Comments on: Attachment Theory

By: Steven Nelson

Steven Nelson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:57:12 +0000

Bit confused here Don !

I always thought that Malow’s hierarchy and Bowlby’s ‘Attachment Theory’ were not one of the same theories, whilst they obviously link to each other.

yours

confused !!!!!

By: Chris Kelly PT Balgreen PS

Chris Kelly PT Balgreen PS — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:25:05 +0000

Completely agree and only stumbled upon this myself recently as well.
I have seen Forteviot in Edinburgh bring about wonderful changes in such children using ideas such as these.

By: Alison Steele

Alison Steele — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:23:38 +0000

This sounds very interesting and the picture is very clear. The comment about secure parenting is illuminating. ACS

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:45:37 +0000

Hi Don,

Came across this post when it was shared via Google Reader. I haven’t read such an eye-opening and thought-provoking blog post for a while - thanks very much! It’s certainly going to change the way I approach some of the ‘troublemakers’ in my classes, and I’ll be printing out your post and putting it on my Head’s desk as soon as we get back to school after the holidays.

By: MotherSoup

MotherSoup — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:42:23 +0000

Don, your posting has inspried me to meander off into a posting of my own about the struggle to enable parents to form such secure attachments:
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/mothersoup/2008/05/22/valuing-attachment-in-the-early-years/

By: Ann Hume

Ann Hume — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:03:32 +0000

Could this stream of thought lead us to the idea of a Scottish pedagogy? In the Danish model, pedagogues aid attachment and provide a caring and nurturing ralationship for a child from the early years onwards. They are not teachers and have a specific training(3-4 years) which focusses on child development and developing practical relationship skills. It is not a cheap solution but the benefits to our children and society as a whole could be immense.

By: Sheila Laing

Sheila Laing — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:53:45 +0000

Fascinated to open today’s blog and see Maslow’s hierarchy of human need and hear you ask what school has a rationale that guides their practice. At Forthview, (West Pilton, Edinburgh) 5 years ago, we had the privilege of creating a new school from 2 schools. Maslow’s hierarchy has been the guide and rationale for our practice. It has been the hub of how we nurture our children to overcome the immense physiological, emotional and social barriers they face when they come to learning. I’ve sent Don a powerpoint which shows the many strategies we have put into place at each level to support each child for learning. These range from water freely available to listening to warmth, respect and touch to creating opportunities for children to use their different intelligences (see Howard Gardiner) to employing a teacher to work with parents learning and with families learning to creating nurture classes, as mentioned by an earlier blogger. For growing children’s self esteem and teaching emotional resilience and health, we have developed (with teachers from St Francis, Craigmillar) a whole school, N - P7 programme called Creating Confident Kids, which has resources for engaging parents in the process. This holistic approach does nurture children and fosters strong attachments which helps children (and parents/carers and staff!) grow and learn at school but also at home. However, it is intensive work, requiring above average energies from all in the school community pulling together and it does also require resourcing. Currently we have high Positive Action funding because we have 70% Free School Meals. Without that this intensive level of provision, which is so effective, could not continue. Edinburgh, like all councils, is making many reductions in services as another blogger said about East Lothian. That is already impacting on the service we provide and is so frustrating for all of us. Our children need resources that nurture. Those resources are people but that has a cost that authorities must prioritise.

By: L Lewis

L Lewis — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:09:10 +0000

Don
I think many primary colleagues would agree with your thoughts on these children needing
‘ one substitute person (not the teacher)’. I think it would be an excellent idea for East Lothian to provide these chidren with a life coach/buddy.

By: joan macrae

joan macrae — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:11:48 +0000

City of Edinburgh has such nurture groups in some of the areas of greatest deprivation. They also have been building “Community Primary schools ” with Social work /Community Ed /Counselling services next to HT rooms. It would be interesting to learn from them.
How can we put these theories into practice in East Lothian schools when numbers of support staff are being reduced and moved?
I witness children benefitting from close associations with consistent, hard-working staff in Infant Schools .
East Lothian children blossom with the security and positive regard in the Early Years.
More investment in what we have working would be great!

By: David Gilmour

David Gilmour — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:36:05 +0000

Are there any nurture groups operating in East Lothian? I’m sure Times Ed have covered some success stories with these (Glasgow?), but their web content isn’t good enough for me to find a detailed example. They were developed 30 years ago to address this problem, so the approach must now be quite well understood.

Original book: Effective Intervention in Primary Schools: Nurture Groups

E&B Difficulties Journal article: EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION…: WHAT NURTURE GROUPS ACHIEVE

For over thirty years nurture groups have been demonstrating that with the right help children who present emotional and behavioural difficulties can be successfully included in mainstream school. Nurture groups provide a safe and nurturing learning environment where each child is valued, understood and has their emotional needs met appropriately. They offer an experience of adults through which trust and confidence are built and learning begins to take place.