Nurturing North Ayrshire Team, North Ayrshire Council

Creating the culture for Nurturing North Ayrshire to thrive is underpinned by systems and a deeply held belief that long-term, sustainable impact and change are achieved by investing in staff and their professional learning.

Leadership and vison are wrapped around all Nurture and Restorative approaches with Quality Improvement Frameworks underpinning the focus and helping drive this work forward. There is a targeted focus on building the capacity of leaders and teachers by giving them the professional currency and knowledge to support the cultural change required. There is clear modelling of expectations at every level which is central to creating Nurturing cultures for children and staff.

The whole school approach to developing a Nurturing Culture ensures that this work is not solely about Nurture bases but applies to all children and young people. There is evidence of the impact at whole school level in terms of a greater awareness of the well-being of children and young people through understanding nurture principles and their application.

The Nurture team’s commitment to their own professional learning influences change and improvements across the professional learning provision for all staff, which was described as ‘we teach best as learners and learn best as teachers’.