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Hello everybody and welcome to the Sensory Classroom
podcast. My name is Jordan and today I'm joined
by Senko Faria, who we're going to talk about
setting up nurture groups today. I am inundated.
Every day I get messages from teachers and Senkos.
with wanting advice on how to set up nurture
groups or autism groups or you know separate
uh hubs i suppose you all have different names
for them but it's essentially a safe place where
the more the sensory children can go, the in
-betweeners can go, the children that haven't
got a specialist setting and don't quite fit
into any space. And these wonderful teachers
and SENCOs are being innovative and creating
makeshift classrooms for these beautiful children.
And I'm excited to talk to Faria about that today.
Hello, Faria. Hello, Jordan. Would you like to
introduce yourself on what you do, where you
are and how long you've been doing it? I am Faria
Alam, an inclusion manager and CENTCO at a primary
school in London. I mean, I've been in CENT for
the last 21 years because, I mean, I had a personal
physical medical. incident whereby I lost my
voice. I lost my motor ability. So after that,
I realized how difficult sent children struggle
with communicating. I mean, initially I was,
I'm a qualified MSC science teacher who used
to teach biology at GCSE and A -levels. But after
that incident, I went back and qualified as a
SENT specialist with autism as my specialism.
But then in the years, I then did my neurodivergent
coaching and therapy course and executive function
course as well. At the moment, I'm just, I mean,
the main thing I'm working very closely with
primary school children, neurodivergent children,
children with social, emotional behavior difficulties
and supporting them and setting up. nurture groups
in schools, training staff, training parents.
So are you doing that as an external person or
within one school? Within one school. Amazing.
Let's go back to that because I think it's really
an amazing insight that you've got actually is
losing your voice. What was it about that that
made you resonate so much with these non -speaking
neurodivergent children? What kind of frustrations
did you find? Did it help you to understand what
you were seeing in them or behaviours you were
seeing in them in any way? Yeah, I mean, I had
become very short -tempered, very edgy because
many a time I would want something done and because
of my physical disability or my, you know, my
speech was slurred. I struggle to communicate
and I'd be saying something, but I feel like
I'm communicating it clear enough to the person
in front of me. And they are like doing the complete
opposite of what I'm asking them to do. And it's
just like, oh, my God. And you just feel at that
time, I mean, obviously, as I was an adult, I
was an educated person and I could because I
could not write it and tell them I could not.
I mean, I was speaking. I thought it was legible,
but it wasn't legible for them. It was very frustrating
and it would just make me very edgy and irritated
and just lose my cool very easily. It makes sense,
doesn't it? Of course you would find that frustrating.
So then now when you're seeing those same frustrations
in the children that you work with, what goes
through your mind when you're seeing that now
in comparison to maybe before? I recognize they're
trying to communicate something. I mean, and
that is something what I train everybody. I mean,
my baseline or my, you know, my motto is something
that with all the staff, with the teaching, with
the teachers, teaching assistants, HLDAs, parents
always say behavior is communication. They're
trying to communicate something. I could kiss
you, Faria. It's true, though, isn't it? Behavior
is communication. And yet, just like you, when
you were so frustrated, you knew exactly what
you wanted. You just weren't being understood.
I mean, there is nothing more frustrating than
knowing what you want and not being able to access
it or not being understood. Exactly. And no wonder
that we're seeing hitting, kicking, biting, hiding,
running away, all of these, throwing, you know,
all of these things. Because... Yes, it might
be sensory needs and yes, it might be other things,
but ultimately it comes down to frustration of
not being understood. Yeah, because there's something
in the environment which is triggering them,
which is making it difficult for them. They don't
want to be difficult. They don't want to bite.
They don't want to hit. They do not want to kick.
That's not what they want. You know, I mean,
that is just their response. That's their triggered
response. That's them going into fight and flight.
Yeah, it's so true. Just like we all do, like
you said. We all get pushed to that point in
some incidences, don't we? And I guess it just
comes down to thinking if we were in their shoes,
would we act any differently? And the answer
actually is no. And I think actually we'd probably
be worse. I mean, I feel like the children in
my class are incredibly patient with me, incredibly
understanding and adaptive and resilient actually
with what they have to manage every day. in a
world that really isn't built for them. Exactly.
