Positive relationships approach across our school and ELC

St Nicholas Roman Catholic Primary School is a denominational provision in West Lothian. It serves the communities of Broxburn, Uphall, Uphall Station and Dechmont. The school is one of three Catholic primary schools associated with Sinclair Academy with almost all primary 7 children transferring to the school. The school roll is 393, with fifteen classes. There are 86 children within the nursery. A minority of children live in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) deciles 1 and 2. Twenty-five percent of children speak English as an additional language.

The improvement issue

St Nicholas Primary School has clear vision, values and aims in place, which underpins all school improvement. Senior leaders, through self-evaluation, identified that they had a range of approaches to promote positive relationships across the school community. They identified the need to consolidate their approaches and produced a clear and streamlined plan outlining their approach for children, families and partners. They aimed to do this within an ethos and climate of mutual respect and trust, based on shared values and in consultation with the whole school community. This required a clear understanding by all staff that the health and well-being of children is the responsibility of everyone in the school community. Senior leaders ensured there was a focus on the rights of each child to feel happy, safe, respected, and included. This required all staff to be proactive in promoting positive relationships.

What St Nicholas Primary did

The principles underpinning the approach taken included:

• mutual respect between children, young people and adults
• high expectations for children’s’ learning and achievement
• inclusion, engagement and involvement of all children

Senior leaders identified the improvement priorities that would contribute to improving children’s wellbeing and promote positive relationships. They developed a strategic approach to ensure clarity in how ten different elements of promoting positive relationships would contribute to the overall aim. These were captured in an easily accessible visual format that was shared with children and families and has embedded the voices of children that explain each element.

All stakeholders were involved in agreeing the school vision of ‘believing and achieving’ and shared school and nursery values. Staff developed an agreed way of working to ensure that all children develop a sound understanding of children’s rights and the important role they play within society. Senior leaders and staff adopted three rules of “Be ready, Be respectful and Be safe”.

Staff worked with partners from Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, the Educational Psychology Service and the Inclusion and Support Service to better understand and support the needs of children. This aimed to improve approaches to inclusion, equality and equity. Staff worked with speech and language therapy colleagues to look at ways to improve children’s listening skills. This supported improved pupil voice across the school in line with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Staff developed the use of a range of programmes to support the planned wellbeing curriculum, including a focus on understanding emotions and building resilience. These are helping children to understand their emotions and how to regulate them.

Every child identifies at least one trusted adult within the school staff team to support them when required. Children can request trusted adult conversations. These are scheduled within the school day to discuss any worries or concerns. To further support the development of health and wellbeing, senior leaders have appointed health and wellbeing ‘champs’. There are three distinct ‘champ’ roles: teaching staff ‘champs’, pupil ‘mini-champs’ and family ‘champs’. The family ‘champs’ are invited to attend information sessions termly which are organised by the local authority health and wellbeing team. This provides an opportunity to discuss key messages. Family ‘champs’ are then asked to communicate these messages back to the school parent body. These roles support the ongoing work of health and wellbeing within school and across the school community. For example, a small working group of parents and staff created an anti-bullying procedure, which is displayed in a flowchart format. Health and wellbeing ‘mini champs’ created a child friendly version of the flowchart using the acronym ‘St Nics’, standing for Speak, Trusted Adults, Negative behaviour is reported, Investigate, Communicate, Support for all.

What the sustained impact has been

Senior leaders have continued to emphasise the importance of quality relationships throughout the school. This is leading to:

• An improved climate for learning, with teachers able to focus more on the quality of teaching and learning.
• Increased self-esteem and confidence of children.
• Improved co-operation between children and adults.
• A safe and nurturing school environment.
• Children’s improved self-regulation and increased responsibility towards people and property.
• A more inclusive school with an understanding of, and a respect for, different races, religions and cultures.

The school has been nationally recognised for their work in improving children’s rights. This has been in recognition of the centrality of children’s rights to the ethos and life of the school.

The agreed approach of “Be ready, Be respectful and Be safe" has improved consistency of approach. When used alongside the school values and restorative approaches, it led to increased expectations for all and improved relationships. Staff use restorative approaches to help solve problems. If relationship issues occur, staff use restorative justice questions to find out what happened. Children are supported to consider the thoughts and feelings of anyone affected. They then think about how to resolve the situation positively.

The partnership working with Speech and Language Therapy colleagues has continued to support children and staff in having more positive communication across the school. This includes sessions with nursery children in preparation for transition into primary school. 

Senior leaders have further developed their approaches to include more targeted wellbeing interventions. This builds on the successful work to support the resilience and emotional wellbeing of children. Targeted wellbeing interventions include sensory based and confidence building activities.  This is supporting individuals and groups of children to make progress in specific aspects of their wellbeing.