Educational Psychologists develop pilot project with early years practitioners to develop skills in nurture play.

10 more primary schools started their journey of implementation with P1/2 pupils during term 2, following an initial CLPL session in term 1 and ongoing coach consultation sessions to support them to plan and gather evaluation of impact.

The pilot project (24/25) involved 5 schools with adults supporting 16 pupils individually over an 8-week period. Evaluation highlighted the following positive outcomes:

• The CLPL delivered statistically significant learning gains in knowledge and confidence, staff were enthusiastic and keen to start implementation.

• Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) scores for pupils revealed a statistically significant increase in closeness and overall quality of teacher-pupil relationship.

• Measures of resilience (RISE) increased in pupil and teacher ratings, though did not reach statistical significance, perhaps due to the small sample size.

Examples of observable pupil changes noted were:

• "Impact has been huge on confidence, he’s more independent, made better choices of friends and can see when someone isn’t making a good choice.” 

• "Building relationship with the PSA enabled the child to build attachments with other staff – PSA was the “gateway” to this." 

• “She saw a huge difference just in that relationship with him and coming up to her spontaneously and seeking that connection.” 

Cara MacKenzie and Emma Brown delivered our revised Targeted Nurture CLPL course to an enthusiastic group of practitioners on Friday 14th November.  This refreshed course explores what Targeted Nurture means, the theories underpinning trauma-informed practice, and what Targeted Nurture looks like in Aberdeenshire schools.  We were very grateful to Crombie, Bervie, Insch & Macduff Primaries for sharing their existing practice. The session closed with a discussion about next steps for attendees.