I mean, and children, neurodivergent children,
children who are lacking in their executive functions,
children with behavioral difficulties. It's usually,
I mean, especially in a mainstream environment,
because they're having to deal with so many difficulties
in their environment. You have so many of them
masking it in school. And then parents come back
and tell us we are having complete meltdowns
at home. And then parents are being told, oh,
you know, your parents. has to be looked into
you know it's your parenting it's not good enough
or you know the support system has to change
that understanding has to be there we need to
find out what is causing this why is the child
behaving like this why I nurture groups I feel
have been a game changer because During COVID,
you know, we, when the children came back, after
COVID, when the children came back to school,
we saw, you know, a real need for support for
parents and children because, you know, children
were coming back with their impulse control completely
not developed. You know, we were having children's
behaviors completely escalated, you know, meltdowns,
hitting. harming themselves, harming others,
harming the adults that are harming peers. And
it was just, how do we support these children?
Children didn't want to come into school. Okay.
So that's when, I mean, I had been, I had read
a lot about on the research on nurture groups
before. Historically, I have worked in specialist
needs school as well. And I just thought, how
can we bring something like that into the mainstream?
but not have them excluded. Yeah, because that's
the alternative, isn't it? For these children.
The alternative isn't send them to a specialist
provision because there isn't enough. There isn't
enough spaces or maybe they don't meet the criteria.
So yeah, in an ideal world, of course, they would
go to a specialist school. But actually, in reality,
the alternative of mainstream education is exclusion,
isn't it? Yeah. And the mainstream school, I
feel, is... It's good for our special needs children.
It's good for our autistic children. It is good
for our children with, you know, executive function
difficulties. It's good for our behavior because
they see their peers and there is modeling. There
is mimicking. They do want to be there. You know,
they want to integrate. It's more real world
as well, isn't it? And then they will be going
out into the real world. You'll not have the
specialist settings. I think it helps everybody.
My specialist provision is attached to a mainstream
school and the definite benefits I see is that
they all will grow into adults in the same community.
So if they're not seeing each other through childhood,
then when they become adults and they see the...
children in my class that will be adults in their
community they'll be a lot kinder if they've
brought been brought up with them and alongside
them and played with them in the playground and
all of those kind of things they're far more
understanding kinder well -rounded mainstream
children if they have that exposure and same
for the children in my class they'll be far less
scared of the outside world if if they've had
some safe predictable experiences within a safe
school environment Yeah, because you see when
you had the mainstream children with the... with
the children with special needs in their class,
you know, neurodivergent children in their classroom.
You'll see them, even if this child plays in
isolation or, you know, he will play alongside
the other peers and they'll allow them to hold
their hand and take them, you know, to go and
play during playtime. They will acknowledge them,
although there will not be any reciprocal play.
But it's so beautiful to see that. It is. Their
peers are so, you know, they really love them
and they are there to help them all the time.
And it's good to see that we are, you know, educating
such children who are going to grow up to be
citizens, who are going to adapt and who are
going to help and understand, you know. And,
you know, when you have the children, other children
saying, oh, miss, I think he's struggling with
the noise. That shows recognition. They are not
just saying, oh, he's being naughty or he's crying
or he's screaming. They are telling us what it
is that is causing this. It's just amazing to
see. It is. It's really beautiful. It really,
really is. Another benefit is in my classroom,
sometimes they... They attempt to communicate
or attempt to socialise, but because it's not
reciprocated, it then falls on their fears and
they might not try it again. So we do some of
that in the class. And rather than relying on
us adults, actually, it's really lovely to have
some inclusion time with the mainstream peers,
where it is reciprocated, where those offers
of play are accepted and validated, and then
they will try them again. So, yeah, there's so
many benefits for having these hubs in mainstream,
but I suppose without the hub. These children
won't be doing any of those things because they'll
be so terrified and so anxious and so dysregulated.
