Do any Mumsnetters have childen who attend a Nurture Group at school? Can I talk to you about it?

[mrsmaidamess]

I have a couple of questions as I will be helping to restart my schools NG soon.

Selecting the children and assessing the children I am fine with, its how to communicate to the parents that we think their child needs to attend.

How did your NG communicate this with you? Who did it? Was there anything they could have done better?

How often do you get to visit the NG, and what was that visit like?

Any help gratefully received!

What is a nurture group?

A Nurture Group is an intervention group set up in a school (primary usually, but also secondary) to support children who are having difficulties in some respects at school which are hampering their learning .

It could be problems communicating (shyness, elective mutism, shouting out all the time), or children who can't share etc etc.

Nurture Groups provide a safe, trusting environment where children with Social Emotional or Behavioural problems can start to learn skills that will help them learn better in the classroom.

Anyone around tonight with any experience?

Yes dd1 does. What do you want to know?

Ha, sorry, I'll read the post instead of just the title then reply properly!

Mrs Maidamness, I'm not a parent, but I'm a classteacher with children in our nurture group. This is what we did:

My job-share teacher and I talked to parents at parents evening. One of the parents/carers already knew about it as they were caring for a looked after child and it was in his care plan.

With the others, we explained that it was an opportunity for the children to have more individual attention, to build good relationships with a smaller group of children etc. We stressed that they would be returning to the class in the afternoons so that their bonds with their class would continue. We explained that the nurture group teacher and class teacher would be working closely together and that some similar themes may be followed. We told them that their child's attendance in the nurture group would be reviewed with them every 6 weeks so that all parties (nurture teacher, nurture TA, classteacher, parent/carer) could discuss progress/issues.

Does that help at all?

I have run a few of these at my school.
We never had any problem selling it to the kids or parents tbh.
We just sent letters out to the parents stating that there child had been invited to an extra curricular group and what we had planned.
We also told them it would help develop friendships , confidence etc. The parents were fine with it tbh and we had a waiting list of children who all wanted to join.

I think just be honest and state your objectives. Most parents will know if there child is shy , nervous , struggles to build friendships etc and are usually glad of the help given this is aimed at many children who fall through the net of 'support'

They are fab we had a lot of success and good feedback from parents and children.

Thanks lily and little, that really is helpful.

It's a bit of a story, are you sitting comfortably?

dd1 was having dreadful problems after going into the juniors. She goes to a very small school, and there were only two other girls in her year, neither of whom she particularly gets on with. She had very good friends out of school, and I think she'd got to the age where she realised that she'd not got that kind of relationship with anyone at school. Combined with moving classes, and a new teacher, and sitting on a table full of boys - and being at what I understand is a very difficult age (the start of year 3) I think it just got a bit much. She wasn't sleeping very well, literally waking for several hours a night, when she was sleeping she was on a mattress on the floor next to her little sister. She would cry when we got to school, cry during school, cry on the way home and cry in the night at the thought of going to school. We very seriously considered moving her to another school where there were more peers, and had a state school nearby had spaces we would have done. We started meeting with the Head to try to work together to make things better for dd1, and at one of our sessions she suggested the nurture group. I was a bit sceptical at first, as it seemed to really be for children with behavioural and emotional difficulties which I didn't feel dd1 had, but I felt we had to accept it as the Head was offering.

I'm not sure whether it's actually done any good - school say that she now plays with other children at playtime, but whether this would have happened by now without intervention I don't know. But they don't seem to be doing her any harm which is the main thing!

She's had perhaps 8 or 10 sessions, and I was invited to one a few weeks ago. I was surprised at how babyish dd1 seemed in the session, but she was very excited that I was there. She just chose some games to play and she, the SENCO and I played them.

Does this help? Sorry it's long!

Oh, perhaps what dd1 does isn't a nurture group then as it's just individual children with the SENCO, not a group as such? Perhaps that's something different.

My point BH , most parents would know why you would offer this to their child.

I also strongly advise getting other children not involved excited about this, as that (we found) helped keep the group from being stigmatised in any way.
Even made the children in the group feel lucky for being chosen.

Barking thanks for your experience, I'm glad it had a positive outcome with your dd.

I agree with Lilyloo. We took the whole class down to spend time in our nurture group. They all want to go there now!

From time to time, we all go back for a visit, and the children who attend are always very proud to show us around the room and their displays etc.

dd2 attends a nurture group and loves it she feels so proud to be a 'chosen one'. She is really lacking in confidence and being top of the tree in a small group has worked wonders for her. Initially her class teacher spoke to me about including her and after she started to attend I then spoke to the teacher who runs this. I oculd see there was an issue so felt relieved they were addressin it. I really don't need to hear about her progress as I can see the results. We have parents evening coming up though and I also get a slot with her NG teacher. I feel she is looked after, supported and encouraged in her NG of 6, in a way she wouldn't be in a class of 28.

Aw kc thats really good. I'm so looking forward to supporting children like your dd .