suitable for mainstream and special secondary settings. We hope you like it and would love to hear which bits of the book you have found most useful.

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The Boxall Profile® is a way of understanding what lies behind pupils’ challenging behaviour to detect any unmet social, emotional and mental health needs. Once social and emotional needs are identified, education professionals can put in place targeted support to help children and young people develop those skills, and this in turn will help to improve their behaviour, mental health and wellbeing.

By using the Boxall Profile®, teachers can adopt the following strategies to help improve children and young people’s social, emotional and mental health:

  • Giving pupils the opportunity to practise their social and emotional skills – for example by encouraging them to work in pairs and groups. 
  • Making time for social-emotional learning, either during targeted PSHE lessons or by embedding it throughout the curriculum.
  • Modelling good social and emotional skills themselves, when interacting with pupils and other staff members.

The Boxall Profile® allows teachers to develop an inclusive, whole class approach that enables them to access all their pupils, by removing individual barriers to learning.     

To get started or for more information about the Boxall Profile®, please take a look at our website

 

 

 

Inclusive and Nurturing Schools Programme: six months in

7 school children sitting opposite a teacher

The transformational Inclusive and Nurturing Schools (INS) Programme, commissioned by the London Violence Reduction Unit, is now in its sixth month of delivery. The programme aims to keep children safe, supported, and thriving in school, tackle exclusions, and ensure children and young people have healthy relationship behaviours and attitudes. Nurtureuk’s INS Programme Manager Jenny Perry shares her thoughts on the programme so far.

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We are now six months into the Inclusive and Nurturing Schools Programme working with 70 schools across seven London boroughs, alongside our colleagues from Tender Education and Arts. What a six months it has been!

Fifty schools across five boroughs have started their nurturing journey through the Inclusion strand, whilst an additional ten schools from one borough are well underway with their work on the Healthy Relationships strand. 

A fundamental part of this programme, and what is at the core of the nurturing approach, is relationships. Strong, healthy, secure and trusting relationships help pupils to feel safe, staff to feel heard, and provide a sense of belonging for all. 

Whilst a large part of my role as Programme Manager involves spreadsheets and Gantt charts, the beginning of each new programme gives me the great privilege of meeting with school senior leaders before they start. It is an opportunity to talk through the programme, answer any questions and, most importantly, listen to them talk with pride and hope about their schools, their staff and their pupils. Despite all that is going on around them and everything that they still have to wade through in this post-pandemic world, they are all realistic but optimistic about the future and they all, without exception, have placed their pupils and the school community at the centre of all they do. That is why they want to be part of the Inclusive and Nurturing School’s programme.

This has come at the perfect time” is a phrase I have heard over and over again from head teachers and inclusion leads. The Covid-19 pandemic, the current cost of living crisis, and a society that shares negativity and doom on social media at every opportunity, is having a huge impact on the social, emotional and mental health of our children, their families and our teachers. 

Nurture helps to tackle this by getting to the root of children’s social, emotional and mental health difficulties and provide schools with the help they need to deliver the right support. It improves attendance, behaviour and attainment and ensures every child is able to learn. It supports schools in strengthening the relationships they have with all members of the community. Through the Healthy Relationships strand of the programme, Tender Education and Arts aim to empower the whole school community to address sexual harassment and gender-based violence by providing education, training and guidance.

The INS Programme offers participating schools training on a range of subjects including the Boxall Profile® Online, resources, activities and enrichment days to support training or to use with young people in the classroom, expert-led networking opportunities, and bespoke consultancy so that we are meeting the needs of every individual school.

The importance of transitions in children’s lives: managing successful transition to the summer holidays

A girl jumping in the air trying to catch bubbles

On a daily basis, there are numerous transitions children and young people make in school, e.g. between sessions and classes and between different adults. Our education professionals know that changes in routine are invariably difficult for some children and young people and need to be carefully managed with preparation and support. It is often perceived that the summer holidays are something which all parents and children look forward to but in fact, for some of our more vulnerable children and young people and their families or carers, this can be a challenging time of the year.