So what were you seeing before you started the
hubs in your classroom? So we were seeing a lot
of meltdowns in the classroom. We were seeing
a lot of school -related absences, children not
coming into school. We were seeing a lot of children
being extremely... Either they're highly, you
know, they're going to meltdowns or they were
completely reserved. They were completely just
sitting in one corner, not, you know, engaging
in anything. You were having, we were having
lots of dysregulated behaviors during transitions.
We're having, you know. Teachers were struggling.
Yeah, I was going to say as well, like the other,
it's not just the individuals, is it? It's the
whole class. The whole classroom, because when
you have the severe meltdowns and the whole class
has to, everything just stops because you have
to look after this one child, even if you have
an extra adult, the other children, the teacher,
everything was, you know, and we were getting,
so my head teacher called me. She said, Faria,
we need to think of something, you know. So I
went and read out. about nurture groups and the
success they've had in Northern Ireland. You
know, we've had such great success whereby, you
know, you have almost 90 % success in mainstream
schools where they've had nurture groups with
neurodiverse children. You know, you have children
with social -emotional behavior difficulties.
And I put a bit of... twist to it because I wanted
to support, after autism, we have seen this great
influx of many children coming with the ASD diagnosis.
So we've had many children, you know, with neurodivergent,
autistic children, children with ADHD. I mean,
in my so many years of being in SEND, I'd never
seen a six -year -old being diagnosed with an
ADHD diagnosis, but now we're getting lots of
those as well coming through. So with parents
also really struggling, that's when we decided
to start off in 2023. We started a nurture group,
you know, with six of the most children were
really struggling, neurodivergent children. There
were six neurodivergent children. Are they in
the nurture group full time? No. No. Okay. So
how does it work? What does a typical... That's
what I want to explain. Right. So what does the
day look like? The day looks like the child comes
into. So because we are an early starting school,
we start at 7 .50. OK, and then so we have a
brighter start morning. So all the children get
breakfast, whether you've had breakfast or not.
There's breakfast on offer in every classroom.
There's breakfast on offer. And then there is
some dancing. It's silly to come, but they have
some. That is first 15 minutes, first 10 minutes
is dancing, breakfast, and then you do your register.
So by 8 .15, the first students that will attend
the nurture group would be the year one students.
Because obviously they've come from reception.
This is in September. They've come from reception,
open plan, play, choice. They've had all that.
And now coming into year one into a completely
structured environment with their tables there,
it was very, very difficult, you know. They would
come in and I would be leading that. A specialist
teacher would lead that. And they'd come in at
8 .15 to me. So this would be in September. We
would start off with a 45 -minute session with
them. And this session would, you know, include
all this. So we would have attention bucket during
that session. We would have, you know, sensory
play. sensory therapy, Lego therapy, we would
have Play -Doh therapy, we would have massage
therapy. So it's four to five days a week, 45
minutes during September, we would leave this.
And then after that, they're going back into
their classroom and they would join their classroom
and they would have their sensory breaks. But
throughout this year, while I was doing these,
the teachers, every class teacher came and observed
the sessions. So in this way, they could then
mirror and put in the strategies they saw me
using with these children. So, you know, transitions
from carpet to the tabletop, transitions from
one activity to another, sensory breaks, you
know. So instead of being reactive, we started
being proactive. It doesn't hurt any of the other
children either. All children benefit from sensory
breaks and transitions and visuals and all of
those things. So that's just music to my ears
to hear that all teachers were invested and interested
in not only introducing those and supporting
the nurture group and understanding what's going
on there, but actually bringing in those really
important strategies that can help all children
into it. every class. Yeah. And everybody got
training on trauma and nurture, you know, so
everybody was trauma -informed. Everybody recognized,
you know, the behavior iceberg. Everybody started
looking at this child doesn't want to make your
life difficult. They are struggling and that's
why they're doing this. And once they started,
you know, by the spring, second half of the spring
term, the time is reduced because The behaviors
and the skills they have learned are now transitioning
into class. You see, once they go from the nurture
room, once they've had their sensory appetite
fed for the morning, you know, the morning. Waking
up in the morning, being rushed into school,
you know, we don't know what the home environment
has been. We don't know if they slept well at
night. As we know, autistic children struggle
with sleeping at night. All those things are,
when the child comes into the nurture room, I
am there. The TAs who are trained, trauma -informed,
nurture, you know, giving nurture, recognizing
behavior iceberg, recognizing communication.
