Ganneys Meadow School Achieves the National Nurturing School Award

After working for 3 years on the National Nurturing Schools Programme, Ganneys Meadow School in Woodchurch Wirral has been awarded the National Nurturing School Award, the first Nursery School in our region to achieve this accolade.

Ganneys Meadow School have been given the award for its ongoing work in the area of Nurture. It has been proved that well nurtured children are shown to do better at school, attend regularly, form more meaningful friendships and are significantly less likely to offend or experience physical or mental health problems. Everyone of the staff at Ganneys Meadow consistently ensures that the children attending their school are immersed in a nurturing environment which impacts positively on their developing skills.

The nurturing approach offers a range of opportunities for children and young people to engage with early nurturing experiences, giving them the social and emotional skills to do well at school and develop their resilience to deal more confidently with the trials and tribulations of life. The assessor judged the school to be a calm, neutral space where children learn essential life skills as well as the curriculum subjects alongside their peers.

Ganneys Meadow has been recognised for offering the environments and opportunities to children which address their developing social and emotional skills. The award reflects the school’s commitment to promoting healthy outcomes for children and young people, by focusing on emotional needs and development. The assessment which took place virtually during the lockdown took into account the views of our children, parents, staff, governors, professionals and partner schools about how their practice reflects the six nurture principles.

The staff at Ganneys Meadow are looking forward to the presentation of the award as soon as the lockdown is eased and look forward to sharing this with the whole school community.

Procedures

• We have high expectations of behaviour from both adults and children. Staff are aware of the ability of children to express their feelings and are sensitive to the emotions displayed by the children and the children’s developing ability to control their emotions and spontaneity.
• We aim to reduce incidents of conflict between children by providing, well-planned areas for the children to play in, duplicate popular toys and large group sets of equipment.
• Staff set clear, fair and consistent boundaries of acceptable behaviour that are appropriate to the child’s age and understanding and, when appropriate, children help to decide rules to keep them happy, safe and healthy.
• Examples of unacceptable behaviour are anything that upset, hurts, offends, excludes or frightens others. Staff will at all times discourage negative behaviour and will praise positive behaviour shown by children.
• When children are kind and helpful to each other staff will point out why they are pleased with the children and encourage them to play and interact with each other in a positive way.
• Children are encouraged to distinguish between right and wrong.
• Children will be made aware that it is their unwanted behaviour that gives the staff concern, not the child themselves.
• If a child is distressed or emotional, staff will distract the child and engage his/her attention elsewhere whilst talking to the child to establish the cause of their distress. Should a child’s behaviour continue to give rise for concern, staff will discuss with parents if there is an apparent cause for this, and discuss strategies with the parents.
• Any form of physical discipline is not permitted. Children will not be shouted at.
• At the end of the day parents will be informed of any behaviour which has given staff concern.