Thrive
What is Thrive?
For all of us at Cameley Primary School, our first priority is to care for every child in a secure and friendly environment enabling them to enjoy their time in school and feel confident to learn.
THRIVE supports children with their emotional health, well being and social skills, all of which are needed to enable learning to take place. Children cannot always put their needs into words, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling. For some children there may be an obvious reason why they need extra support. This might be due to bereavement, family break down or an identified medical condition such as ADHD. For others, there may not be any obvious trigger as to why they are finding some aspects of school and/or home life difficult.
What is the Thrive Approach?
Not all children can put their needs into words every time they experience a different emotion, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling.
The Thrive Approach draws on the latest research – from current neuroscience, recent attachment research, current studies of effective learning and current models of child development – in order to help our school to understand the needs being signalled by children’s behaviour. It gives us targeted strategies and activities to help them re-engage with learning and life.
Why do some children need Thrive?
Unfortunately, (like all of us at some point in our lives), children may face challenges that knock them off course. What is needed then is understanding and support to get them back on track. Many children will respond to the care, understanding and support given by parents, family, friends and teachers. However, some children need a little bit extra to enable them to:
- Feel good about themselves
- Know that they matter
- Become more resilient and resourceful
- Have a positive place in society/
- Form trusting, rewarding relationships
- Be creative
- Be compassionate and empathetic
- Be thoughtful and self-aware
- Be productive and be able to overcome difficulties and setbacks
What extra support can Cameley Primary offer?
Children who need a little bit of extra help are identified through a variety of ways, by class teachers, or through communication with families or outside agencies. For some children there may be an obvious reason why they need a bit of extra support. This might be bereavement, family break down or an identified medical condition such as ADHD. For others, there can be no obvious trigger to why they are finding some aspects of school and/or home life difficult. Working closely with parents and class teachers, our Thrive practitioner will carry out full assessments of identified children’s social, emotional and behavioural needs. This helps us to build a bespoke Thrive Action Plan of activities to support their needs.
What is a Thrive Action Plan?
A Thrive Action Plan is plan of activities tailored to support a child’s identified social and emotional learning targets. The activities are carried out one-to-one and in small groups, they are play and arts-based activities designed to help the child feel better about himself; become more resilient and resourceful; form trusting, rewarding relationships; be compassionate and empathetic; and/or be able to overcome difficulties and setbacks. They might include playing in the sand tray, cooking, painting, model making, exploring difficult situations through role-play or comic strips, playing strategy games or projects focusing on the child’s own interests – all dependent on the needs of the individual child. The Action Plans are reviewed regularly so that we can see the progress children have made.
So who gets Thrive?
For many children across the school, Thrive time is considered a real treat! Who wouldn’t want to spend half an hour a week with the one-to-one attention of a caring adult doing play activities when the rest of their class are learning? However, we try to emphasise to everyone that Thrive is just like any other learning intervention. If children struggle with reading, writing or maths, we give them extra support, and it’s the same with social and emotional learning, if they are struggling, they get extra support.
