Thrive

THRIVE at Grove Road 

 

At Grove Road Community Primary School we strive to ensure that all our learners experience fulfilment in learning every single day. We aim to support our pupils to be healthy, happy, confident children who are ready and open to learning within the classroom. In order to do this, the priority of all staff is to support children’s social and emotional learning throughout the school day.

Not all children are able to use words to explain or express different emotions they encounter, however the way in which they behave can give us a lot of information about how they are feeling. By using the latest research from neuroscience, attachment studies, effective learning studies and recent child development models to support school staff in understanding the needs being signposted by children’s behaviour, we are able to develop strategies and activities to help pupils to re-engage with learning and life. We call this the Thrive Approach.

WHAT IS THE THRIVE APPROACH?

At Grove Road CP School, we understand that strong, secure and positive relationships help children to explore and understand their feelings and emotions. The basis of the Thrive approach within our school is to ensure that all children have the skills to develop and maintain these relationships. Some children need extra support with understanding their emotions and how this links to the behaviours they display. The Thrive Approach offers practical strategies and techniques to identify children’s emotional needs and provides action plans to help school staff work with the children on their social and emotional learning.

WHAT IS THRIVE ONLINE?

We use Thrive Approach online to help us to identify and plan for children who need extra support. This process starts with whole class screening where class teachers look at the behaviours displayed by the pupils in their class at various times throughout the school day. Thrive online helps us to compare these behaviours with the behaviours we would expect to see for a child at a similar developmental stage.

For some children it is obvious when and why they need extra support with understanding their emotions, such as a bereavement, significant changes within their environment or an identified medical condition. For others, there is no obvious trigger to why they are finding some aspects of school / home life difficult or overwhelming. We work closely with parents and class teachers to carry out assessments, using Thrive online, to identify children’s social, emotional and behavioural needs. We can then create bespoke action plans for children to plan activities in the classroom, or in the Thrive room, to support these needs.

WHO GETS THRIVE TIME?

The simple answer to this is – everyone! All school staff have been trained in the Thrive Approach and understand the importance of developing strong, positive and supportive relationships with all pupils in school. Class teachers use Thrive strategies in their classrooms and explicit Thrive assemblies are held regularly.

We have a Thrive room in our school, which children can access when they are finding the classroom environment overwhelming. This room is available for pupils to access during lunchtime ‘Thrive Time’ sessions, providing a calm and creative alternative to outside play.

Some children with additional social and emotional needs may use this room for individual or group sessions to work on their action plan.

WHY DO SOME CHILDREN NEED ADDITONAL THRIVE TIME?

We will all face situations in our life which will challenge us, emotionally. To help us to learn and grow from these challenges we need to have people around us who understand and support us to help us get back on track. Most children will respond to the care, understanding and support provided by parents, carers, family, friends and school staff. Some children need extra help and support for them to:

· Feel good about themselves

· Form trusting and rewarding relationships

· Recognise the internal sensations they feel and how this links to their behavioural responses

· Manage their strong feelings

· Overcome difficulties and setbacks

· Be productive, thoughtful or creative

Different situations children face can lead to them experiencing many emotions, some of which can feel overwhelming at times. These might include anger, frustration, sadness, loneliness, confusion or anxiety. These feelings are normal and are experienced by all people at some point. The Thrive Approach uses play and creative activities to help children to identify the internal sensations associated with these emotions and teaches them strategies to manage these which ultimately supports and promotes their learning within school.