Call to expand Educate Together student nurture project

Since 2020, 35 primary and post-primary Educate Together schools have adopted a nurture approach, an evidence-based intervention that tackles barriers to student learning.
School provider Educate Together has called for a national pilot of its nurture project following an evaluation which found positive impacts on school attendance and participation.
Since 2020, 35 primary and post-primary Educate Together schools have adopted a nurture approach, which the school provider describes as an evidence-based intervention that tackles barriers to student learning.
The nurture project is a whole-school programme and a targeted short-term intervention for students who have social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties. It recognises that students’ wellbeing is as important as their academic achievements.
It provides safe spaces known as nurture rooms where children can relax, regulate, and talk to staff who are specially trained to understand their social, emotional, and behavioural needs.
An external impact evaluation of the project found that students taking part are more confident, less anxious, and better able to communicate their feelings and self-regulate.
For those with the lowest attendance levels before participation in the project, attendance increased from an average of 52% to 70% during their time in the programme, the evaluation showed.
Significant improvement in behaviour across the school and fewer incidents of disruptive behaviour in class were reported as well as knock-on improvements in numeracy and literacy skills.
Overall, enjoyment of school increased among participating students.
“Schools applying a nurture approach address the social, emotional, and learning needs of individual students by providing help to remove barriers to learning," said a spokesperson for Educate Together.
The three-year project was funded by Salesforce and Rethink Ireland’s Education Innovation Fund.
Following the evaluation, Educate Together is now calling on the Department of Education to engage in a pilot of the nurture approach in schools across Ireland.
“All schools should have access to the necessary supports to employ the nurture approach as a wellbeing intervention. This includes staffing allocation, continuing professional development, and grant aid,” a spokesperson said.
Educate Together CEO Emer Nowlan said teachers need knowledge, skills, and support to understand the needs of children and young people and to help students to understand their own behaviour.
“This evaluation has shown how this project has provided schools with those tools and staff with necessary skills so that hundreds of students have been directly supported to feel safe, to cope, to develop connections and relationships, and to re-engage with school — for the most part, children and young people who other approaches simply didn’t work for,” she said.