Nurture School Foundations: The Relational Practice Award

Take your first steps towards recognised nurture school status with our first relational award for schools

Struggling with behaviour or inclusion? Take your first steps as a school with relational practice and work towards becoming your first national award.

We know that behind every "challenging" behavior is a child seeking connection. This new subscription-integrated programme gives your staff the confidence to meet those needs through the Power of Three:

Relational Practice (The Foundation): Neuroscience tells us that the "thinking brain" (the prefrontal cortex) shuts down when a child feels disconnected. We help your staff become the external "regulators" students need to feel safe enough to learn.
The Six Principles of Nurture (The Framework): These principles, such as understanding that all behavior is communication, provide a consistent language for your entire staff.
The Boxall Profile® (The Tool): No more guesswork. This tool creates a visual map of a student’s social and emotional needs, turning data into targeted, manageable goals.

The Foundation Award is not a "one-size-fits-all" model; it is a 12-month journey of discovery designed to be suitable for every school, whatever your starting point.

You'll decide where to focus your efforts, and get to grips with nurture principles, relational practice and the Boxall Profile® and get national recognition for your progress.

Successful schools are those where parental engagement is at the centre of the school ethos as opposed to being at the periphery.

Healthy Schools co-ordinator, Salford PCT

You'll get a 12-month structured programme of activity and learning built around the Boxall Profile® Online and a guided approach to take you through implementing your first steps to be a relational school that excels at inclusion. own speed. The programme:

A full Boxall Profile® Online subscription set up to support your whole team. Our award-winning digital tool, with unlimited users and assessments, will help you to identify social and emotional development needs of your pupils, target your interventions and manage your award application.
E-learning access for your awards team and your whole staff help you get to grips with relational practice, the Boxall Profile Online and the Six Principles of Nurture
Downloadable inset sessions for training up your team
Full guidance on completing your award
Access to support with the Boxall Profile® Online and the programme whenever you need it
An assessment and award certificate if you successfully meet the standards of the award

After signing up, you'll be guided through setting up an award team, identifying a pilot group to make changes, assessing your baseline data and progress, and implementing changes that fit your school's context. Depending on where you choose to focus your efforts, you'll see improvements for your target group in:

Attendance
Engagement
Behaviour
Social and Emotional Development

Your work will prepare you for implementing whole-school changes to embed the relational approach and nurture.

The Nurture School Foundation Award is for schools that are looking to take their first steps towards going whole-school with nurture and the relational approach to boost inclusion, improve behaviour and attendance, and create a welcoming school culture.

It's a first award, marking your progress with the relational approach, and can be used as a stepping stone towards recognition with the National Nurturing School Award.

This programme is at the discover level of our product framework.

Next steps include deepening your understanding of relational practice with our Relational Approach e-learning, and taking your school on to full recognition of excellence in nurture and relational practice with the National Nurturing Schools Award.