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Nurture:
At Rillington Primary School we are incredibly proud to be on the journey to achieving The National Nurturing Schools Award, this is an 18 month journey that we very much think will support our SEMH offer. The award allows staff to further develop and embed a nurturing culture throughout the school, enhancing teaching and learning, promoting healthy outcomes for all children by focusing on the emotional needs and development as well as the academic learning in a whole school environment.
Who benefits?
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Pupil’s benefit – from the approach that supports them in their specific needs while delivering teaching and learning in a way that all can access. The pupil is at the heart of the school focus and their learning is understood developmentally.
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Parent’s benefit – from being involved and welcomed in school, in seeing the improvement in children’s learning, behaviour, confidence and attendance. A better outcome for their children, both in and out of the school and classroom.
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Teacher’s benefit – from a renewed focus on their pupils and a culture change where every voice counts. A more balanced measure of outcomes for individual pupils.
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School’s benefit – from showing our commitment to developing an ethos and culture that is inclusive and supports everyone in and associated with the school
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Communities benefit – from having a school that wants to be at the heart of the community and demonstrates its central role in children and young people’s lives
The 6 Principles of Nurture:
The National Nurturing Schools Programme focuses on the six principles of nurture. The principles have successfully underpinned nurture for over 40 years.
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Children's learning is understood developmentally
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The classroom offers a safe base
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The importance of nurture for the development of wellbeing
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Language is a vital means of communication
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All behaviour is communication
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The importance of transition in children's lives
Principle 1 - Children’s learning is understood developmentally.
This principle is about responding to children in terms of their developmental stage not chronological age with a non-judgemental and accepting attitude. Thinking about what the child needs to learn, giving consideration to what might have happened to them during their development. This should underpin thinking about all of the other nurture principles. It takes a holistic view of children’s learning and includes all aspects of their development including language, social and emotional development as well as cognitive development.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by:
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Every teacher completes a Boxall profile for the children in their class. This is a tool that we use to assess the Social, emotional, and mental health needs of each child. It gives the teacher an idea of the child’s strengths and areas that might have an impact on their learning. From the Boxall profile, whole class strategies and individual targets are set.
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All staff use clear and precise language when working with the children, adults are careful to give children extra time to process what is been asked.
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All staff are aware of the children’s needs and abilities, manageable small steps are used with just the right level of challenge to build self-worth and confidence.
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Staff draw on prior knowledge and real-life experiences to make learning meaningful and enjoyable.
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Brain breaks are used for some children who struggle to stay focused for prolonged periods of time.
Principle 4 - Language is a vital means of communication.
At Rillington, adults understand the importance of their own language when engaging with the children, and how this might have an impact on how they might feel and act. Children feel valued and heard. They can confidently express their views, thoughts and feelings. Language is not just a skill that needs to be learnt, itplays a vital role in building children’s self-worth and confidence.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by:
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At Rillington school our school council play an active role in collecting the views of their class friends and bringing their suggestions back to the meetings. We discuss as a council, targets to set the headteacher on ways in which the school can be improved.
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Mrs Grant delivers a speech and language intervention to our SEND children across school. This can help support various speech and language difficulties by building skills that increases self-worth and confidence
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At Rillington we understand how important it is for our children’s speech and language needs to beidentified early, so they have the fundamental foundations needed for good language and social development. In Early years we deliver two speech and language interventions, Talk boast and Neli . These interventions not only develop their understanding and use of language but also children learn vital skills like attention and turn taking.
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One of the vital forms of communication used around school is the ability to listen, more than that, to hear. When a child is in distress or crisis every member of staff is able to relate, sympathise and empathise with the child while working towards a resolution.
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A calm environment is maintained throughout school with the careful use of non-verbal communication. Visual clues such as a hand in the air for quiet, allows staff to communicate high expectations to all pupils.
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Children use worry boxes/worry monsters in school to talk about things that are making them feel anxious.
Principle 2 - The Classroom offers a safe base
The classroom environment is inviting and nurturing for all. The classroom offers a balance of educational and social, emotional and mental health experiences aimed at supporting the development of children’s relationships with each other and with staff. Adults are reliable and consistent in their approach to children and make the important link between emotional containment and cognitive learning.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by :
- Every classroom has a visual timetable which sets out the daily routines of the day, in a way the children understand. The timetable is referred to throughout the day, as it acts as an anchor for children as their emotional state changes.
- Classroom environments are calm and welcoming and reflect the nurture principles.
- Every child and adult across school take part in the wellbeing check-in on a morning. This allows staff to identify children who feel dysregulated and unable to learn. All staff have developed strategies to enable children to communicate their emotions and can respond appropriately to their individual needs.
- A key familiar adult greets the children at the beginning of every day.
- Children identify their emotions using the zones of regulation. We can learn to use tools and strategies for our different zones in order to meet goals like doing school work or other tasks, managing big feelings and healthy relationships with others. In order to support the children with this, every classroom has a selection of regulation bags linked to the zones and a sensory area.