So many times, you know, you'll have the child
bouncing in and he'll just run off because the
hub that we have made is very much a home away
from home. So we have a little carpet there.
We have a little table, but we also have a little
kitchen area. We have a living room area where
we have soft furnishing. We have sofas. We have
soft toys, you know. So you'll have them sometimes
run in and just run in and go to the sofa and
just lie down there. And the TAs know they're
not going to run and force them. They're not
going to. Eventually, they themselves come to
the carpet and join in. And it becomes less and
less because they enjoy what they're doing. And
they know what the expectations are because there's
consistency, there's structure, and there's routine.
And they know what's going to happen. They feel
safe. They know when I come into the nurture
room, if I don't want to engage in the first
activity, I can just go and lie down on the sofa.
Yeah. I feel like lots of people use the word
nurture hub and I feel like what you've just
described is exactly what it should be. It should
be a specialist, trained teacher leading. It
should be an organized environment that is for
the children. It should be planned for and predictable
with support staff in there. There should be
a planned transition in and out of the mainstream.
All of those things. Lots of the people that
are doing nurture groups are not doing this farrier.
Lots of them are run in corridors and cupboards
by teaching assistants that are not trained.
And it really is used as a way of getting them
out of the classroom, but with no plan on actually
what to do with the children and getting them
back. No forethought onto what that... actually
can be more of a babysitting service and it's
such a shame because it means that they think
they're doing nurture groups when they hear that
but they're not being told what they actually
are and so hearing you explain what you do is
really enlightening it that it makes so much
sense to me that this is such a fantastic idea
and of course this is supporting All children,
the mainstream, them getting back into the classroom.
It's supporting teachers' training. It's supporting
their regulation. It just sounds fantastic. Because,
I mean, the main thing, why are these children
being sent out of the classroom? Why? Because
the connection is not there. Teachers are not
recognising. I know teachers have so many children
and they have to. But once you have that connection,
once you know, and you know today this child
has come in, Yes, he has this learning to do,
but today is not a good day for him. So maybe
once he comes back from the nurture room, he
could have this small activity, right? Or he
could join in in this group and then do something
else. The environment around that child is fostered
in such a way. Or he gets along really well with
this other child in class. Maybe if he's sitting
next to this other child, you know, and that
child. So it's recognizing and the NACHA group
has been really instrumental in building these
connections with the teachers and with the students,
you know, and them knowing by summer term only
about. In September, I'd start off with a 12
group student. By the summer term, I'd hardly
have three or four left in there because they're
happier to be in class and they're happier to,
they know they can ask for their sensory break.
When they've had enough, they can say stop because
they've learned that in the nurture group. They've
learned, I can say stop. Okay, enough. I can't
do this, you know. The teachers, the TAs who
are working with them recognize, is this a tantrum
or is it just, you know, are they trying to just
avoid it? And they can't really, they're just
being cheeky here. Or, you know, he's having
a difficult time. Okay. Should we challenge here
or not? This is what we need to do. Recognize,
connect, you know, and that is where the nurture
groups have been. Excellent, because once those
children have learned their social skills, they
have learned how to ask for help. They've learned
how to say no when they've had enough. They've
learned how to communicate happy, sad, pain.
You know, we use the zones of regulation. As
soon as they come into the nurture room, the
first thing is they go and sign in. When they
first start, they're just doing what everybody
else is doing. But through the sessions, they
start saying no, blue. You know, and those who
cannot, who are pre -verbal or, you know, they
are able to show if they're in the blue, they'd
point to their stomach. I'm hungry. It's up in
the blue today. It's just amazing. You know,
and you know, okay, you're hungry. All right.
