Early Years & Schools

The Nurturing Programme for Early Years and Schools

Schools

The Nurturing Programme provides an excellent framework for building children's social, emotional and behavioural skills in Early Years, Primary, Special Schools and some Secondary settings. It encourages an emotionally healthy environment for adults and children, and offers personal, social, health and citizenship education (PSHCE) that reflects Curriculum 2000 guidelines for Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. It gives a framework for citizenship education, supports the aims of the National Healthy Schools Standard, and is endorsed in the DCFS (DfES) Developing Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) approach. Family Links and the Nurturing Programme are mentioned in Ofsted reports for Oxfordshire schools.

The Programme is a 10-week course which is held each term. The topics are repeated each term; extension activities maintain the children's interest, and their skills in expressing their opinions and their feelings develop.

The Programme topics and activities are clearly set out in three age-appropriate handbooks:

• Handbook One - Foundation Stage
• Handbook Two - Years 1 to 4
• Handbook Three - Year 5 and above
• Transition Handbook - Years 6 and 7

No lesson planning is required beyond being familiar with how to facilitate the activities, and preparing simple materials for the session. The handbooks are supported by games and other resources.

Transition settings

The transition from primary to secondary school has been identified as a key risk point in children’s education, and many children do not progress academically during the first year at their new school (for example, Galton et. al, 2000, DfES 2007). Family Links believes that, to overcome this, children need to be well prepared for the emotional and social change, and schools need to be equipped to support children using strategies familiar to them from their primary schools.

As both research evidence and personal experience testify, the transition from primary to secondary school is a key event in any child’s life. This handbook acknowledges the transition as a process rather than a one-off event; it provides a 2-year programme of circle time sessions for Year 6 classes and Year 7 tutor groups to ease the emotional pressures arising from transition. 

Social skills and emotional literacy can help prevent the disruptive behaviour that arises when difficult feelings go unnoticed – wherever they may manifest themselves on the continuum between aggression and withdrawal.  This in turn can increase students’ capacity for effective learning from the outset of their secondary school lives. The Year 6 and Year 7 schemes of work in this handbook reflect National Curriculum guidance for PSHCE and will work best when both the feeder primary and the secondary school are trained in and committed to using the Nurturing Programme.

Early Years settings

Staff in Early Years settings receive a training tailored to their needs in supporting very young children. They may be trained together, or representatives from different settings may attend a central training locally.

Benefits of the Programme

The Nurturing Programme for Early Years settings and Schools offers:

• a consistent, whole-setting/whole-school approach that encourages an optimum environment for teaching and learning
• greater understanding of children's feelings and the behaviour that follows
• a model that enhances consistency and teamwork among staff
• a preventive emotional health programme for all children
• effective strategies for encouraging responsible behaviour and managing challenging behaviour

Click here to view an example of how the Nurturing Programme can effectively inform a consistent whole-school policy on relationships and good behaviour. This example is used with the kind permission of Pegasus Primary School, Oxford.