Structure and routine reassures children and young people in need of a nurturing approach and often the last weeks of school will be different from the norm, so they may well be unsettled to begin with. This could mean that they are dysregulated or easily upset, even though they are theoretically “looking forward” to no more school for six weeks. It is not just an issue for children and young people either, even adults can find a change in the normal routine challenging as differences in routine can affect the way we usually interact with our children and young people leading to uncertainty as to how to best support them.

Here at nurtureuk we know it is important to plan for transition and support it, with a view to reducing anxiety and promoting security. We have collated a few ideas for parents and carers for you here to help with that transition with some helpful links to free resources and advice to ensure that the summer holidays are fun and enjoyable for everyone. Before you look at the links here is some advice for your holiday plans from a nurturing approach perspective:

As always, we advocate developmentally appropriate approaches to ensure that each child or young person is learning and having fun at their own pace and level. When we support at their stage not age, we break down the barriers to learning and engagement and tap into the things that they enjoy and respond to, leading to renewed confidence and a sense of fun. When you look at the resources we have shared with you think of the following points:

  • Could my child access this activity as it stands?
  • How can I simplify this? (Through short achievable steps for example)
  • How can I make this more challenging? (Some children and young people who need a nurturing approach may be academically and intellectually strong and enjoy being challenged.)
  • What are my child’s strengths, how can I make sure I utilise them in this activity?
  • Can I build their interests into this activity?
  • Using this as inspiration, have I got any ideas like this myself which I can build into further plans?
  • How can I make sure this is fun? Fun, laughter, and joy are key for positive regard and building trusting, loving relationships. When trusting bonds are created the limbic system deep within our brains responds and creates a feeling of warmth and connectivity that can help your child grow in confidence and self-esteem, leading to a sense of feeling safe enough to take the risk to learn something new.

Wishing you all a happy and reviving summer break and a chance to recharge for the Autumn Term.

Resources, advice and information

1. Lucy Carmen from Parents Digest has some great advice called Six Tips for Six Weeks, which are:

  • Consider holding onto some routine while being adaptable.
  • Get talking.
  • Have plans for the first week.
  • Keep up with friends over the summer.
  • Keep a record.
  • Don’t feel you have to fill every moment.

She gives detail to these ideas and lots of advice and information to help you and your child have a successful and happy summer along with links to some great summer resources from Twinkle.

2. Education Specialist Katrin Harrow from Family Futures provides some useful tips on how to cope with and manage some changes and transitions your child might be facing during the summer break. The article includes discussion around how it may affect looked after or adopted children. She provides us with 8 tips for the summer, with really good ideas and advice.

3. Our final pick is a great blog from the Foster for Coventry website, which has some top tips for the summer break from parents and foster carers, for example: 

“We put a massive piece of paper on the wall with ‘this holiday I would like to…’ in the middle. Everyone can write ideas on. It can range from the everyday ‘play on my scooter’ to the more adventurous ‘climb a mountain’ or mindful ‘watch a sunset’ or educational ‘geek stuff’ or even ‘eat chocolate’!” – Sarah

“We saw an idea on the internet, and we now have a ‘boredom jar’ at home. We put ideas for activities in there – like Lego challenges, do a jigsaw, doodle, write a funny poem, find a bug in the garden – but also jobs that need doing around the house, so when they say “I’m bored” they get to pick something from the jar. It’s a bit of a gamble for them, but it’s also seen as a game. It seems to work!” – Scott

We love this blog because these are real parents and tried and tested ideas!

Celebrate your nurturing journey with a nurtureuk award

A group of secondary school children walking outside

We love celebrating the nurturing journey of our schools! We understand the commitment and hard work that is needed to implement a new culture and ethos that puts the social, emotional and mental health needs of pupils at the heart of education practice. That’s why at nurtureuk we’ve created two awards to recognise outstanding nurture provision: the National Nurturing School Award (NNSA) focusing on a whole-school approach, and the Marjorie Boxall Quality Mark Award (MBQMA) celebrating nurture group provision. 

Our National Nurturing School Award celebrates schools who have completed the National Nurturing Schools Programme (NNSP) and have successfully created a nurturing culture that responds to the social, emotional and mental health needs of its pupils. Assessed against the NNSP standards in areas such as stakeholders, delivery, and leadership and management, successful schools retain the award for three years, after which they have to reapply. 

