1. Kirsty Forrest & Amy Nolan Renfrewshire Educational Psychology Service
The Renfrewshire Context:
Population of Renfrewshire approx. 180,000 (approx. 20% of this figure are aged 0-16)
Mixed demographic – Paisley hosts the most deprived neighbourhood in Scotland (according to 2016 SIMD), whilst Bridge of Weir, Langbank and Houston are leafy suburbs.
There are currently 12 FTE EPs, working with 13 ELCC’s, 49 Primary schools (some with nursery classes), 11 secondary schools and 2 ASN schools
Kirsty Forrest & Amy Nolan Renfrewshire Educational Psychology Service

2. Our Lady of Peace Primary, Renfrewshire – The Development of a whole school nurturing approach

3. Role of EP in developing wellbeing
RNRA illustrates the significant and unique role that EPs can have in developing evidenced based approaches to large-scale interventions at a local authority level (From 6 pathfinders to 49 schools across all sectors. Now early years establishments also).
Implementation Science - a framework through which the EPS can work systemically in partnership with schools. K

4. Renfrewshire Nurturing Relationships Approach
Aims
To promote an understanding of attachment theory and of the importance of nurturing relationships in helping all children and young people to learn and develop socially and emotionally
To promote an understanding of the key principles of nurturing practice and support schools to embed these at a whole school level
To support practices which will improve wellbeing and promote resilience for children and young people
To introduce an approach to implementation which is evidence-based and therefore has the best chance of delivering a sustainable approach for establishments and children and young people. (Meyers et al. 2014) K
This is a whole school approach
For the whole school community – training we involved teachers, Support staff, office staff/janitors
3. Through nurturing approaches.
4. It isn’t just that the nurturing approach itself is evidenced based, but also that how we asked schools to implement this nurturing approach was based on evidence of how to best ensure that new initiatives are implemented well and in a way that becomes embedded within the organisation and is sustainable. So we use an implementation science approach.
This is not about a one off training, but a process – being driven by school staff – which we have found from our Pathfinder experience is the real strength of this approach.

5. TRAINING READINESS CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Discussion
Needs Analysis
Awareness Raising Training RNRA Approach
Audit current practice
Collect Stakeholders Vews
TRAINING
Whole school Nurturing RelationshipsTraining
4 Day Leadership Training for Trainers
Cascade information in school
IMPLEMENTATION
Form Core Group including member of SLT
Select Nurture Principle
Whole school Nurture Principle Training
Core group create and implement Action Plan
On-going support from EPS and NACs using coach consult model
Effective practice shared and embedded across the school community, including with new staff.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Cycle of development, monitoring and evaluation of implementation. SLT & core group drive this.
Core group identify good practice to be shared and embedded across the school A
So this is what Renfrewshire’s Nurturing Relationships Approach looks like:
Readiness for change –
Is this a priority for the school
Is this an optimal time to develop this initiative
Can you set aside time for training/staff to drive this implementation?
Are there any other initiatives within the school that may impact on the time commitment required for implementing the Nurturing Relationships Approach?
How will we win over staff hearts and minds?
Training: Core nurture training delivered to whole school staff.– teachers/ASNAs/CA/HL/Business Support staff/Janitors/Kitchen Staff. This was about raising awareness – developing an attachment aware ethos.
The training also included an introduction to the Nurture Principles
Nurture Principle Training (show slide). Each school chose one of these to focus on initially. We provided further more in-depth training on this specific principle. Developing practice relating to this principle became the focus of the school’s nurture action plan.
Core group
Staff volunteered to be on this group. The core is the power house of the implementation - the function of this group is to develop a Nurturing Relationships Action Plan and drive the implementation and evaluation of this throughout the school. The Action Plan detailed what exactly the school was going to do practically, the outcomes they wanted and how to measure these. Each school’s plan is different and each is completing their own impact evaluation.
Implementation and evaluation supported by EPS using a coach consult model.

6. RNRA change ideas Involving the whole school community
Nurture newsletter to share consistent messages across the school community
Pupil and parent awareness of nurturing approach – community sharing of ACES/assemblies
Language is a vital means of Communication
Consistent approaches to developing emotional language – check-ins, emotion boxes, emotion works, messages of encouragement
Developing emotional literacy with parents
Transitions are important in children’s lives
Differentiation to support small transitions
Best practise shared and new strategies explored
All behaviour is communication
School’s behaviour system overhauled. No ‘name & shame’. Skill building focus & relational focus rather than punishing. No loss of golden time. Reflection time – restorative conversation with staff
Cosy corners
Mindfulness A
Don’t go through this. Just leave slide up.
Core Group staff have ownership of change ideas.

7. K
Be quick

8. Evaluating Impact and Next steps
Evaluation
School self-evaluation
Process evaluation
Doctorate Evaluation
Next Steps
Early Years rollout
Accreditation K
Our evaluation has 3 strands:
Schools self- evaluation
Schools supported by EPS to self-evaluate using their Nurturing Relationships approach school action plan
Use of improvement methodology – PDSA
Schools supported by EPS to document their Nurturing Relationships Journey
Process Evaluation
LA evaluation
P2, P4, P5, S1, S2, S3 tracked over two sessions
Primary:
Parent and teacher Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
P4 ,P5 Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Questionnaire
Secondary
S1,S2, S3 parent and pupil Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Questionnaire
Focus Groups at the end of 2017/2018 session

9. Pathfinder Pupil and Staff comments
‘Nurture is about looking after each other and learning’
‘You check to see how we are feeling’
"You can talk to staff and teachers. They help you with your emotions"
‘You can’t see who is having a bad day’
‘Having nurture on the staff agenda makes it more of a collective responsibility’
‘There is more shared practice and greater recognition that support needs to be individualised’
‘It builds responsibility and leadership for staff taking on strategies and initiatives’ K
Questions
‘Staff now communicate differently’
‘This has allowed our staff to think about the EP’s role differently’