The Nurture Hub

The Nurture Hub

Within Durham, we have a number of schools successfully running nurture groups in their schools with positive outcomes consistently shown for the children and young people with social and emotional needs. In light of this, four Nurture Hubs have been developed across County Durham, and we are incredibly proud to be one of them.

The aim of the Nurture Hub is to promote the use of nurture principles in schools across County Durham. Alongside this we have also opened up spaces within our school Nurture Groups to allow children from local schools to access a Nurture Group where one is not available in their current school.  

Aims of Nurture

At Pelton Community Primary School , we believe all children should achieve their full potential through an inclusive and supportive approach. Our Nurture Group provides further opportunities for pupils to develop positive, secure relationships with teachers and peers in a supportive environment.

The Nurture Group aims to support our children to develop their self-esteem, confidence, and social skills. Within the group, there is a special emphasis on developing genuine and supportive relationships and pupils are given the time they need both to listen and be listened to. This work enhances relationships within their classroom and supports children to be in a ready to learn state.

Children are given opportunities to talk through and reflect upon any uncomfortable feelings. Children are given support to find ways to verbalise challenges they may face on a day-to-day basis and offered strategies to manage and cope with these. 

A whole school approach

At Pelton Community Primary School, we believe that Nurture is not just about the groups that we run but also an important framework for working with children across our school. We adopt a nurturing ethos across our whole school community and promote this approach in other schools, to support the work our Nurture Groups do. We closely follow the 6 principles of Nurture.

Implementation

• Children that would benefit from access to our Nurture Groups are identified by staff within our school.
• For pupils accessing the Nurture Group from external schools, the pupil’s school will identify their needs and request support through the Primary Inclusion Partnership. One outcome of this may be accessing a Nurture Group within a Nurture Hub.
• Group dynamics are carefully considered when creating an effective Nurture Group.
• We work closely with parents, senior leaders, staff teaching teams and wider professionals so we are able to tailor support within the nurture group to provide the best outcomes for the pupils.
• We will always discuss the aims of the work with parents and carers before a child accesses a Nurture Group.
• The diagnostic tool “The Boxall Profile” is used to identify individual needs of the children. This will inform targeted support and help track progress across the sessions.
• Nurture involves active listening and response. There is an emphasis upon adults engaging with children in reciprocal shared activities such as reading and play.
• Nurture is a place where small achievements are praised, success is recognised and built upon. In addition, efforts will be recognised and emphasised during more challenging tasks; with a focus on how we can learn through practise, mistakes, and small steps.
• Children will access three sessions weekly, each session lasting a minimum of two hours.  This will be offered from one to four terms.
• It is important that every child maintains their sense of belonging to their usual class and we therefore ensure that a child does not miss out on special outings, visitors or school events with their class peer group.

Measuring the Impact of Nurture

• Our aim is for children that access Nurture to view their time there as positive and for them to be present, happy and engaged when there.
• We value student voice so the feedback we gather will feed into our provision.
• The impact of the work will be explored through seeking feedback from teachers, parents, carers, and external professionals.
• We also gather data from a Boxall Profile which is completed by the child’s class teacher and nurture staff following the intervention. This will highlight the specific areas progress has been made.
• Daily class records are also kept and should note an increase in behaviours associated with self-confidence, emotional awareness and positive interactions.