ABSTRACT
Nurture groups have proliferated in early years education in response to what is seen as the equivalent proliferation of EBDs in young children. They were consistently supported by the New Labour government as central to a school's inclusion policy and Behaviour Support Teams were established around the country offering in-service training and good practice guides. The ‘emotional literacy’ (Rudd, 1998, p. 5) which they aim to foster meshes with cognitive psychology as well as policies such as Every Child Matters (DFES, 2004) and the social and emotional developmental components of the Birth to Eight curriculum. Beyond the confines of individual groups, some authors suggest that good early years schools are ‘nurturing schools’ (Doyle, 2003, p. 252).
