Does anyone know anything about Nurture rooms in primary schools?

[deaconblue]

DS (yr 1) has aspergers and after 6 months of no TA support at all and worsening behaviour school are finally trying to put some things in place to help him. he has a new sensible IEP and is getting some TA support. His teacher has mentioned today that they think he would be a candidate for the nurture room at school. I know nothing about nurture rooms but it sounds suspiciously like a glorified exclusion room to me. Ds would probably love spending his day with an adult on tap in a quiet, peaceful room but I can't see how his social problems will be helped by being away from the other children. Ultimately we want/need him to be able to behave appropriately IN the classroom with all the other children. Would really welcome some information/anecdotes about nurture rooms and their benefits or disadvantages.

Nuture Room is a bit of an umbrella term which means different things to different people. However the general principle is that the children are in a smaller group of children, which means they get a much higher level of attention, and often a much higher proportion of the time is spent on social skills than would be in a full class of 30. They can be brilliant for teaching dcs how to "cope with life" rather than in a full classroom where there is little time for that, and children are expected to 'know' what to do / how to get on with each other.
Some schools form a class of children who are in the Nuture Group for a term, or 6 weeks, or 1/2 a year all the time. Others have children in the Nuture room for a part of the day and they are part of their class for the rest of the day.
I'd suggest going in to talk to the staff at school and finding out what happens at your school.
Questions to ask are - how will he be integrated back into a full class ? When does this happen ? What support will he get for this to happen ? How long do they expect him to be in the nuture class? What specifically will they be working on in the NC that they couldn't do in the full class.
Do look into it without prejudice though - you sound like you've decided it's a bad thing in your OP, but they can be brilliant, and so helpful for children who have difficulty coping with social situations.

One school I know does have a small room that is used primarily by one particular child as his usual workspace. Other children go into the room to work with him on particular sessions. He joins the main class for other identified (short) sessions. This arrangement has been put in place as the best current option after others have been tried - his anxiety/stimulation level in the main classroom is such that he can very rarely learn in those circumstances. The other children in the class were also having their learning severely interrupted.

Now, it probably does look like an exclusion room; the arrangement doesn't bear much relation to pure inclusion. But the fact is that his academic progress, AND his social progress, have made leaps and bounds since that arrangement has been put in place. Intense daily work on social skills and language takes place, as well as literacy and numeracy. He has defined times in the day when he can put those skills into practice, and there is a place where there is still potential for him to do productive learning even when his stress levels are too high to allow him to be with other children safely.

I think you definitely need to understand what the school has in mind, what the direction of travel is, what role the nurture room has - but it could be a really good thing. Is the aim of school to learn how to be at school, or to prepare for later life?

'Ds would probably love spending his day with an adult on tap in a quiet, peaceful room' - is that so terrible?

thanks. I think I'm nervous of it because school have been giving me the run around about TA support. It was taken away in October and I was told he was managing so well he didn't need support or even an IEP. So he's had no support at all for 6 months and his behaviour has really slipped. They are only putting things in place now because I have become increasingly stroppy. This feels like an easy/cheap option since the room will be used by other children anyway.
Thanks for your suggested questions, they will be of great help to me to discover how they intend to use the room to help ds.

Taking his TA away is even more reason now to apply for a Statement of special needs for him. You need to write to the LEA and apply for the statement because this school won't do it.

You are truly your child's best and only advocate.

They took his TA away from him and could do this readily to boot as well because there is no statement in place for your son. A statement will give your son legal protection which he is not currently receiving.

You have been given the real runaround by this school; ultimately you may have to find another school for him. You haven't got an IEP now for him as they have told you erroneously that he is managing at school. If his additional needs at school have not been met for the last 6 months it is of no real surprise therefore that his behaviour has slipped. This school are failing him currently.

Nurture rooms do have their place and can be useful to children with socialisation or behavioural issues. A nurture room alone in my opinion will not help your DS with his additional needs in the longer term i.e when he transfers to Junior school.

Thanks Attila. We've been to two schools this week and hope one may be right for him. I am putting together a folder logging any incidents but am hoping a new school may help us apply for a statement. I'm guessing we will need a lot of evidence? We were assuming all had been going well until a few weeks ago so hadn't kept records.
He's been sitting on his own at lunch all week, I'm worried he is becoming increasingly isolated

Keep gathering evidence as you state.

Re the statement though do not let any school apply for it. Many schools sit on such apps for ages and they cannot appeal in the event the LEA say no to assessment. Make any such request yourself when you can (do not forget either that it can take a minimum of 6 months to set up such a document).

www.ipsea.org.uk is a good website to use re the statementing process.

Thanks so much. Will get started properly