The Nest

At St Columba’s, The Nest is a nurturing, inclusive environment that supports pupils with a range of complex needs, including communication and interaction difficulties, autism spectrum condition, and moderate to severe learning difficulties. We recognise the dignity of every human person and believe every child is a unique gift from God, deserving of love, respect, and a meaningful education.

Rooted in the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, The Nest:

Promotes inclusion and the common good by enabling pupils to access tailored learning while participating in wider school life where appropriate.

Respects the dignity and rights of each child by providing a personalised, structured, and accessible curriculum focused on developing communication, emotional regulation, independence, and social understanding.

Emphasises solidarity with families, ensuring their voices are heard, their needs are recognised, and they are actively involved in their child’s development.

Reflects a preferential option for the vulnerable, advocating for pupils to ensure they are supported, understood, and included.

We offer a communication-rich environment using augmentative and alternative communication, visuals, and objects of reference. Learning is closely linked to each child’s EHCP outcomes, with a strong focus on life skills that promote confidence, wellbeing, and independence.

In partnership with families and external professionals, we ensure a consistent, person-centred approach so that each child is supported holistically in a way that reflects both their individual needs and their God-given potential.

Provision & Rationale

The Nest is for children who have Special Educational Needs and have either an Educational and Health Care Plan (EHCP) or My Support Plan in place. The Nest is for children who have consistent difficulties with social communication and interaction and/or social, emotional and mental health difficulties and present with neurodiversity. The Nest is for children who are struggling and cognitively unable to access a mainstream curriculum typically over 2 years behind their peers. The Nest is for children in Early Years (Robins Flight Path) and Key Stage 1 (Owls Flight Path) to meet their need whilst they seek alternative specialist placement, if required.

Supporting our Children

We believe our children in The Nest need a highly differentiated and personalised learning curriculum which works at a much slower pace to ensure small steps of progress can be made. We want them to learn and develop self-regulation strategies, whilst providing them opportunities to develop skills for life, speaking and listening skills, motor control and social skills through a play-based approach to learning. We want to provide a calm, less stimulating environment, which does not overwhelm but promotes a minimalistic feel to learning. Calm music, low level lighting and neutral colours will enhance the environment.

Admissions

Admission to The Nest is identified on entry and through close observation and assessments throughout EYFS (particularly Eden and Nursery) as well as during pupil progress meetings when looking at levels of learning, provision in the mainstream classroom, individual needs, sensory difficulties and other areas. During a review of a child's targets or EHCP The Nest might also be identified as a resource to support the child's learning. The Nest is flexible in regards to the allocated places and children both in and out of The Nest are regularly reviewed as to whether they require a place or can go back to class through carefully planned transitions. Assessment of need is usually undertaken with the support and advice of SCIL Specialist Teacher, BCWCAT SEMH Specialist support and Educational Psychologist advice as well as a coordinated approach with school staff and parent/carers.

Our Aims

The Nest has an emphasis on supporting children to develop their awareness of others through increasing their social and communication skills through a provision based approach to learning.
We aim to help children to develop an awareness of self and be able to manage their levels of stress through self-regulation.
The Nest aims to give children an individualised and highly adapted curriculum to meet their needs. We aim to help children identify their own sensory triggers and find ways to minimise their effect.
We aim to support pupils to make positive relationships with themselves initially and then key adults and their peers. We aim to support children to access our busy mainstream school and classroom environment as much as possible.
Children in The Nest will be included as fully as possible into the wider-life of the school in order to develop their social, emotional and independence skills.
We aim to provide experiences which promote greater independence and help children to develop important life skills.
We encourage children to embrace and develop their God-given talents and promote the 7 principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Our Provision

The Nest provides specialist support for children with in the main communication and interaction or SEMH difficulties. It provides a dedicated space within the school for learning and regulation. The Nest provides a calm and nurturing environment, providing excellent opportunities so that each child can maximise their learning potential. We offer opportunities to work individually, paired or in small groups in this distraction free, calm environment. With support and guidance from specialists, there are opportunities for the children to be fully integrated into their mainstream class within St Columba's Catholic Primary School. Class teachers remain responsible for their students but are ably supported by the experienced SENDCo who is responsible for overseeing the provision, planning, resources and supporting mainstream class teachers to plan and deliver appropriate learning of each child. Pupil passports offer strategies to support individual child’s needs through a one page profile for each child. We offer structure to support the pupils with organising and making sense of their day using visual supports, timetables, choice boards and Now & Next boards. The progress of all pupils in The Nest is regularly assessed using our own assessment tools in relation to the National Curriculum Guidelines, using the PIVATs progression steps to support small steps of progress and adapted AET (Autism Education Trust) framework, Sensory Profiles, Engagement Models, Lawrie's Intensive Interaction Scale and other asessments as advised by specialist teachers. Individual pupil outcomes are monitored at least 3 times a year including at the Annual Review of their EHCP. We work with specialist teachers from Bradford SCIL (Social Communication Interaction & Learning) team, Bradford Educational Psychologists and Anna Robinson who supports the Blessed Christopher Wharton Catholic Academy Trust.