Bournville is a school that puts nurture at the heart of its ethos and approach.  In June 2024 we were awarded the National Nurturing Schools award.  This followed an 18 months training with Nurture UK to establish the six principles of Nurture and embed these across the school.  

At the end of the Nurture UK training period, the school was assessed against the Nurture UK standards of practice whereby we provided extensive evidence as to how we had embed the Nurture UK approach across the school.  

A full copy of the report can be found below however the summary stated: 

This report cannot reflect the hard work that goes on at school every day. A comprehensive evidence file and related documents have been provided as part of the assessment process by the school. This includes attendance and exclusion data and Case Studies for Partnership, Community and The Boxall Profile along with a clear understanding of The Six Principles of Nurture, evidenced in the application and Principles into Practice report.

There were many outstanding quotes from the assessment “visit” but these two struck a chord. Capturing the importance of relationships, one of the parents called Bournville “the school of hugs”. One of the children reflected on the cumulative impact of consistency with the small things, saying “It’s like Tesco – every little helps!” before expanding on his thoughts “If you have a house, you may only need one nail to fix it.”

In addition, the words friendly, welcoming and warm were used repeatedly about the school by all stakeholders, with Marie, the Headteacher referring to the school as a “place of love”.

Our Nurture Provisions

The Nest 

Our purpose built Nurture unit was opened in January 2023.  This provision uses Boxall profiling to identify pupils with developmental gaps.  Pupils then start a 12 week program of Nurture intervention.  Bespoke learning plans are identified and pupils spend up to 3 hours every day in the unit working on these specific developmental gaps.  Pupils remain attached to their main stream class throughout the program continuing to receive the normal curriculum offer.