Courses and Curriculum
Nurture
The concept of nurture highlights the importance of social environment and its significant influence on social emotional skills, wellbeing and behaviour. Children and young people who have had a good start in life are shown to have significant advantage over those who have experienced missing or distorted early attachments. They tend to do better at school, attend regularly, form more meaningful friendships and are significantly less likely to offend or experience physical or mental health problems.
Approach
The nurturing approach offers a range of opportunities for young people to engage in missing early nurturing experiences, giving them social and emotional skills to do well at school and with peers, develop their resilience and their capacity to deal more confidently with life, for life.
Groups
Nurture groups are classes of between six and eight young people. Each group is ideally run by two members of staff. Children attend nurture groups but remain an active part of their mainstream education. They spend an appropriate time within the nurture group according to their need and typically return full time to their own class within two to four terms.
Removing Barriers to Learning
Nurture groups assess learning and social and emotional needs and give the necessary help to remove barriers to learning. There is great emphasis on language development and communication. As the children learn academically and socially they develop confidence, become responsive to others, learn self-respect and take pride in behaving well and achieving.
A Boxall Profile will be completed for any pupils who have been referred to Nurture.
SQA Mental Health and Wellbeing Award
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Award SCQF levels 4 and 5 aims to reduce stigma surrounding mental health by
arming young people with healthy coping strategies
promoting knowledge of the impact of mental health on behaviour
dispelling myths surrounding mental health
promote understanding of positive and negative impacts on mental health
help individuals to make the right choices
promote understanding of the potential uses and impact of social media and the internet
creating resilience
Unit 1 - Understanding Mental Health
Unit 2 - Influences on Mental Health
Unit 3 - Coping Strategies & Resilience
Senior pupils work towards this award in PSED classes.
Find out more here.
Curriculum for Excellence (CfE)
The Curricium for Excellence (CfE) has Health and Wellbeing as one of its eight topics for schools to teach. As a subject, Health and Wellbeing has six parts:
mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing (MESP),
planning for choices and changes,
physical education, physical activity and sport,
food and health,
substance misuse,
relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP)
Young people study all six of these organisers no matter what education phase they’re in. What they will learn depends on their age and phase of learning.
Living Life To The Full
Living Life to the Full is an 8 week programme covered over two periods per week which can help young people make a difference to their lives. The programme uses an approach based on the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which focuses on thinking and behaviour.
Young people learn how to sort out their feelings when they feel low, worried or hopeless and will learn skills that help them tackle problems in their lives. They will learn to:
Understand the interaction between thoughts, feelings and behaviour
Recognise unhelpful thinking styles and learn how they might change them
Build inner confidence and foster positive thinking
Learn how to manage anger and irritability
Identify unhelpful behaviour and learn how to make small, practical changes
Understand how to break a problem down into manageable steps , make a plan and put it into action
Improve wellbeing by making small, easy changes to their lifestyles.
It is suitable for pupils who are feeling low, worried or hopeless, pupils who are feeling slightly anxious and pupils who find it difficult to control their anger response.
Seasons For Growth
Seasons for Growth is an 8 week programme covered over two periods per week for pupils who have suffered loss in their lives whether it be through bereavement or family separation. Worden’s Tasks of Grief form the basis of the programme.
Each of the four tasks is outlined below:
To accept the reality of loss
To process the pain of grief
To adjust to an environment in which the person/object is no longer present
To find an enduring connection with what has been lost in the midst of embarking on a new life
The programme uses the imagery of the seasons which illustrate that grief is cyclical; there is no end point, and while some days will be summery and light others will feel cold, dark and wintry.