Pupils attending a National Nurturing School benefit from a whole-school approach that places their strengths and needs at the heart of practice, enabling them to flourish and be the best they can be. The culture helps to grow their confidence whilst improving their attendance and attainment. The award also demonstrates to prospective parents, school inspectors, and the local community the school’s commitment to developing an inclusive ethos where every voice counts.

“The whole process of achieving the [National Nurturing School] award has not been a chore, it’s been a celebration every step of the way.” – Virtual School Kent, 2022

Our Marjorie Boxall Quality Mark Award celebrates outstanding ‘classic Boxall’ nurture group provision. The award was established and refined by key figures in the development of the nurture group model, including Marjorie Boxall herself. The award recognises the dedication and specialist skills of the nurture group staff, and their commitment to supporting children and young people. 

Schools delivering the Boxall Nurture Group® are assessed against a set of quality standards derived from the Six Principles of Nurture and linked to the use of the Boxall Profile® assessment tool. As with the National Nurturing School Award, the MBQMA highlights to external stakeholders the positive impact of a nurture group on pupils who, for a variety of reasons, may be struggling to access the curriculum in a mainstream classroom. 

“It was a very positive experience and it gave us the opportunity to celebrate nurture throughout the whole school. The children were eager to talk about their nurture journey too. I know there will be lots of nurture teachers eager to apply for the reaccreditation and I will be highly recommending it to them all. We are overjoyed to receive this award!” – MBQMA school, 2023

As increasing numbers of schools are turning to nurture interventions to respond to the decline in school attendance, attainment and behaviour, it is vital that we celebrate nurture provision that responds to the social, emotional and mental health needs of all pupils, enabling them to access the education they deserve. 

You can find all our current award recipients on our Awards page. If you’re interested in applying for one of our awards, you can find out more via our website.

Van Gogh School: How nurture is transforming pupils’ lives

Van Gogh Primary School logo

A calm, positive, happy place where children and adults have high expectations of themselves and others and understand how to manage their emotions when life gets tough. Is this a magical land, or a vision of the distant future? No, it’s a school environment that exists here and now, in a deprived area of South London. 

This month I had the pleasure of spending time at Van Gogh Primary School in Stockwell. The school took part in our recent Nurturing London programme, funded by London’s Violence Reduction Unit. 

When you arrive at Van Gogh, the impact of nurture is immediately evident. From the warm and welcoming staff on the school gates who ensure children have been properly fed, to those checking in on children’s emotional states throughout the day – nurture permeates the school, filling every classroom, corridor and lesson plan. 

At Van Gogh, children are thriving and learning like never before, truly engaged in their education and enjoying positive relationships and play. 

This is an impressive turnaround for a school which in 2018 was forced to close its doors due to serious concerns about financial mismanagement and governance together with an inadequate Ofsted rating. 

The school became Van Gogh when it joined the Dunraven Educational Trust. The Trust has developed provision significantly since then and supported headteacher Nadine Bernard to create a truly flourishing school.

Nadine puts the huge improvement in pupils’ social, emotional and mental health, down to the nurturing journey the school has been on, building on the work of founding headteacher, Paul Robinson. As part of the Nurturing London programme, Van Gogh used nurtureuk’s Boxall Profile® to identify children’s needs. The school is still undergoing our National Nurturing Schools Programme, which is allowing it to embed nurture throughout the school culture. Staff also run nurture groups for children with a high level of need. 

Nadine and her team have focused strongly on building good relationships in school and the wider community. The Six Principles of Nurture are evident in all they do. Families feel part of the setting and communication with parents is strong. Teaching staff have also worked hard to ensure children can regulate themselves, and understand what is expected of them in school. Punishment and sanctions have been replaced with a focus on character development. 

Department for Education representatives joined me at the visit to Van Gogh and we were all bowled over by how calm and happy pupils were and how much they genuinely enjoyed learning. 

Nadine shared some impressive data on improvements in behaviour and attendance, and told powerful stories about the achievements of children who had suffered traumas including domestic violence, bereavement and separation from their loved ones. But the children, and the positive energy they exuded, showed us the results for themselves. 

