Balance, ingresos y egresos presupuestarios

Overall, there was considerable overlap between the identified themes from the interviews pupils, parents and staff but two key areas emerged namely increased confidence in both pupils and parents and building relationships.

The first key area that emerged was that of increased levels of confidence of pupils that was identified by pupil, parent and staff participants. Pupils

expressed the view that they were more confident in completing a variety of tasks in school and at home that included handwriting, drawing, writing, playing games and attending swimming sessions. It appeared that pupils enjoyed the nurture group curriculum, as it was fun and practical supporting research by Cooper and Boyd (2001). In addition it helped improve levels of personal confidence for a number of pupils that promoted a greater desire to learn defined as ‘self-instructed performance’ (Bandura, 1997, p.195) and improved perceptions of themselves as learners. Interviews with parents identified four areas of increased pupil confidence namely the ability to

complete new tasks, greater independence, higher levels of concentration and finally a greater desire to learn as suggested by Sanders (2007).

In relation to increased pupil ability in completing new tasks many parents cited that their children appeared more confident in completing homework activities from the nurture groups as opposed to homework tasks from mainstream provision that supports research by March and Healey (2007), Sanders (2007) and Scott and Lee (2009). This increase in levels of pupil confidence in homework tasks led to a greater level of parental involvement resulting in parents feeling more confident in their ability to support their child’s academic progress and generated greater interest in what was being taught in the nurture group. Data gathered from parents that identified that increased pupil confidence led to greater independence in a range of activities out of school that included going swimming with friends and walking to school by themselves that had a noticeable impact on one parent who felt more

relaxed in the morning resulting in her spending more quality time with younger siblings.

Data from nurture group staff face-to-face interviews cited a number of

examples of pupils’ increased confidence through improved social interaction that was linked to raised self-esteem. A number of nurture group staff

discussed examples of pupils who initially struggled to interact with other pupils in the group and as a result found it challenging to form friendships; their data showed that there was evidence of improved levels of social interaction that led to increased pupil confidence. This suggests that there may be a connection between social interaction and pupil confidence that may warrant further investigation into how pupils felt about their ability to form meaningful relationships with peers. Nurture group staff discussed the

relationship between pupil confidence, raised self-esteem and learning citing one particular pupil who appeared very shy when he started the group and didn’t seem to have any friends in his class or know how to play with others or take turns. The strategy of playing games with one or two peers encouraged him to share and interact and slowly he seemed to interact better with the group and talk more. As a result he then became more confident in

completing work on his own and seemed to feel better about himself as he wanted to do things that he refused to do before. A number of parents discussed the relationship between their child’s improved level of

concentration, how it could have led to a greater interest in school and a greater desire for their child to learn as discussed by Sanders (2007).

In addition to pupils feeling more confident their parents also felt more

confident in their ability to support homework activities, deal with their child’s poor behaviour at home and support the nurture group provision though voluntary support. The parents attributed this increased level of personal confidence and empowerment to their attendance at social and curriculum based events in the nurture group that they described as non-threatening allowing them to observe how staff dealt with poor pupil behaviour and

learning opportunities. A common theme from parental data was a number of parents had negative experiences of their own primary education so initially felt very reluctant to visit school and did not attend any parents’ evening when their child was in a mainstream class that is similar to the research by

Kourmoulaki (2013). However, they felt more confident in attending activities the nurture group provided as they felt welcome and the meetings were non- threatening with a practical basis where they could interact with their child, other children and their parents. Following this intervention, two parents volunteered support nurture group sessions at regular intervals.

Building relationships was another key theme that was identified by all

participants that relates to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1951). Pupils identified that they had built relationships with both peers and adults through the shared and co-operative activities provided by the nurture group curriculum. The nurture group staff said that it was important to plan a range of activities to encourage cooperation and to develop social skills. Some pupils, who appeared to have struggled to form lasting relationships with peers in the mainstream setting cited examples of forming new friendships in the nurture

group. One pupil identified the reasons for an increase in her acceptance within the group was due to her reduction in angry outbursts that she felt had alienated her to possible friendships within her mainstream setting. There was clear evidence in the observations of a range of planned curriculum activities that encouraged pupils to work co-operatively with a peer or as part of a small group that may have encouraged friendships to develop. Most pupils

interviewed spoke very highly of the nurture group staff and the support they were given. There was evidence in the interview data that pupils had bonded with nurture group staff and had begun to build trusting relationships. The observations supported this and it appeared that the pupils had built up valued and trusting relationships with at least one of the two adults in each group.

The majority of parents interviewed made positive references regarding the nurture group staff as they felt well supported and had also built trusting relationships that enabled them to visit at regular intervals to discuss any problems they may have had that related to their child or their own personal issues as discussed by Taylor and Gulliford (2011). As a result they

welcomed advice to deal with practical issues such as their child’s challenging behaviour at home and the best way to support homework activities. A

number of parents felt the nurture group staff offered emotional support by listening to personal concerns. The nurture group staff said a key priority was to make parents feel welcome and had invited them to a number of events that they felt were non-threatening and proved to be popular with parents and well attended.