Nurture in Scottish Schools

🩵Classroom safety tour- what is it?🩵 Best used in conjunction with a visual timetable, a safety tour prepares children in advance of any noisy or busy times of their day, fully explaining any differences to the usual routine to ensure unexpected changes are limited.

This will support all children as part of an inclusive approach, but particularly those who are neurodiverse and/or express anxiety around changes to routine. I like to do a safety tour at the end of every day for the following day and then again in the morning as part of a welcome routine.

The impact this can have is reducing stressors, promoting a sense of safety and also offering options to those who need it for times of the day that might be overstimulating. Let me know if you try it!

🩵

What’s the worst thing you can say to a child in distress?

For children who are in fight or flight mode, especially our neurodiverse learners, saying ‘It’s ok’ is as useful as telling someone to calm down. To change this to ‘It’s going to be ok’ is much more reassuring for literal thinkers who absolutely do not feel ok in a state of distress. Another example of a simple switch in language which is very effective. Let me know your thoughts.

🩵

Lots of children struggle to process or make sense big emotions…this can lead to frustration and big behaviours. By using the language of containment in our classrooms, we are ensuring pupils feel seen and heard which increases felt safety. We are letting them know that it’s a perfectly normal human reaction to feel angry, frustrated or annoyed at times. When children hear you noticing they are feeling difficult emotions in a non-judgemental way, they feel supported and will be much more likely to open up to you and ask for help when they really need it. Comment if you’d like help on a specific topic within your classroom.

🩵 fans

Don’t underestimate the power of language in a school setting. Have you heard about the Cognitive Behavioural Cycle? Your thoughts are very powerful- they impact your feelings which in turn, influences your behaviour and feeds back into the cycle. By simply reframing language used to describe a child, for example attention needing instead of attention seeking, you are much more likely to respond with empathy and give the child what they need. The same applies to our own self talk! What other language reframes can you think of?

Belonging is a hugely powerful concept for children in education settings- how do we ensure they feel like they belong in our classrooms?