Nurture Research in Angus
From the turn of the 21st century, nurture and Nurture Groups have had a slow and steady rise across Scotland and have evolved and changed from being delivered solely as a traditional targeted intervention to becoming a whole school approach. This approach seeks to inform how schools and early years establishments support wellbeing and promote positive relationships within the wider school community.
We have worked closely with the Angus Early Years nurture Team to evaluate the development of Nurture Spaces and Cosy Corners in Angus schools with a view to developing whole school approaches to nurture.
An evaluation of the development of the nurture space at Southesk Primary School can be found here, and a summary of the longitudinal study at Hayshead Primary school can be found here
Nurture Interventions and Supports
Schools wishing to develop nurturing approaches may find these Education Scotland resources helpful. We are available to support with developing nurturing approaches in your school; please arrange for consultation with your link EP in the first instance.
The Compassionate and Connected Classroom is a curricular resource is designed to specifically build teacher confidence and support the emotional and mental wellbeing of children in upper primary. It supports children to understand more about adversity and trauma; to develop compassion and empathy and to improve coping skills and resilience.
Applying Nurture as a Whole School Approach is a self-evaluation framework to support schools and early learning and childcare settings who are applying a whole-school approach to nurture. It also provides a range of practical tools that can be used to triangulate self-evaluation information and support the implementation of nurturing approaches, along with focus group prompts, a questionnaire for staff and parents, and readiness checklist.