First, you'll have something to eat then. You
didn't have anything in class. Let's have the
choices. What do you want to have? Choose what,
you know. And always, all of them, they're like,
you know, the ones who, I don't know what chocolate
is, but you can have a muffin. But great asking.
But, you know, and they will try. And, you know,
so many times they'll try and, you know, and
then we... But they're understood. So even if
it's not a yes, they feel understood by you.
You're giving them that connection rather than
that control. Exactly. You're understanding them.
You're understanding that it's important to them
that they are hungry. Yes. And that's just beautiful.
And the nurture then is transferred into the
classroom because the teacher has attended. She
has seen what a difference it makes. She has
seen the strategies that we use. And I mean,
they do have tabletop activities. They have phonic
sessions. You know, we have curriculum based
activities as well in there. We are adjusting
to the environment to meet their needs. We're
not asking them to adjust. And then they will
learn how to be resilient enough to be able to
succeed in environments that are not suitable.
But at least they'll build that resilience. They'll
build that confidence, you know? Yeah, absolutely.
So they're your Key Stage 1 children. What happens
with Key Stage 2 if they're needing a bit of
support? So the Key Stage 2 as well. So I have
year one, I have the early years at Key Stage
1 and 2. And then Key Stage 2, we have a second
SENCO who leads her group for Key Stage 2. Same,
we've had excellent, I mean, we were all in tears.
One of our students who was, you know, school
avoidance was. a major an autistic autistic boy
who struggled to come into school and school
awarded the nurture group his attendance was
excellent he got a head teacher's award he just
you know on their graduation for year six You
know, and I was just like, so it's amazing when
you see this progress, when you see them becoming
so confident. We've had children going from our
school, you know, going into secondary schools
and, you know, their parents and them coming
and saying to us that, you know, the boy was
able to tell the staff that I'm not comfortable
doing this. And, you know, because he's learned
that, he knows that he has a voice. And if he
doesn't want to do something, You know, they're
forcing, I'm not going to do this. Whereas before
he might have run away or thrown something. It
used to be one of those children getting very
frustrated. But now he's using his voice or he's
using his body whereby he got to move away from
that place. And it's validated. He's not forced.
He knows he can do that because he feels safe
that he will be understood and not. told off
it's not seen as a naughty thing in that in that
restraint yeah i mean i just think you know the
key principles of the nurture group should be
that the child is able to predict his environment
know what's going to happen he knows his emotional
you know he's able to communicate his emotional
feeling how he's feeling we encourage every feeling
is validated even if you're angry yes But how
do we communicate that? How do we self -regulate?
How do we co -regulate? How do we self -regulate?
From co -regulating to self -regulating. We want
to make these children independent enough. We
want to make them successful in every area of
their, you know, for them to be happy children,
to be happy individuals, to be able to communicate,
to be able to recognize how they're feeling and
to be able to communicate how they're feeling.
They don't have to resort to, you know, hitting
or shouting or crying. going into severe meltdowns,
which are very difficult for them as well. Yeah,
of course. Yeah, but it's very tiring. Exactly.
So, I mean, the main aspect of these nurture
groups initially was just to support the children.
after COVID, you know, children who are having,
you know, meltdowns. But now, because we have
seen such a great, even children who are coming
in, you know, like the safeguarding team would
get in touch with me and say, this child, you
know, this ACE is involved, you know, we would
take that child into a group, even if it is for
a term. Great difference in their, you know,
emotional well -being, a great difference in
their able, you know, them able to connect, them
able to know who they can connect with, them
able to know who they can ask help for, them
able to communicate, to be able to, you know,
their social emotional language, the vocabulary
becomes brilliant, you know, amazing to hear
them use different words, you know. Like the
other day, I think I had a year four child. You
know, she said, I think I'm just overwhelmed.
And I was like, oh, that's a really good word.
Why do you mean? What do you mean by overwhelmed?
I'm in the blue zone, but I think I'm overwhelmed.
That's why I'm in the blue zone. And then she
went on to explain, because in class as well,
they use the zones of regulation. They check
in twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon.
