Building the foundations for school life
Feeling safe, trusting others and believing you can succeed all influence how you engage with learning.
At The Nest, we bring together trauma-informed practice, nurturing relationships and purposeful outdoor experiences to help young people develop these foundations.
Our aim is for them to leave with stronger skills, greater confidence and practical strategies they can use in school and everyday life.
Three pillars.
A shared purpose
Our curriculum focuses on three connected areas of social and emotional development and each programme is shaped around the priorities of the young people taking part.
Regulation and Reflection
Recognising feelings, understanding what helps and finding ways to manage challenge.
Through responsive support and shared reflection, young people practise regulation strategies, explore their experiences and consider what might help next time.
Communication and Connection
Building trust and finding confidence in relationships.
Young people practise expressing needs and boundaries, asking for help, listening to others and working together. Trusted adults model positive communication and support young people to navigate difficulties with peers.
Possibility and Playfullness
Discovering strengths and feeling able to try.
Play, creativity and practical challenges offer opportunities to explore, make choices and experience success. Young people develop confidence to try unfamiliar things, recover from setbacks and accept support when they need it.
Purpose in every experience
Each group has a dedicated base and familiar leaders. Predictable routines, shared meals and a warm welcome provide consistency as relationships develop.
Across Ufton’s grounds, young people take part in experiences such as cooking, caring for animals, bushcraft, shelter building and creative crafts.
Each activity has a purpose. Preparing a meal might involve asking for help, managing frustration or sharing responsibility. Building a shelter might create opportunities to listen, solve problems and try again.
Our leaders adapt activities and support to the group, recognising when a young person needs reassurance, space, a different approach or an achievable next step.
How change happens
Our Theory of Change begins with a secure, responsive environment and trusted relationships. These help young people participate in experiences where they can practise skills across our three pillars.
As those skills develop, our aim is to support stronger relationships, greater confidence and more sustained engagement with school life.
We assess progress at the beginning, midpoint and end of the programme, drawing on observations, engagement, attendance information and feedback.
Schools receive examples of progress, strategies that have helped and recommendations for continued support.
Reviews help us agree what should happen next and how developing skills can be reinforced beyond The Nest.
The difference we make
We look for progress that matters in a young person’s daily life: communicating a need, joining a group, managing a difficult feeling or returning to a challenge after a setback.
Our assessment framework tracks development across the three curriculum pillars. Alongside this, feedback from young people and schools helps us understand how those changes are experienced.
Independent evaluation, including work with the University of Reading, contributes to our understanding of The Nest’s impact.
“We were looking into specialist school options, but additional support, including a term at The Nest, has helped them to return to learning within their mainstream base class.”
-Teacher
We use what we learn to refine the programme and strengthen the support we offer.