This is what nurturing education looks like and what I believe should be the norm across all schools in the UK.

A recent report from the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition (CYPMHC) on Behaviour and Mental Health in Schools, revealed that sanction-based behaviour management techniques leave some young people feeling “worthless, invisible and disappointed in themselves,” and that these techniques led to them disliking school and experiencing increased feelings of anxiety.

Just walking into Van Gogh School, we could see that pupils and staff felt confident, heard, valued and really enjoyed being in school – pupils are truly ready and able to learn. 

Similarly to CYPMHC’S findings, a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Dr Laura Oxley – highlighted in TES magazine – claims that “the promotion of a ‘sanctions-based’ approach to managing behaviour in government guidance is contributing to an escalation of challenging activity and punitive responses in schools.” 

The report found that the sanctions-based approach is leading to worsening behaviour cultures, and goes on to warn that: “School leaders in England feel compelled to continue using a system of escalating punitive measures to manage student behaviour, even though they recognise that it fails some pupils.”

This needs to change. Teachers and schools need to feel confident and supported to use tried and tested approaches to manage behaviour in their schools that prioritise children’s wellbeing. Moving away from punitive approaches today will help to create the future young person we all want to see; confident, able, emotionally aware, happy individuals who are ambitious for themselves and others. We saw this in abundance at Van Gogh.

As one of the staff members said, the nurture approach works for staff and pupils because “it’s natural and normal.” I would love to see a future where this is being said in all schools across the country.

By Arti Sharma, CEO, nurtureuk 

The impact of a whole-school approach to nurture

Six school children sitting together reading books

Children and young people are struggling with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs like never before. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 75% of children and young people who experience mental health problems aren’t getting the support they need. This greatly affects pupils’ ability to engage with education and learn effectively, which often leads to a decline in school attendance, attainment and behaviour.

More and more schools are turning to nurturing interventions to help address these issues. The nurturing approach is a tried and tested way of helping children and young people develop the vital social skills, confidence and self-esteem needed to help them engage with education. It helps teachers to identify, understand and address individual pupils’ needs, and gives them the tools they need to provide the right support. 

But what does a whole-school approach to nurture look like?

A whole-school approach to nurture involves embedding the Six Principles of Nurture throughout the school and assessing all children and young people’s social, emotional and mental health needs using the Boxall Profile®. A nurturing approach can have the greatest impact when it’s not used in isolation, as it ensures every pupil gets the right support. 

The whole-school approach forms the second stage of our graduated approach to nurture:

The graduated approach to nurture infographic

The process of embedding the Six Principles of Nurture and developing a nurturing culture will be different for every school. It isn’t about signing up to an off-the-shelf programme, but about looking at a school’s core beliefs, its knowledge of its pupils’ needs, and its commitment to supporting them to achieve their very best.  

“Since adopting a more nurturing approach… our school completely changed our behaviour system, moving away from exclusions and moving towards creating a space where young people build and rebuild relationships with staff across the school. We have numerous pupils who have not been excluded because nurture has changed the way we meet their needs. Now we check-in more, make space for them to voice their needs and make more reasonable adjustments and we find that we are managing them, they are managing themselves and they are staying in mainstream education. The unseen work of the nurturing approach is reaching across the school and our pupils are aware that things have changed.” (Nurturing London VRU school, 2022)

Using the Boxall Profile® to assess all pupils allows staff to identify many more children with SEMH needs, particularly those who were ‘hidden’ or previously overlooked, according to the Now You See Us report (2019). Once identified, staff can put appropriate individual or whole-class strategies in place to ensure all pupils get the support they need to help them become able to learn. 

“We have been able to Boxall Profile® the whole school and implement strategies that are beneficially impacting whole classes. We have looked at these results and… included more nurture activities, which has resulted in the children spending curriculum time more focused and with more intent.” (Nurturing Kent School, 2022)

If you are interested in implementing a whole-school approach to nurture, our National Nurturing Schools Programme helps to equip staff with the tools, training and support needed to develop a nurturing culture that enables pupils to thrive. Schools who complete the programme can also apply for the National Nurturing Schools Award. For more information, please visit our website

 

We have updated the Boxall Profile® Online

A tablet which shows the Boxall Profile Online on the screen

The Boxall Profile® Online is an invaluable online teaching resource for the assessment of children and young people’s social, emotional and behavioural development.

