Is it unusual for secondaries to have a ‘nurture room’ of some kind?

[PDAPDA]

I’m sorry if I have the phrase for this wrong - by a ‘nurture room’, I mean a specific staffed/supervised in school area where a pupil can go if they need to be outside of classroom lessons to do work or to do something else if the classroom is too much.

Is this alternative dedicated space something that’s very rare in UK secondaries? I’m looking at a few schools and they don’t seem to provide this.

I also meant to specify that I meant MS secondary, sorry

We have one at our High School, I think lots do

That’s good to hear. I can’t seem to find one. I don’t mean when the school says that your child can work on their own in the library if they have a time out card. Or they say if it all gets too much your child can come and see us for a bit in the senco team room. They don’t really work because the suitability of those facilities is always dependent on what else needs to be happening in those spaces.

I’m looking for a school with an area dedicated to pupils with any kind of additional need who might need to have a staffed space to be in, because the rest of the school site won’t always suit them. It feels like the minimum provision for an inclusive school to have but seems hard to find

yes it is unusual. Schools may offer time out in a time out room but this is usually for a short period of time to give a student space to reset or calm before returning. It is usually also used to house students who have been sent out due to poor behaviour as well. It is not that common for this to be available for the whole lesson and for it to be solely for students with additional needs. If a student needs regular time outside the classroom to work alone then this might suggest that a mainstream school may not meet their needs. Most secondaries simply don't have the staff to supervise these quiet, withdrawal rooms which is a shame. However I think if they did they would soon become noisy, disrupted spaces which would be overwhelmed with too many students and some students who need higher staff ratios and who are demonstrating challenging behaviour.

The school I work in has a pastoral room for that purpose, that is separate to the learning support room. State comp

Some students may spend a whole day in there at times, some may spend 10 minutes a month, every day is different but I've never gone in and there not be students in there.
There is currently a huge amount of anxiety among YP, some would be avoiding school completely if this wasn't an option

It varies school to school. It isn’t rare for there to be a SEN area where pupils can go, but it isn’t rare for there not to be a staffed area either especially because budgets are tighter than they used to be so some schools may have an area but only have it staffed for specific work/interventions or where pupils have 1:1.

In one Secondary school in my area there is definitely a room for kids with SEND to retreat to if needed. It is open all of the school day and usually staffed. This was the school I chose to send DD to as the other Secondary in our catchment area had a pastoral room that was open for two afternoons a week and if DD hadn't been able to time being overwhelmed at just those times she would have had nowhere to go. Both schools are academies in different groups.

Unfortunately it really is hit or miss for SEND provision. On the other hand my DD got left behind and became more isolated because she used the quiet room for every break and lunchtime and just didn't speak to anyone outside of lessons.

Our secondary has one but it is very hard to access because of the huge number of pupils needing to use it. In our case children were not allowed to just go there when they wanted/needed to, there was a timetable and they could have access during specific periods at the teacher's discretion - as @QuickFetchTheCoffee says, this is fine if the child can timetable when they are going to get overwhelmed.

The other issue with ours was that the children accessing it were there for a range of reasons, including a high proportion with behavioural issues, so it was definitely not a quiet space. Again, for a sensitive autistic child this was a complete nightmare.

Ours has one. DD can go there when she likes

Quite common I think, or they were when I was looking for a secondary for my girl with ASD. She has an EHCP with access to TA support though. She often sits out lessons and works with a TA in the SEN hub/room. She had a pass to exit lessons when overwhelmed. The school have been amazing at supporting her in a way that fits her needs.