Marsh Green Primary School Pastoral Care
At Marsh Green Primary School, we aim to provide the highest quality pastoral support throughout the school. Working collaboratively, all staff ensure the nurturing ethos is embedded throughout. In June 2017, we were awarded the National Nurturing School award, this was a fantastic achievement, making us the first school in the North West to earn this and the second school in the country.
As a school it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure the that the ‘Six principles of Nurture’ are in embedded throughout our school day.
THE SIX PRINCIPLES OF NURTURE GROUPS.
- Children's learning is understood developmentally.
- The classroom offers a safe base.
- Nurture is important for the development of self-esteem.
- Language is understood as a vital means of communication.
- All behaviour is communication.
- Transitions are significant in the lives of children.
Our dedicated pastoral team aims to meets the differing needs of all children, so that each child is equipped with life skills, enabling them to live fulfilling lives. To maintain an atmosphere that is safe, secure and predictable. Specialised counselling is also provided for children who have struggled with; bereavement, relationship breakdown, managing feelings, separation and anxieties and worries.
There are several interventions that are implemented to support children’s social, emotional and academic learning, such as; Nurture Group, Muddy Monday, Torrential Tuesday, Therapeutic Workshops, Resilience Group and lunchtime clubs. All of the children are identified by using the Boxall Profile across the whole school. The pastoral team respond to situations that may arise during the school day, yet reassuring parents that their children are being educated in a safe and nurturing environment. We also offer support within the wider community, assisting parents with external support, providing a ‘food boutique’, parent drop ins and having a general open-door policy. Parents and carers are given the opportunity to be sign-posted to outside services, for appropriate provision and support.
The pastoral team are available before and after school each day, we can be found on the school yard or call in to the school office and ask to speak to the Pastoral Team.
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Different Interventions
The Nest (Nurture Group)
The Nest is a small supported class of up to twelve children, situated in its own little unit within Marsh Green Primary School. The Nest became established in 2004 and has grown from strength to strength in providing a safe and secure base, for all children’s social and emotional and academic needs. The groups are organised and run by highly skilled adults and pupils can attend at lunch time or for a substantial part of each week. Within the nurture group we focus on several strands from the Boxall Profile, which develop; emotional and social development skills, intrapersonal skills as well as academic progress. Pupils remain on the mainstream class roll with an expectation that they will return to the class within two to four terms.
The Nest room includes different spaces to reflect the combination of a domestic and more formal learning environment. The Nest room is carefully arranged to include both a classroom and a home environment. The Nest room includes a kitchen, dining tables, living room area, a role-play area, a quiet area, work area, outdoor provision and garden.
The Nest Staff work closely with Nurture UK and have been involved in many of their initiatives such as the Childhood Boxall Project. Mrs Weatherston was involved as part of the team that wrote the book “A Whole School Approach to the Boxall Profile”.
The Headteacher and Mrs Weatherston also speak nationally to share our practice at Marsh Green and our experience of running a Nurturing School and Nurturing interventions.
We have also have lots of visitors attending our setting, including schools as far away as Australia.
At Marsh Green we are heavily committed to providing quality nurture provision throughput the whole school and every day we build on that commitment. The Nest commitment to the children is that we combine educational learning and Boxall seamlessly together, throughout our daily routine we take every opportunity to teach our children. This is not always in the form of orthodox teaching.
For example, counting the children into the room using ordinal numbers, making breakfast – counting plates, glasses, spoons, using word like how many more do we need, Story time being linked to class stories or Boxall strands, physical breaks where we count and do different exercise, washing hands and brushing teeth the children follow a set of instructions point out to the children the imperative verbs. These are just a few examples of where we take opportunities to provide incidental learning.
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