National Nurturing Schools Programme

Our Lady & St Patrick’s are currently working towards achieving the National Nurturing Schools Award, awarded by Nurture UK. The programme and award focus is on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and on removing barriers to learning.

The National Nurturing Schools Programme allows staff to develop and embed a nurturing culture throughout the school, enhancing teaching and learning, promoting healthy outcomes for children and young people, all by focusing on emotional needs and development as well as academic learning in a whole-school environment.

The programme itself is based around The Six Principles of Nurture below:

The Six Principles of Nurture

1. Children's learning is understood developmentally

2. The classroom offers a safe base

3. The importance of nurture for the development of wellbeing

4. Language is a vital means of communication

5. All behaviour is communication

6. The importance of transition in children's lives

As a school, we have committed to embedding these six principles in the whole-school and classroom environment. The six principles underpin all that we do and help guide us to improve our practice. Over the last few years we have been making positive changes to the way we do things here at the school.

Our parents and carers are such an important part of Our Lady & St Patrick’s and we want to keep you informed as much as possible about our journey to becoming a National Nurturing School. Please have a look at our Information Leaflet below to see what this means for our school and your child.