And if they're in the red zone. They are able
to communicate to the teacher. Why didn't this
happen during playtime? Okay, let's see. How
can we help you? We are here to listen, you know.
So, I mean, again, as I said, nurture groups
should be there, you know, to form those connections,
to form that safety, you know. How, if SENCOs
are listening to this or headteachers are listening
to this and thinking, Either I want to set up
a nurture group or we've got a nurture group,
but actually it doesn't run quite like this.
What would be, what's important for them to know
when to ensure that their nurture group is done
in this collaborative way? I think for them to
recognize this, it is, and to be able to set
up a nurture group is to have. The senior leadership
team on board, head teacher is extremely wonderful
and she's so inclusive and she's all for, you
know, supporting special education needs, students,
children, you know, other children, vulnerable
children. She's always looking for avenues. I
mean, the offer and provision we have in our
school is amazing. You know, this was just the
cherry on the cake, the nurture group. you know
it's training the staff on recognizing connecting
you know and training the teachers, the teachers
need to come in. I know, but in teacher training,
the scent portion is very limited. You know,
teachers struggle when they have children coming
into them, throwing tables, throwing, and it's
difficult because they have 30 children in their
classroom. It does become difficult. It's not
that easy. And now with, you know, with the school
struggling. you know, with funding and, you know,
we don't have enough professionals coming in.
We have to look for avenues. And I think having
SLT on board, you know, training staff and, you
know, three principles of it being to nurture,
you know, to teach these children skills, to
be able to develop, you know, their learning
skills. So understand their learning is understood
how developmentally for them. You know, recognizing
language is a vital means of communication, whether
it is through speaking, through PECs, through
AAC devices, all those transitions are important
for children. So for them to be able to transition,
even in the... classroom. Nurture groups are
the best place because they start in a small
group. It's amazing when the head teacher walks
in, you know, in the second half of the autumn
term, and you have these year one children who
struggled even, you know, the first few weeks
were, and you know, you've just finished your
attention bucket. And what's next? Tabletop activity.
They're putting away their cushions, running
to the table. And that is now then, you know,
transferred into the classroom because when the
teacher says, OK, table time, transition, they're
more than happy to do it because that system
has been taught to them in a smaller environment.
And now they are able to practice that in a larger,
more noisy, you know, safe, structured. emotionally
responsive environment. Yes, absolutely. You
said before you started this that you did some
research about nurture groups. Do you have off
the top of your head what kind of reading or
what you used to research this? Because I'm sure
people would want to find out more through those.
I don't have it on top of my... That's fine.
Do you want to email it to me and I'll leave
it in the description below? I can send it to
you. So if you're listening to this... Yeah,
that's fine. If you're listening to this and
you would like to learn more, then I will have
all the links to what you've researched below
and everything you find. Yes, I will send you
all the links for that. I also have a debate
that happened in the parliament a few years.
It's quite an old one, but it's quite specific
on how you're talking about nurture groups and
how important they are. I think it's nice for
people to go and look at that debate and all
the questions that were asked around it. I would
love you to send me that. Sometimes you have
nurture groups whereby it's, you know, the children
go there to complete work that they were not
able to do in the classroom. No. So that is,
that befits, you know, the main reason for bringing
them in this. They were not able to do that in
the classroom because there's a certain reason
behind that. So we need to. It feels like a punishment,
doesn't it? Yeah. We need to support that child
to be able to build that skill, build that resilience
to be able to do that task in the classroom.
Yeah. Yeah. What do we do? We teach them those
skills. We work with them to be able to build
that resilience, that impulse control. Sometimes
it's neurodivergent. They have spiky profiles.
Sometimes they will be able to do it. And sometimes
they will not be able to do it. It's us as the
adults to recognize, have that connection and
see, okay, today's not a good day. Don't do this.
But excluding them, taking them out, it becomes
more of a punishment. And otherwise, I think
that's what's happening. And then it's losing
that connection. It's losing the trust that that
nurture group is building. It's making it a negative
thing, a scary thing. And it's not ultimately,
yeah. the purpose of fundamentally what a nurture
group should be doing. Faria, what does the future
look like? You know, you sound like you've got
always lots of ideas and always developing. In
your mind, what's the next thing? What does the
future in SEND in mainstream look like to you?
