Why nurture groups and effective nurture practice are vital for whole school inclusion

Contents

SNJ Intro: Given the large and growing number of children with mental health needs, what’s missing in many schools is nurture. Nurture groups in school can be lifelines for children who are vulnerable or impacted by trauma. Dr Tristan Middleton is an expert in nurture and works with charity, nurtureuk. Here, he discusses the history and the importance of using nurture to create inclusive mainstream schools.

The history of nurture groups and why it’s vital to support inclusion by Dr Tristram Middleton

The history of nurture as a practice in schools dates back to the late 1960s. Two Educational Psychologists, Marjorie Boxall and Margaret Bennathan, identified a significant group of children in London primary schools who were struggling to participate in mainstream classrooms. Informed by attachment theory, Bennathan and Boxall developed an intervention they called a “Nurture Group”. The nurture group offered children a home-like environment, where children could develop key skills, based on their developmental needs, enabling them to integrate into a mainstream primary class.

As nurture group practice became established, a classic model became established. This identified two adults, a teacher and a teaching assistant, working with approximately 8–12 children who spend the majority of their school week within the nurture group, while maintaining links at key times with their mainstream class.

Children would attend for up to a year, with the aim of reintegrating with their mainstream class. The nurture group offers a comfortable environment with opportunities for play. Often, resources include those that might be more usually associated with early-years settings. Explicit teaching of emotional literacy skills and wider social and emotional skills takes place alongside developmentally-appropriate teaching of curriculum subjects. The sharing of food is also a key event during a nurture group session. The Six Principles of Nurture are an important framework for practice in a nurture group. A useful summary of the key elements of a nurture group and the Six Principles of Nurture can be found on the nurtureuk website.

Join us on BlueSky

SNJ WhatsApp Channel

Not just for children with additional needs

While initially, nurture groups were restricted to primary schools, by 2010, they were being established in secondary school settings, and literature and guidance for secondary schools were developed. This widening of the scope also stretched to special school settings.

There is a wide range of case studies and independent reports, alongside academic studies and Ofsted reports, which show the effectiveness of nurture approaches. Their positive impacts include reduced exclusions, improved emotion regulation, improved attendance, improved staff-pupil relationships, reductions in behaviour incidents and improvements in academic achievement.

While a nurture group will often include children who’ve been identified as having special educational needs, the provision is not reliant on particular diagnoses, nor does it need an Education, Health and Care Plan to access. Rather, nurture group inclusion will be led by the needs of a child.

The Boxall Profile_^® is a diagnostic tool recommended as a way of identifying children who would benefit from nurture group provision and for identifying progress and next steps for children’s developmental and educational needs. The Boxall Profile is now available as an online tool through a subscription to charity, nurtureuk, and is now being used as a whole-school tool to identify unmet social and emotional needs.

Nurture and whole school inclusion

Alongside the development of the concept of inclusive education came the understanding that, while interventions for small numbers of identified children may be effective, to provide ongoing and effective support to pupils, whole-school approaches need to be implemented. Thus, the concept of a whole-school nurture approach began to be developed, understanding that nurture groups should be part of a graduated approach to supporting the needs of all children in school.

This nurture approach relates to the leadership and culture of the school, vision and values, and curriculum and everyday practices. The nurture approach continues to be informed by attachment theory, but also understanding of social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs for children and young people, trauma-informed practice, neuroscience, and inclusive approaches to education.

Nurture practice is something that was almost exclusively developed in the UK, under the support and guidance of the national charity, Nurture Group Network, which in 2018 renamed itself as nurtureuk in recognition of the importance of a wider nurture approach.

International expansion and nurture awards for schools

Alongside school support, training and publications about nurture, there are two awards offered by nurtureuk in recognition of nurturing work in schools. The Marjorie Boxall Quality Mark Award is awarded to schools for high-quality practice within a nurture group. The National Nurturing Schools Award recognises schools that have implemented an effective whole-school nurturing culture.

More recently, international interest in nurture groups has grown, and a relatively new training organisation, Nurture International, has been training schools in countries including Romania, Iceland and Australia.

