The Thrive Approach

Higher Bebington Junior School
The Thrive Approach

Mrs Byrne is our school Thrive Practitioner

What is Thrive?

• Thrive is a whole school learning and development approach which supports children to develop their emotional health, well-being and social skills- all of which are needed to enable learning to take place. 

• Thrive supports children to be able to find healthy and effective strategies to express their emotions or deal with how they’re feeling through building positive relationships with their peers and members of staff. 

• Thrive promotes a child’s emotional and social growth by allowing them the time and space to be able to explore and understand their feelings through various activities.

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 adults understand children’s behaviour as communication. It is an integrated approach; its strength is that it pulls together work from different disciplines to provide one model that is systematic, dynamic and relevant and helps adults respond to a child's emotional situation in a way that supports their emotional and social development.

Feelings are closely linked to behaviour and emotions are key to the learning process. We can teach children to recognise and notice their sensations and then link these to their emotions and their thoughts. We build their cognitive, relational and physiological regulation systems so that they can see cause and effect and begin to make real choices, with some understanding of their consequences. This is the beginning of being responsible for one's actions. It has enormous impact on behaviour, on relationships, on being available to learn and on being productive and engaged in human society.

Our Thrive Vision at Higher Bebington Junior School

At Higher Bebington Junior School, through the use of Thrive, 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

So that every child can:

• Feel good about themselves and know that they matter

• Increase their sense of security and trust

• Increase their emotional well-being

• Improve their capacity to be creative and curious

• Increase their self-esteem and confidence to learn

• Learn to recognise and regulate their feelings

• Learn to think before behaving in a certain way

  ...and much more.

What does Thrive look like at Higher Bebington Junior School?

Thrive is delivered on a 1:1 and small group basis by our trained Thrive practitioner Mrs Byrne.

During each session, there is an activity which may include: 

• Story telling

• Board games

• Arts and crafts

• Sand play

• Movement and relaxation

• Role play and puppet work

  How will Thrive help my child at Higher Bebington Junior School?

While it is important to understand the model behind The Thrive Approach, what really matters is the impact that it has in practice for the development of an individual child or young person. At Higher Bebington Junior School, through the use of ‘The Thrive Approach’, we aim to support and encourage the development of confident, curious, creative and capable children who are open to learning and are better equipped to deal with life’s ups and downs.