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Why Schools and Children Need Nurture Groups
This chapter covers
how nurture groups enable schools to meet OFSTED criteria on inclusion
how nurture groups fit with the Every Child Matters outcomes
how having a nurture group helps a school adjust to meet the needs of the child, rather than the vulnerable child having to fit in with school demands
the principles and practice of nurture groups.
Introduction
For children to be successful at school, they need to be able to cope with many requirements. They need to be able to try out and learn new skills, cope with change, face problems, make and keep friends, care about other people, know when things are right and wrong and be able to make positive choices. Children also need to be âwilling to entrust themselves to the teacherâ and âhave an awareness of how the world around them functionsâ and be âsufficiently organized to attend and follow through what is requiredâ (Boxall, 2002). However, there are children who find it very difficult to cope with what is asked of them at school. For these children, simply being part of a large group, being asked to âhave a goâ at a task, or trying to cope with building a relationship with the teacher can be beyond what they can manage. School for these children is a threatening place, which often leaves their feelings and emotions in turmoil. They do not feel safe at school and a great deal of their energy is taken up with managing the anxiety that arises from this feeling. When confronted with demands made by school, these children will attempt to defend themselves from the anxiety, confusion or pain that they are feeling. We all use defences from time to time in our own lives. This is where we put up a psychological barrier that protects us from a perceived threat when interacting with others. When we feel emotionally unsafe we use defences to help us feel safer. For example, we may avoid what is difficult, or deny that there is a problem. We may idealize others and belittle ourselves, or we may rationalize a situation that we are finding difficult.
The defensive process is not in itself a problem. However, problems arise at school when the defence that the child uses gives rise to behaviour that causes difficulties for the child and people around them. This is where a child might display:
- temper tantrums, triggered by the slightest word or action
- aggressive behaviour
- very withdrawn behaviour.
Other children are without the personal resources needed for school. These children have poor personal organization. They have a limited knowledge and understanding about themselves and the world around them. They find it difficult to communicate with adults or children and often appear bewildered. They are restless and easily distracted. They find it hard to think things through and often lack a good attention span. There are also children who become aggressive or have tantrums as well as others who plunge in and grab and who seem unable to regulate their behaviour. There are also children who are very withdrawn at school and who are unable or unwilling to join in with class activities.
These are the children who worry teachers. These are the children who donât seem to âfitâ in the class. Teachers are unsure how to meet the needs of these children. They are anxious about how to build a relationship with the child. Many teachers are unsure of how to manage these children effectively and positively. They are anxious about how the child might react when their behaviour is questioned or confronted. Much of what is tried only seems to work for a limited time, or not to work at all. It often seems that the teachers feel guilty about how they are letting these children down. One teacher who was interviewed by nurture group staff in 2005 described the situation that she found herself in.
Your whole day really was around this child, from the moment he came in until the moment he left. I felt even though I tried lots of strategies, they would only work in the short term and then they wouldnât work any more. We would implement things such as sticker charts, or giving him a safe place to go ⊠and I just felt that these things worked for maybe one day or two days and then after that, he just wouldnât care about them any more and I felt that these things were quite superficial really.
Schools need to be able to meet the needs of these most vulnerable children. They should have the ability to intervene early when they recognize a child who is unable to cope with the demands of school life. As Marjorie Boxall argues, âif the child is unable to adjust to the needs of the school, then the school must adjust to meet the needs of the child.â Rather than these children facing anxious or hostile adults at school who are unsure of how to cope with the unpredictable and puzzling behaviour that these children are using to defend themselves from their own anxieties, she suggests that adults in schools ought to respond to children and care for them as if they were their own.
How can schools include these very challenging children? Can nurture groups provide a solution for schools? First we need to see how educationally inclusive practice is defined by OFSTED and the Department of Children, Schools and Families.
Childrenâs behaviour and how teachers feel
(following Ayres et al., 2000)
For many teachers, the behaviour of vulnerable children may present as:
- incomprehensible or inconsequential or puzzling
- under-achieving despite proven cognitive ability
- immature in comparison to others of the same age
- phobic
- anxious, withdrawn or depressed
- hostile
- unpredictable in terms of actions and reactions and where no obvious pattern emerges easily.
These children often leave teachers feeling:
- de-skilled, inadequate or helpless to bring about change or impart skills;
- angry
- despairing
- anxious
- depressed
- isolated.
Running a Nurture Group. SAGE © Simon Bishop 2008
OFSTED inclusion criteria
OFSTED says inclusive practice is:
One in which the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes and well-being of every young person matter. Effective schools are educationally inclusive schools. This shows ⊠in their ethos and willingness to offer new opportunities to pupils who may have experienced previous difficulties. This does not mean treating all pupils the same way. Rather it involves taking account of pupilsâ varied life experiences and needs. (Evaluating Educational Inclusion: Guidance for inspectors and schools. OFSTED, 2000:7)
The Department of Children, Schools and Families says:
- the culture, practice, management and deployment of resources in a school or setting are designed to ensure all childrenâs needs are met
- LEAs, schools and settings work together to ensure that any childâs special educational needs are identified early
- LEAs, schools and settings exploit best practice when devising interventions. (DfES, 2001)
The question that needs to be asked is how teachers and schools can meet the needs of all children within the mainstream class. How can the school take account of each childâs life experiences and hope to create a safe environment within which the child will be able to learn and develop? With the children described above, there has been a breakdown in the care provided by the home or an absence of this care. Whilst at school, these children are in an almost constant defensive state, ready to protect themselves from threat. Their minds often seem to be in turmoil, and because of this turmoil, they are not ready or able to learn. Indeed, their behaviour can mean that it becomes very difficult for the teacher to teach effectively. Heather Geddes, writing in her excellent book Attachment in the classroom (Geddes, 2006) argues that:
Teachers are inadequately prepared for responding to such challenges. There is little training for working with pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in initial teacher training ⊠In this respect, when teachers and other education staff are overwhelmed by the demands of anxious children, the experience of adverse attachment can be replicated. The teacher can become reactive and respond with rejection, criticism and punishment. The pupil can re-experience the overwhelming uncertainties of early infancy which were not adequately contained in the primary Attachment relationship. (Geddes, 2006)
There are two problems facing schools with regard to managing children who demonstrate very difficult behaviour at school.
- Knowledge and understanding about how childrenâs behaviour is affected by their earliest relationships and experiences is not yet widely available to practitioners in the world of education.
- Many schools are not sure what to do with children who have emotional and behavioural difficulties. Interventions are put in place once the behaviour has become a problem and this can often ...
