In our final spotlight on the 2024 NASS Awards finalists and winners, we’re proud to share this piece from Beth Elkins, Headteacher, and Vicky Sellars, Assistant Head of KS4 and KS5 at Gretton School.
Winners of the Outstanding Impact category, Gretton School was recognised for embedding a whole-school approach to Relational Practice, placing connection, consistency, and positive relationships at the heart of every interaction. Beth and Vicky share how this approach has supported autistic learners in regulating their emotions, reduced anxiety through stable routines and relationships, and transformed how staff understand and respond to behaviour.
Traditional behaviour policies have been replaced with a focus on reflection, restoration, and aspiration, creating a culture where staff and learners work collaboratively to find solutions and build confidence. The school reports “that the impact of relational practice has been life-changing. Not only for the learners, but for their families and the staff too!
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A nurturing environment for every learner
At Gretton, we know support is about connection. As a specialist school in Girton, Cambridge, serving learners aged 5-19, we welcome both day learners and weekly boarders. Our experience of autism means we understand how consistent routines and staffing reduces anxiety, helping our learners to feel safe and confident in their surroundings. With small, personal classes and a high staff-to-learner ratio, we get to know each learner well and tailor strategies to support them in their daily school life.
Our headteacher, Beth Elkins, who’s shaped this approach over the past four years, describes Relational Practice as "the thing that pervades every single interaction at the school, it is the underpinning culture, it is the thread that runs through everything that we do." At its heart, Relational Practice is all about creating a nurturing environment where each interaction matters, helping learners to grow academically, socially, and emotionally. It is not just the individual relationships that make this approach successful; it is basing the entire school culture on the quality of these relationships and the impact they have to make changes that we want to see.
Rethinking our approach to establishing trusting relationships
Relational Practice at Gretton began with us rethinking how staff spoke about the learners - a powerful shift away from expressing personal frustrations or emotional challenges. Reflecting on a colleague's advice to “hold the learner in positive regard, no matter what,” this mindset became the foundation for everything else. Solution circles now guide our approach, prompting us to ask, “What are we seeing? What do we want to achieve? What’s the goal?” This focus on preparing learners for adulthood and fostering self-belief has been transformative, and it is so exciting to be able to share with others that a heavy focus on something as simple as the language you use about, around, and with learners can cause their whole world to shift.
Building confidence in every interaction
Many of our learners come from backgrounds of emotional and educational trauma, where even simple words like “school” or hearing their own names can be triggering. That's why our focus on Relational Practice is essential. Whether it's helping learners manage a really tough day, their emotional response to unexpected changes, or navigating social interactions, Relational Practice allows us to get learners in a more regulated place and learn a different way of expressing the emotions that can sometimes overwhelm them. For instance, if a child wants a turn on the swings, but struggles to ask positively, their trusted adult might model the language, provide sentence starters, ask how they might approach this so that they can practice before interacting with other learners; this explicit social interaction learning teaches vital communication skills and empowers learners to handle different situations confidently.
The impact of Relational Practice
Relational Practice teaches learners how to have relationships long into the future. If they come to a point where they disagree with someone, they have learnt the processes, structures, and language to enable them to navigate that difficulty.
Now, four years on from beginning to embed Relational Practice at Gretton, we are seeing fewer incidents alongside a growing cohort. If a learner has an incident, we reflect with them. We discuss what we could all do differently next time, and work collaboratively to develop strategies to aid regulation.
What we have discovered is that the impact of relational practice has been life-changing. Not only for the learners, but for their families and the staff too! The intentional focus on understanding - rather than fixing; on supporting - rather than changing… it has taken the narrative so far away from ‘behaviour management’ that we don’t even have a Behaviour policy anymore! Instead, the policy we follow is centred around strong, positive relationships, reflection, restoration and aspiration.
Becoming proud and valued members of the Gretton Community
The power of Relational Practice lies in these authentic connections between staff and learners, which create an environment that allows learners to engage and thrive academically and socially. By celebrating each learner's unique experience with autism, we aim to instil a sense of pride and self-understanding. When learners graduate from Gretton, they do so with a deeper awareness of their own autism, its impact on themselves and others, and a readiness to celebrate their difference, and confidently navigate life’s complexities. Rather than being the reason we don’t tackle difficult situations and conversations, relational practice provides the means by which to have these conversations supportively and effectively for positive change.
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Our 2025 NASS Awards open for entries to NASS member schools on Thursday 1st May. This year's awards are kindly sponsored by ASDAN.
Our four award categories are:
- Breaking Barriers & Inclusion
- Innovation
- Outstanding Impact
- Special Recognition
The deadline for entries is midday on Friday 27th June 2025
For more information and to download our handbook and entry form, please visit the NASS member zone: www.nasschools.org.uk/member-zone/