After researching and listening to user feedback we have been working hard to update the Boxall Profile® Online and we’re excited to share that the updates are now live.

A computer screen displaying the new Boxall Profile Online assessment tool

What’s new?

We have improved the layout, added much needed functionality such as the creation of custom groups and new ways to view and display data. Other features include:

  • NEW Boxall Profile® Online branding and website
  • NEW Layout 
  • NEW Class/School/Group & Strand View
  • NEW Search, Filtering & Custom Groups
  • NEW End of Year Migration
  • NEW Export Function
  • NEW Help & Support

A computer screen displaying the new Boxall Profile Online assessment tool

To find out more please read our product update blog at www.boxallprofile.org.

Here at nurtureuk we are committed to the ongoing development of the Boxall Profile® Online, to support Educational professionals in understanding the underlying needs of children and young people and to improve access to education for all.

Find out more on our website.

 

Nurture groups: creating a safe base for learning

Four school children and a female teacher

Across the UK, we’re seeing a dramatic spike in anxiety and absentee levels due to the impact of Covid-19 and broader socio-economic challenges. Severe absence has soared by 134% when compared to pre-pandemic levels, and more than a quarter of all children now regularly miss school. We know that 75% of children and young people who experience mental health problems aren’t getting the help they need and this makes it incredibly hard to give them the education they deserve. 

But there are proven ways to tackle this crisis, and increasing numbers of schools are turning to nurture interventions to help.

Nurture groups are small groups of six to 12 children, usually based in a mainstream setting. They are designed to address the social and emotional needs that can hamper pupils’ learning by providing them with the opportunity to build resilience, understand and regulate their emotions, develop essential social skills, and engage with the curriculum. As well as providing academic teaching, nurture groups help children to develop confidence and self-respect, and to take pride in behaving well and achieving. 

They are designed as a short term, part-time, focused intervention where children remain part of their own class group, and usually return full-time within four terms. The groups are based on the Six Principles of Nurture, which underpin the curriculum, context, theory and organisation of the intervention. 

The Six Principles of Nurture infographic

The inclusive and supportive nature of the group, which is led by two members of staff, helps children to feel safe and secure. The nurture staff engage with each child through a clear and predictable daily routine that includes emotional literacy sessions, news-sharing, group activities, curriculum tasks and nurture snack time. 

The friendly, supportive relationship between the two members of staff is also itself an important source of learning – a model for the pupils to observe and copy. Once the children are settled into the daily routine of the nurture group, their mainstream class teacher can be invited to join the children in the room for an activity such as snack time. By doing this, pupils see the two settings as one, ensuring consistency and security for the child, encouraging positive outcomes.

Nurture groups do not work in isolation, and it is vital that all staff understand the purpose of the intervention. Senior leaders should treat the nurture group as they would any other class, with regular assessment and progress meetings. The nurture group curriculum is inclusive, often play-based, and represents activities and learning that help the pupils’ to improve skills such as speaking and listening, dealing with anger, building trusting relationships, and developing empathy. 

The intervention seeks to combine the worlds of home and school for the child. Family and school are two influential systems in a child’s development and the idea that they are connected is particularly important to nurture practitioners for a joined-up approach to addressing difficulties. Nurture practitioners need to communicate openly with parents and carers so that they are fully informed about the nurture group principles and expected outcomes. As time progresses, parents and carers are invited in for sessions and activities with their child, thus building trusting relationships with parents and carers in the same way as they do with the nurture group pupils themselves. 

Nurture groups provide children and young people who are struggling to access education in the classroom a safe environment to develop skills that help them be able to learn. They are just one of the interventions on the graduated approach to nurture that ensures every child has access to the support they need, when they need it. 

If you’re interested in creating a nurture group for your setting, or learning more of the theory behind the approach, please visit our website. Our three-day certified Theory and Practice of Nurture Groups course equips staff with the practical skills needed to set up and run a group, whilst also providing a deeper understanding of the theory behind the intervention, and research on the developing brain and neuroscience.