Pupil perspectives on a whole-school approach to nurture

This report describes a small photo-voice (Wang & Burris, 1994) project conducted with young people in a Scottish primary school, exploring what nurture means to them. Their school has been highlighted as sector leading in its approach to whole-school nurture by education managers, having embedded nurture in its practice for 15 years. Data presented here is extracted from a larger interpretivist Illuminative Evaluation (Parlett & Hamilton, 1972) examining how and why nurture works in the school context and considering multiple stakeholder views. Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021) of pupil photographs and annotations through the lens of Symbolic Interactionism (Mead, 1934) led to the identification of five overarching themes in the pupil data: Feeling included; Feeling regulated and safe; Knowing who we are; Feeling nurtured by the physical environment and Becoming self-aware and self-directed. These were underpinned by eight subthemes: Belonging; Children as individuals; Children’s Rights; Meeting needs; Respect; Spirituality; Regulation and Pupil voice. This study aimed to address gaps in nurture research, by providing information relating to nurture in practice (Rennie & Smart, 2023) and from a pupil perspective (Kerr & Crawford, 2024). Findings suggest that whole-school nurturing approaches can have positive impacts from a pupil perspective, with them feeling more regulated, a greater sense of belonging and an increased awareness of their needs and how to address them.