As a result of growing interest in inclusive and relational practice, the work of nurtureuk has developed into collaborative wide-scale project work, including developing nurture approaches across local authorities and leading work on violence reduction in major cities across the UK. Furthermore, nurtureuk works collaboratively with many charities and voluntary groups in developing inclusive practice, and also lobbies to influence education and wellbeing policymaking. The charity leads the Inclusive and Relational Approaches Working Group, a group of 30 members made up of educators, charity leaders and sector experts, and have recently established the Inclusion and Nurture in Education All Party Parliamentary Group, chaired by Sarah Hall MP.

Nurture in educational research

The development of thinking about nurture has been established through nurtureuk’s academic journal, the free-to-access journal, International Journal of Nurture in Education. Established in 2015, each year the journal publishes academic articles relating to nurture practice as a way of developing the theory and ideas relating to the practice of nurture in educational settings.

What are the six Principles of Nurture?

The whole-school nurture approach should include parental collaboration. Parents will know well that an effective partnership with schools can have a significant positive impact on the outcomes for their child and may find the Six Principles of Nurture a useful reference point:

The six principles of Nurture, Graphic from nurtureuk

Children’s learning is understood developmentally
The classroom offers a safe base
The importance of nurture for the development of self-esteem
Language is a vital means of communication
All behaviour is communication
The importance of transition in children’s lives

(Lucas, Insley and Buckland, 2006)

“Through a safe base, where unconditional regard, or love, is offered to the child, adults can understand that children may not be able to express their needs or wants in a way that is seen as socially acceptable.”

Promoted

Nurture requires an empathetic approach

Ultimately, a nurture approach is an empathic approach. It seeks to understand the individual child rather than making assumptions based on their age, their background, or ideas of what a ‘normal’ child might need. Through a safe base, where unconditional regard, or love, is offered to the child, adults can understand that children may not be able to express their needs or wants in a way that is seen as socially acceptable.

To enable children to develop their communication skills, adults provide a space of safety through understanding, support, modelling and teaching of social and emotional skills, are appropriate to their needs rather than their age. By recognising what is important to children and seeing things through their eyes, adults can support them to develop the skills they need to move from dependence to independence and successful participation in society.

Growing numbers of children are experiencing mental health challenges as they grow up in a world where polarisation and conflict seem to be becoming the norm. If education and wellbeing policies embraced a nurture approach, a humane, caring foundation for young people would be established, enabling them to become confident and positive citizens.

Lucas, S., Insley, K. and Buckland, G. (2006) Nurture Group Principles and Curriculum Guidelines Helping Children to Achieve, London: The Nurture Group Network.

About Dr Tristan Middleton

Tristan Middleton is in his forties, with a wide smile and dark short hair. He's wearing an open-necked blue button down shirt and dark jacket.

Dr Tristan Middleton is Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at the University of Gloucestershire. He is Academic Course Leader for the MA Education suite of courses. He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is also chair of the nasen Universal SEND Services Advisory Group. Before becoming an academic, he was a primary school teacher for 18 years.

Tristan is Editor of the Internation Journal of Nurture in Education and author of many academic articles, books and book chapters, including, ‘Using an Inclusive Approach to Reduce School Exclusion: A practitioner’s guide’ (2019), ‘Reconsidering Resilience in Education: An exploration using the Dynamic Interactive Model of Resilience’ (2020), ‘Nurturing Peer Supervision: Supporting the wellbeing of those who nurture’ (2020) and the chapter ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability in ‘An Introduction to Primary School Teaching (2024). He is currently editing a new book, ‘The SEN Practitioner: Status, skills and support’ to be published by Routledge in early 2026.

Tristan’s research interests include learners and practitioners in the field of SEND, nurture, and education for children and young people in conflict with the law. Contact

Disabled Children’s Rights are Under Attack.
We’re fighting, but we can’t do it alone: we need your help more than ever.
We’re volunteer-run, but costs are rising. To help us keep going, please consider a one-off or, if it’s possible, a regular donation.
Read more about being a regular donor here.
We use Zeffy to fundraise, which doesn’t charge us a fee, so 100% of your donation reaches us.

DONATE TO HELP
KEEP SNJ ONLINE!

Don’t miss a thing!

Don’t miss any posts from SNJ – simply add your email address below. You must click the link in the confirmation email you’ll receive to activate your free subscription.

You can also keep up with us by following our

WhatsApp Channel!

Want more? Be an SNJ regular donor!

SNJ is a non-profit and everyone who writes here does so voluntarily. We need your support to help us with costs by donating once or as a regular patron. Find out more here