Hackney schools are finding it difficult to engage with the Inclusive and Nurturing Schools (INS) programme, with 60% of schools that initially signed up later disengaging, Hackney Council's Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission heard on Tuesday.
The commission met to discuss behaviour management and school inclusion, hearing evidence from the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), the Mayor of London's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), and representatives from Hackney's voluntary sector.
Coralyn Burge and Ella Keeley from the VRU, along with partners from UNICEF, Nurture UK, Attachment Research Community, and Lewisham Virtual School, presented on their work to support the Inclusion Charter. The Inclusion Charter is a London-wide commitment for change, prioritising education that is fully fair, inclusive, and available to all young people.
According to the meeting's report, Hackney schools have been difficult to engage with the Inclusive and Nurturing Schools program. The VRU noted that this may be due to the schools feeling overwhelmed and that there was a need for a closer relationship between the schools and the borough leads.
Artie Sharma, CEO of Nurture UK, said that the organisation focused on children's social and emotional development and worked with adults who work with children to embed the six principles of nurture within the school environment. These principles are that children's learning is understood developmentally, the classroom offers a safe base, nurture is important for the development of wellbeing, language is understood as a vital means of communication, all behaviour is communication, and the importance of transition in children's lives is recognised.
Martin Russell, Programme Director from UNICEF UK for the Rights Respecting Schools Award, said that the award underpinned the rights element, bringing the Convention on the Rights of the Child to schools, and empowering the voice of children and young people.
Andy Wright, Chair of the Attachment Research Community, said that the way forward was to have highly skilled adults within the school setting and to move away from a compliant point of view into a relationship-based approach.
Patrick Ward, headteacher of Lewisham Virtual School, said that there needed to be a public value proposition from the local authority, and that schools needed to abandon a behaviourist way of looking at things, and create a scenario where the school becomes about relationships.
Representatives from Hackney Quest, The Crib, and Immediate Theatre, three local community organisations, presented on their work to support local children and young people who have been excluded or are at risk of exclusion from school. They noted that they often experienced difficulties accessing schools and that they felt disrespected. They added that they would like to see a more systemic approach to partnership working and that they would like to be involved in shaping the Hackney Education and Learning Strategy (HEALS) programme.
Jason Morantz, Director of Education and Inclusion, said that the council was signed up to the violence reduction unit charter, and that it would be helpful to have a profile set. He said that there were a number of schools involved in the different programs, especially rights-respecting schools. He added that there was more work to do, certainly with secondary schools.
Deputy Mayor Bramble said that when schools had a negative experience with a school, such as feeling unprofessional or strange or treated in a hostile way if they're advocating for all of our children and young people, they should let the council know. She said that the council could only address and advocate on the things that they knew. She added that she and Jason were constantly in schools, and that they could raise those things once they knew them.
