Nurturing Programme Evaluation (schools)
2008
Staff and Pupil Perspectives of the Family Links Nurturing Programme: An evaluation of the Andover Programme.
Research and Evaluation Unit, Hampshire Educational Psychology Service 2008. Hampshire County Council.
This report assessed school staff and pupil responses to training in the Schools Nurturing Programme. Staff were overwhelmingly positive about the programme with 96% rating the content as either “useful” or “extremely useful” and over 70% reporting that they were confident and motivated to apply the techniques. About 14% of school staff (primarily teachers) reported already being familiar with some of the content. However the experiential nature of the training made re-visiting themes acceptable. They also found training with a wider group of colleagues valuable in establishing a shared understanding and a whole school approach. Much of the Nurturing Programme is mediated through circle time. Children perceived these sessions positively and on average rated it as 8.32 (on a scale of 0-10). Read the full report.
2006
Sustaining Emotional Literacy - an evaluation of the medium- to long-term impact of the Nurturing Programme in schools, Dr Tony Eaude
This evaluation considered how the Nurturing Programme had been adopted and adapted within several schools and its impact on children, professionals and school culture. The quality of the initial training was rated very highly and regarded as making a significant and positive impact on school culture. The way in which the language had helped the whole school community to have a common way of discussing feelings and behaviour, and children to reflect on their behaviour, was commented on frequently, especially where the Nurturing Programme was most successfully embedded. Overall the Nurturing Programme was judged to have had a considerable positive effect on children’s emotional literacy and on school culture in a substantial majority of those schools responding, many in very disadvantaged and challenging communities. Read the full report.
2005
The Family Links Nurturing Programme: A report of a qualitative evaluation of training and implementation, Dr Virginia MacNeill
An evaluation of the Family Links home - school linked training that aimed to provide an insight into how teachers, support staff and parents experienced the Nurturing Programme training provided by Family Links, what they valued about it and their thoughts on its application within the home and school environment. Teaching staff thought the two-day course enhanced team working skills, improved confidence and communications skills, promoted great empathy with children and increased knowledge and understanding of tools and techniques for promoting children’s social, emotional and behavioural development. In the classroom longer term there was widespread and regular use of Circle Time but techniques often failed to filter through to other activities in the week. There was a perception that it had made a positive difference to the social, emotional and behavioural development of some children. Parents who took part in the Nurturing Programme for parents reported a better understanding of family relationships and parenting, improved confidence and communication with their children and more positive attitudes towards them. Read the full report.
2004
Evaluation of a Course on Emotional Education in Initial Teacher Training, Dr Katherine Weare and Dr Robert Stratford, University of Southampton
A two-day course on emotional education was taught to primary initial teacher training students at the University of Warwick by staff from Family Links in Oxford and evaluated by staff from the University of Southampton. The course was successful in terms of its impact on confidence, degree to which it met its aims and degree to which the students enjoyed it. Nearly 90% of students found most of the topics covered either ‘extremely useful’ or ‘useful’ and over 90% felt positive about putting them into practice. They particularly appreciated this course for its focus on behaviour management. Choices and Consequences was the specific technique that they most often mentioned. Students experienced a general rise in confidence about managing pupil behaviour. The largest improvements came when faced with issues about which they did not feel confident at the outset.
1996
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the School and Family Links Programme, Mary Layton – MA Dissertation, Oxford Brookes University
This evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of the Nurturing Programme in Schools in improving children’s knowledge of prosocial and assertiveness skills and when to use them appropriately. Of particular significance was the children’s ability to apply their skills effectively outside school. The author concluded that the success of the Programme lay not only in its cognitive content, which involved developing Nurturing Programme language but also in its affective content. The whole school approach facilitated the consistent and constant application of the Programme’s principles and practice. The evaluation showed not only of the Programme content, but also the methods used. Read the report.