I want to be positive because it's very, unfortunately,
it's very glim. And, you know, it is becoming
very difficult for the teachers. It is becoming
because we do not have the professional support.
You know, before you used to have occupational
therapists coming in. You had speech and language
therapists coming in. You had the educational
psychologist coming in. You had, you know, the
speech and communication complex needs team coming
in. They were all coming in to support you. And
now you don't have that. Now it's only an assess
and recommend basis. The children are getting
more complex and higher needs and the support
is diminishing. The support is diminishing. And
I just feel we need to, as I said, the main aim
of us putting this nurture room program in place
was because we were struggling with this all,
you know, children being, you know, we can't
have that child in the classroom. And we can't
just have them outside for the whole day, you
know. And then, you know, alternative provisions,
there's no spaces. There's no, you know, you
have the educational side, get an EHCP. I mean,
we have educational psychologists coming in only
to assess for an educational health care plan.
Before we used to have an educational psychologist
coming in to give recommendations to observe
the child, to, you know, train the teachers,
to train the staff, you know. give us more insight.
So I think at the moment it is very difficult,
but we have to look for ways to support these
children. And the nurture group is, it has been
very successful for the last two years now, this
third year going. And I feel setting up a nurture
group in your school as a means to transfer the
skills into the classroom, not as a means to
hide the children in. Yeah. And I think that's
it. That is exactly it, isn't it? How are your
school funding this? Is it extra funding or are
they self -funding it? Or is it through EHCPs?
So we have some children who have got EHCPs.
So that's how we are funding it. And then, I
mean, our school has been quite good financially
for many years. But now, of course, everything
is going, everybody is struggling. So I don't
know, in the future, we might be struggling as
well. We are, you know, we are being very careful.
But setting up a nurture group is not very expensive
because if you already have a SENCO in the school
who is a specialist, you know, and you can, you
know, you can also use if you have your buy -in
service or you have your speech and language
therapist or, you know, just take those ideas,
you know, a small room with good lighting, some
soft furnishings, you know. have your carpet
there have a you know a few tables there yeah
we're not talking a full sensory room we're not
talking anything like that it's a small space
and yeah a small space and you have an interactive
whiteboard there where you can you know like
with your core word curriculum, the one you have
where you have the videos. So we have our Play
-Doh therapy, which again, it plays on the board
and the children are with their Play -Doh. They're
just following that. Yeah, so you need a couple
of tables, a couple of chairs, a whiteboard.
It's basically a small classroom. Yeah. specialist
teacher and some support adults but they probably
come with them from the main class or yes that
you come with and those adults are trained in
trauma and in you know yeah i guess that's the
thing it's it's a it's using that budget whatever
budget you do have for staff training ultimately
exactly and again we are at the moment because
we it has been so successful we are now we have
parents also coming in to join into these nurture
groups what's happening so that they can then
transfer these strategies at home and we are
also looking into now training different schools
working with different schools sharing our practice
so that's the next chapter what we are going
to so if you're a school in london they're cut
in town Then get in touch with Varya. Get in
touch with me and we'll be more than happy to
share our practice with them. I know, I know,
because this is a question I get all the time.
I know people are going to listen to this and
thinking, I need to get in contact with her.
I want to find out more. Where do people find
you? Okay, so as you already know, I have my
Instagram, Agent Senko. I can be found on there
and I will leave my email with you. which they
can contact me through email. Amazing. They definitely
will. Just warning you. Thank you so much, Farah.
This is such an important conversation. And I
am so pleased that there are schools out there
that are doing this and doing it this way. And
I'm so pleased that you have come on here to
share your insight to, and this is the perfect
time as well, the start of a new term. to get
this right, I think it's really important. So
thank you so much, Faria. Thank you, Jordan,
for having me over. And I just say if there's
anything anybody needs, I'm more than happy to
help.