The voices of young children experiencing difficulties at school

Abstract

There appears to be an increased interest in various countries in Europe and other parts of the world, in the role of nurture groups in supporting the needs of young children experiencing social and emotional difficulties in their development. Nurture groups have been developed as special classes to address the unmet social and emotional needs of young children and providing them with the necessary competences required to engage in the academic and social experiences at school. Drawing on attachment theory (Bowlby1975), they seek to provide a safe base where children can learn in a nurturing small group facilitated by two caring adults who work collaboratively to facilitate their successful reintegration into their mainstream class (Bennathan and Boxall 2000). Pupils engage in specific social and interpersonal experiences that encourage the development of their sense of emotional security, self-awareness and socio-emotional competence (Cooper and Tiknaz 2007). The increased interest in nurture groups may be the result of the increasing concern about children’s social, emotional and behaviour difficulties and the need for schools to support the mental health of children and young people (Adelman and Taylor 2010; Layard and Hagell 2015; Weare and Nind 2011). The promotion of mental health and wellbeing in school is not only becoming increasingly recognised as one of the major goals of education, but it is also being appreciated as a meta ability for academic learning as well, particularly in view of the evidence underlining the relationship between social and emotional learning and academic learning (Corcoran et al. 2018; Durlak et al. 2011; Taylor et al. 2017). [excerpt].