It is a pleasure to welcome you to our third annual issue of the International Journal of Nurture in Education. The current issue is a special edition focusing on the unique and valuable viewpoint of the reflective practitioner researcher. It is devoted to those who are backing up practice with their own school and classroom based research, often as part of a further research degree. Each of the four papers explores the value of nurture groups, although each has its own unique characteristics.

Topics that are covered in this volume include:

• Lisa Lyon conducts a pilot study of the effectiveness of a nurture group in a secondary special school and explores the outcomes of a nurture group running in a special school.
• Jacqueline Perkins discusses how we can be improving our practice by conducting a small-scale study of a secondary nurture group. It investigates the motivation and achievement of pupils attending a nurture group compared to pupils with similar background who did not receive nurture provision.
• Fiona Durrant presents nurture and youth work: aiding transition, a paper that compares and contrasts the work of nurture groups and youth work, highlighting how each type of support could benefit from expertise exchange.
• Carol Kennedy discusses knitting and nurturing, by providing a qualitative account of staff reflections on knitting with pupils and looks at the outcomes of knitting within a nurture group.