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In 1997 Marion Bennathan co-founded the Nurture Group Network and became its honorary director. In 2007 she was elected its honorary life president
In 1997 Marion Bennathan co-founded the Nurture Group Network and became its honorary director. In 2007 she was elected its honorary life president
In 1997 Marion Bennathan co-founded the Nurture Group Network and became its honorary director. In 2007 she was elected its honorary life president

Marion Bennathan obituary

This article is more than 6 years old

My friend and former colleague Marion Bennathan, who has died aged 90, was an educational psychologist who changed many children’s lives for the better by her passionate advocacy of nurture groups in schools. These are psychologist-designed units led by teachers that give vulnerable children dedicated support so that they can remain in mainstream schools.

Effective Intervention in Primary Schools: Nurture Groups (1996), which Marion co-wrote with Marjorie Boxall, had a huge influence on national practice in this area. In 1997, the New Labour government recommended nurture groups in several policy papers as the outstanding example of effective early intervention. In the same year, Marion co-founded the Nurture Group Network and became its honorary director. In 2007 she was elected its honorary life president and in 2011 was appointed OBE.

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Marion was the fifth of six children of John Shaw, who ran a greengrocer’s business, and his wife, Nancy (nee Markham). She attended Blackburn high school for girls and Birmingham University, from where she graduated with a first-class degree in social and political science in 1948. She then studied psychology at Birkbeck College, London, getting another first in 1953. That was followed by training as an educational psychologist at the Child Guidance Training Centre, at the Tavistock clinic, where she met and became friends with Marjorie, the pioneer of nurture groups.

After finishing their studies, the two stayed in touch, and Marion showed a keen interest in the nurture groups Marjorie set up in Hackney, London. After a short spell as a teacher, Marion spent the next 12 years working as an educational psychologist, moving in 1969 to become Bristol’s senior educational psychologist. She retired to London in 1987, becoming co-founder and first director of the charity Young Minds until she retired in 1991.

While enthusiasm for nurture groups had continued to grow, by the late 1980s they were in danger of disappearing. Determined that they should stay on the public agenda, Marion and Marjorie co-wrote Effective Intervention in Primary Schools: Nurture Groups, to an extremely positive response.

Marion’s marriage to Esra Bennathan, an economics professor, ended in divorce. She married twice more, to David Eversley and Melvin Sabshin. Both predeceased her.

She is survived by her son, Joel, from her first marriage, and by five grandchildren, Ella, Matthias, Rosa, Oliver and Clara, and three great-grandchildren. Another son, Joshua, died in 2014.

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