Nurture room – Supporting pupils through emotionally difficult times

How a dedicated nurture room, distinct in design from classrooms, can provide a welcoming and relaxed space within school to work with pupils in a productive and structured way…

Our staff had been noticing a steady decline in our pupils’ mental health, which appeared to be worsening year on year.

We pride ourselves on good relationships with parents (they usually inform us of any family issues that could affect a pupil). We are also heavily engaged in raising awareness among our students around issues such as social media usage and cyber-bullying.

However, we felt that there was still more that we could do to help support all of our children, especially those with specific emotional needs.

Following discussions within the school and ascertaining the extent of the issue, we decided to create our nurture room.

We felt that the investment would yield great results in the form of more resilient, well-balanced children who would be more ably equipped to deal with their emotional issues.

What should a nurture room look like?

We worked closely with Two Thirds Design, a company that has extensive experience working with educational establishments, on how our nurture room should look and feel.

From the start, they understood exactly what we were trying to achieve. Having discussed our objectives, they helped to bring our ideas to life.

Themed around a beach hut, the nurture room featured a realistic beachside scene, flanked by colourful bunting, sunny postcards and holiday photographs.

This was all aimed at transporting the children away from the classroom environment. There is not a desk in sight – just child-friendly furnishings.

Blue beanbags, relaxed-style chairs, soft seaside-themed cushions and small tables for carrying out activities or simply for biscuits and juice (which can’t be underestimated for helping a child to feel special and listened to) help to deliver the relaxed feel we were after.

We are fortunate enough to have Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) trained teachers, who support the emotional needs of their pupils within school.

These specialist skills help allow for one-to-one sessions with a child, where they can discuss specific and measurable targets.

This process can be difficult, but the nurture room, with its calm and secure environment, really helps children to feel safe and able to talk more freely. This allows us, as teachers, to substantially build on our nurturing ethos.

Only once this first critical stage is complete can we decide upon the right course of action for each individual child.

What strategies to use in a nurture room

Strategies might include Lego-based therapy – a collaborative, play-based social skills intervention designed to improve social competence in children with social difficulties.

Likewise, art therapy is a strategy we use within the nurture room. It gives the opportunity for children to produce work that is both meaningful and personal.

It also encourages them to think about the message of the session – the ‘nurture focus’ – such as ‘developing positive self-talk’.

Our ELSA-trained staff have noted that, as a result of these types of sessions, children become much more aware of how to communicate with each other and what behaviour is acceptable within the session.

Confidence has increased and behaviour is far calmer, with the children having grown and developed in a positive manner.

The nurture room environment, being both calm and positive, helps children to relax and feel special while focusing on their tasks. Our nurture room has been a great success.

During its first year, 47 children received some form of nurture session/ support. That means we’ve impacted 23 per cent of the whole school in a positive way.

My teaching colleagues have seen an increased love of school, confidence, attainment and self-esteem. They talk of pupils’ excitement and desire to work in the nurture room.

In addition, several parents have approached me asking whether their child might benefit from nurture provision, such is the need for this kind of support.

Ellie Ballinger, headteacher at Greysbrooke Primary, based in Staffordshire.