'The Five Essential Pillars of Support' at GROW
  
 

At GROW, we consider there to be '5 Pillars of Support' for the children who attend our povisions. These are all essential and are by no means hierarchical. As such, each must have an equal weight attached for there to be progress.

 

Pillar: Relationships- the single most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. These relationships provide the personalized responsiveness, scaffolding, and protection that buffer children from developmental disruption. They also build key capacities—such as the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate behaviour—that enable children to respond adaptively to adversity and thrive. This combination of supportive relationships, adaptive skill-building and positive experiences is the foundation of resilience.

Pillar: Nurturing and mindful adult behaviour- this involves adult modelling (showing what is expected), empathy, supporting emotional regulation, clear adult expectations as well as non-verbal communication. We teach that adults make mistakes too, and that they are brave enough to say so.

Pillar: Structure and routines- The adults help the children to see that the rules make sense. The adults must show consistency, always keep the child 'in mind' and advocate for the children.

Pillar: Supporting self-regulation- The adults lead 'purposeful distress management' to regulate, relate and reason - in that order. The adults must keep the children safe, de-escalate and manage dangerous and harmful behaviour in a safe and contained way. The adults use meaningful consequences and restorative conversations. 

Pillar: Recognition–  The adults must recognise and praise all qualities, with an emphasis on the GROW '13 helpful behaviours'. The recognition system we use is not for the primary benefit of the children, but to remind the adults to recognise when the child relates well and behaves helpfully - especially when it is hard to do so. We celebrate in public; and support for change in private.