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NUTURE (2022-2023 project)

The Nurturing Kent and Medway VRU Programme was designed to place the whole School Nurturing Approach into the context of violence reduction.

The core understanding being that nurture practice empowers adults in school to allow children and young people to engage with missing early nurturing experiences, thereby supporting the development of social and emotional skills and self-esteem, whilst also supporting behaviour, wellbeing, attainment and achievement.

We have worked with a total of 11 schools across 7 districts with 9 schools completing the programme.

  • 101 members of school staff - teachers, teaching assistants and senior leaders, have attended core training courses - Theory and Practice of the Boxall Profile®, National Nurturing Schools Programme and Parental Engagement
  • Network meetings have welcomed 76 delegates
  • Over 100 members of school staff across 8 of the schools have received "Making the Links" training introducing the programme, concepts such as attachment, ACEs and the basics of nurture practice.
  • 187 publications have been sent to the schools on the programme
  • 327 E-Boxall Profiles® (an individual identifier for each child - EBPs) have been created and 336 assessment profiles have been completed.
  • We have had a potential nurturing impact on almost 10,000 children and young people (based on school population data).

Some feedback in How the programme has supported schools in violence reduction: "We had issues with the same names and we wanted to stop this. We have used it in that small area to begin with and we have seen a reduction in verbal abuse towards staff. We have created a skills hub using the six principles of nurture, so being used in a small way now but we have seen an impact there nevertheless."

"It made it apparent how much of an issue they had. It's made it possible to address needs. Particularly around youth violence and drugs. It has given us a lot more knowledge and contacts. The resources are phenomenal and the training has really highlighted further the importance of the mindset that no one 'chooses' this. The network meetings are amazing".