Principle 5 - Behaviour is a form of communication.
At Rillington At Rillington, the concept that all behaviour is a form of communication is deeply rooted in the approach we take when working with the children at Rillington Primary School. Staff spend time building strong trusting relationships, identifying individuals strengths and weaknesses, adapting our own responses and learning environment to meet the needs of the child and support them to express their needs and thoughts appropriately.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by:
- Children identify their emotions using the zones of regulation. We can learn to use tools and strategies for our different zones in order to meet goals like doing school work or other tasks, managing big feelings and healthy relationships with others. In order to support the children with this, every classroom has a selection of regulation bags.
- Every child and adult across school take part in a daily wellbeing check-in. This allows staff to identify children who feel dysregulated and unable to learn. All staff have developed strategies to enable children to communicate their emotions and can respond appropriately to their individual needs.
- The calm nurturing classroom offers a safe base with trusted adults, where they can freely express how they are feeling. The classroom has a range of resources to support the children in being able to self-regulate at times that they or the adult identify as difficult. The sensory area in each room offers a calm space where children can take time to gather their thoughts and feelings.
- At Rillington school we use restorative practice as part of our behaviour policy. This allows children to have a voice and take responsibility for their behaviour. We work together to reflect on behaviour, acknowledge that something wrong has happened and find solutions to move forward while maintaining strong mutual friendships with our peers.
- Children can be offered a specific intervention to support them in being able to identify how they are feeling. This could be any of the following;
- 1 to 1 sand story skills session
- Sensory session following a sensory diet
- Specific intervention to identify how a child feels and strategies to deal with strong feelings.
- Nurture baking/ craft session
Principle 3 - The importance of nurture for the development of wellbeing.
At Rillington we work extremely hard on building strong, trusting relationships with our children. We understand how to achieve the very best for the children in our class and make adaptions to the curriculum and learning environment to support the needs of every single child in our care. Children are taught how to manage their emotions and can identify when they need to ask for help or use a strategy for support.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by:
- Every classroom has a visual timetable which sets out the daily routines of the day, in a way the children understand. The timetable is referred to throughout the day, as it acts as an anchor for children as their emotional state changes.
- Children are taught during PSHE lessons about mental health and wellbeing. They learn about the hand-brain model to give them an understanding of dysregulation and how the brain works.
- Every child and adult across school take part in a wellbeing check-in on a morning. This allows staff to identify children who feel dysregulated and are unable to learn. All staff have developed strategies to enable children to communicate their emotions and can respond appropriately to their individual needs.
- A key familiar adult greets the children at the beginning of every day, children arrive into a calm classroom.
- Children identify their emotions using the zones of regulation. We can learn to use tools and strategies for our different zones in order to meet goals like doing school work or other tasks, managing big feelings and healthy relationships with others. In order to support the children with this, every classroom has a selection of regulation bags.
- We use mistakes and setbacks as a normal and helpful part of the learning process, regardless of the subject. Admitting to our own mistakes is a great way of modelling this. Activities which have more than one right answer can help to promote different ways of thinking and provide opportunities for choice and control.
- School council express children’s views through a series of regular meetings with SLT.
- Every child in school has a Boxall profile, this is completed by the adult that knows them best. This assessment identifies any SEMH needs a child may have.
Principle 6 - The importance of transition in children’s lives.
At Rillington, adults understand that from the minute a child enters the school gates, life becomes a series of transitions that they then have to navigate without their familiar adult. Staff understand the impact that this can have on a child’s mental health and wellbeing and provide strategies and resources to support both parents and children in making transitions’ less stressful.
At Rillington Primary School we support the principle by:
- Staff reassure children and let them know what will happen each day. Children feel secure in knowing what is happening now and what is going to happen next. Systems are in place to let children and families know of any changes. Children use the visual timetables throughout the day to support them with changes that may happen.
- Towards the end of the summer term, children visit their new teacher and class. They spend time becoming familiar with their new environment and teacher, they fill in an ‘All about me’ sheet so teachers can begin to understand what the children like/dislike or struggle with within the classroom.
- In the summer term the year 6 children begin to have sessions to support their transition to Secondary school. We use the resource Smart moves which is based on the resilience framework.
- The sidewalk project offers our SEND children 1 to1 mentoring sessions to reduce stress and anxiety while transitioning to secondary school.
- Class teachers meet in the summer term to discuss the new children coming into their class. The class teacher fills out a child passport to discuss key points at the meeting.
- Stay and play sessions take place every week, for children age 18mths onwards. Parents and carers can bring their children to our Early years setting and spend time with staff. This allows both parents and children time to build relationships with other families from the community, members of staff and be familiar with the rules and routines of school life.
- Where possible, the children are greeted by the same person every day. This encourages the start of positive attachments and helps the child to feel more secure when entering the classroom.
