We are proud to embrace the Thrive approach in our school and have a Thrive trained Practitioner. It compliments our approach to emotional literacy through the Zones of Regulation.

What is Thrive?

Thrive is a therapeutic approach to help support children with their emotional and social development. It is a whole school approach based around, current studies of effective learning and current models of child development – in order to help the school to understand the needs being signalled by children’s behaviour.

The Thrive approach offers practical strategies and techniques and is built around online assessments which identify children’s emotional development and provides action plans for their individual needs.

We implement the whole school Thrive approach, where classes use Thrive techniques and activities to address any issues or as part of PSHE sessions in school.

Research has shown that how we behave is linked to how we feel and our emotions are linked to how we learn. By teaching children to recognise and notice these feelings and emotions it can help with their development and learning.

Children sometimes need some extra support with their emotional growth and this can be temporary or over a longer period of time.

Thrive promotes their emotional and social growth by building positive relationships between a child, their peers and the teaching staff and helps them explore and understand their feelings through various activities.

Why might my child attend a Thrive session?

Many children experience difficulties during their time at school. These may include:

• Difficulties with friendships.
• Finding social times such as break times difficult.
• Finding it hard to settle in the classroom.
• Finding it difficult to manage their strong feelings.
• Not knowing who to turn to when feelings are too big to manage on their own.

These situations can lead to many different feelings which may seem overwhelming at times. They might include: anger, frustration, sadness, loneliness, confusion or anxiety.

All these feelings are very normal and happen to a lot of children. The Thrive sessions are to help children learn to manage their feelings and teach them strategies that will help promote their learning at school.

What will happen in a Thrive session?

The session may be on an individual basis or as part of a small group of children. During each session there will be an activity which may include:

• Story telling
• Circle games
• Arts and crafts
• Sand play
• Movement and relaxation
• Hand massage
• Cooking and preparing food
• Role play and puppet work
• Games
• Gardening

Our Vision and Aims

Our Vision is to:

Develop children emotionally so they are able to recognise and distinguish their emotions and learn ways of responding to their feelings appropriately.

We aim to:

• Provide alternative support for children who are experiencing emotional, social or behavioural difficulties.
• Provide a safe and calm environment for children to develop their skills.
• Enable children to take pride in their achievements and enhance self-esteem.
• Help children to manage their feelings and develop skills to enjoy and participate in school life.
• Use positive approaches to manage all behaviours.