National Nurturing Schools Award 2021

Laurance Haines are proud to confirm they have achieved the re-accreditation for our National Nurturing Schools Award.

This award has been shared by nurtureUK, who work tirelessly to promote access to education for all. With increasing numbers of children and young people affected by social, emotional and behavioural difficulties inhibiting their progress and limiting their life chances, nurtureuk has developed a range of interventions and support to give vulnerable children and young people the opportunity to be the best they can be.

Our assessor, Wendy Roden, shared in her delight in making us the very first school to not only have received the award back in 2017 but the first in the country to get re-accredited.  Our influence and support for Beechfield and Cherry Tree has led to both schools also achieving their first accreditations.

Mrs Furey has been a driving force for the school's development in nurturing principles and her influence is evident across the Inclusive MAT and the lengths our team goes to support our children, families and staff. Special congratulations are reserved for her and the pastoral team on recognition of this all-important award. However, as emphasised last week, the award recognises the efforts of the community to provide a safe and social environment, where the social and emotional needs of all are considered and supported above all else. This has been, and continues to be, a team effort.

Our children know the importance of The 6 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.

The assessment provided an opportunity to reflect on the developments of the school since 2017 and these reflections included some of the following: Initiatives are in place to provide our teachers, children and parents with what they need when they need. Meeting their basic needs is prioritised above all else with one parent commenting that the school has quite literally provided them with food and shelter. and she shared her heartfelt gratitude for that. The partnerships we forge with our parents and wider community can lead to life-changing moments. Our team are constantly thinking of ways to enhance what we do to meet the varying needs of the community: this is happening organically across the school in so many different ways where we continue to enhance and innovate our practice.

Following on from received the first ever UK National Nurturing Award in 2017, which was presented by The Nurture Group Network’s CEO, Kevin Kibble.

Kevin said: 'We are delighted to award Laurance Haines School with the first ever National Nurturing School Award in recognition of the outstanding and inspirational work of their whole staff team in embedding nurturing principles throughout the school.'

The ceremony was attended by Head teacher James Roach, staff, governors, parents and guests, along with local parliamentary candidate Richard Harrington and Deputy Mayor Peter Taylor. The award recognises the efforts to embed nurture principles across the whole school community and the staff’s dedication to children’s mental health and wellbeing.

Richard Harrington commented, ‘This is an outstanding achievement and real credit to the staff there. Laurance Haines School have been leading the way with their mental health programme. It’s a national programme that allows staff to develop and embed a nurturing culture throughout the school, promoting healthy outcomes for children and young people, all by focusing on emotional needs and development.’

Our ongoing commitment to and focus on wellbeing extends from our children to the parents and staff. Understanding the social and emotional needs is encapsulated in our work around the Boxall Profile, holding this with same importance as academic assessments. Some of the newest members of our school team and Laurance Haines family have been drawn in by our nurturing approach and feel well supported to grow and develop personally and professionally. “For a better future.”

We are so pleased to have received this all-important reaccreditation, but there is no doubt that our work will continue as we look to improve our provision. We hope that, as parents, you value the work that we do and share in our pride of this recognition. We believe in nurturing our community, providing keys to unlock opportunity and a better future for all.

Read the case study to find out more about our journey, how we achieved the award and our feedback from nurtureuk.

 

Eco Schools Green Flag Award

The Government wants every school to be a sustainable school by 2020.

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life.

In 2012 we achieved the Eco Schools Silver Award. We had to complete lots of things on a criteria checklist. Our Eco Warriors have been working hard to make our school a greener place over the last twelve months. We have encouraged everyone to recycle and compost. Switch Off Fortnight made us focus on being energy efficient and everyone made an effort to turn off lights, projectors and whiteboards. We also completed an environmental audit and wrote an Eco action plan. We especially enjoyed tree planting at Sandridge Forest.

In June 2018 we achieved the prestigious Green Flag award. It symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity.

To progress from your Silver Award to Green Flag Status there are two key areas which we had to focus on; work on 3 Eco-Schools topics, and develop an Eco-Code for our school.