Nurture
Clare Viney is our lead educational consultant for Nurture. She has had full training in ‘The Theory and Practice of Nurture Groups’ and extensive experience of supporting schools in developing their nurture provision. SENDsupported works with schools and families to better understand young people’s underlying barriers to learning, including challenges that may be associated with attachment difficulties or trauma of some kind. We provide individually tailored support and advice, working with young people, families, teachers, SENCOs and senior leaders to remove the barriers that attachment difficulties can create, both socially and academically.
We develop bespoke nurture provision within schools, personalised to children’s needs and school budgets, incorporating a graduated response to need. Find out more in this endorsement from St Augustine’s Catholic Primary:
“With Clare’s support, we have been running a small group, based on nurture principals, for over a term now. Clare initially met with us to informally assess the needs of our children and to consider the capacity we have to provide any sort of nurture provision. From the start Clare gave us the confidence to take a risk and make the best use out of the limited resources and time we have available. Clare then supported us in formally identifying four children to participate in a nurture group and in analysing their needs using a Boxall Profile. Once a group was established Clare made some great recommendations for tasks, timetabling and books we could use to make the group our own.
With the help of SEND supported our nurture group has been a real success. The individual Boxall profiles, parental and staff feedback all indicate that the children have made some progress socially and emotionally. Moving forward we can’t wait to develop our group further and have already begun to identify other children who would also benefit from the experience. Thank you SENDsupported.” (Helen Scott, SENCo)
Bespoke provision could include:
- Developing a nurturing environment that can provide a safe space within school.
- Developing a specialised curriculum grounded within the principles of nurture.
- Cascading nurturing practices throughout school.
- A range of formal and informal assessment approaches – observations of the learner in class, Boxall Profile, structured conversation with the learner, teaching staff and families.
- Familiarising staff in the use of the Boxall Profile to assess and monitor the progress of key children.
- Direct work with a learner to find out their views and wishes.
- Meetings with schools and families to plan provision.
- Increasing children’s language and communication skills, including emotional literacy, through planning explicit teaching opportunities and activities.
- A focus on developing resilience in children, staff and parents.
Please contact SEND Supported if you would like to find out more about Nurture provision.