For everyone at The Coppice Primary School, our first priority is to care for every child in a secure, friendly environment.
As part of our caring role, we support children’s wellbeing and social and emotional learning throughout their time at school. We do this during lesson times, break times and through activities such as sport and Forest School. We also use the Thrive Approach across the school.
What is the Thrive Approach?
Children cannot always put their needs into words, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling.
The Thrive Approach draws on the research from current neuroscience, recent attachment research, 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. It gives us targeted strategies and activities to help them re-engage with learning and life.
Why do we 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.
What extra support can The Coppice offer?
Children, who need a little bit of extra help, are identified through our whole-class screening process, 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 attachment, 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. For example, a child may be finding it difficult to walk into school on their own on a particular day and need the support of an adult to help or one of our Thrive dogs: Oscar and ‘M’ to help them make that transition.
Working closely with parents and class teachers, our Thrive team 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, based on areas that are identified from the screening. The information gained also enables us to carry out whole-class activities as part of our of PSHE programme where we feel an aspect of learning will be beneficial to all pupils.
What is a Thrive Action Plan?
A Thrive Action Plan is a plan of activities tailored to support an individual child’s identified social and emotional learning targets. The activities are delivered either one-to-one, in a pair or in a small group. These activities are either relational, play-based or arts-based activities that are 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, 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.
Action Plans are shared with Parents and Carers and they are encouraged to do some of the activities at home if possible. They are reviewed regularly to see the progress children have made against targets set.
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 emphasis to everyone that Thrive is just like any other learning intervention. If children struggle with reading, we give them extra support, and it’s the same with social and emotional learning I.e. if they are struggling, they get extra support.
Everyone gets class Thrive activities (although they might not realise it). For example, most art, sport or Forest School activities are taught within the Thrive Approach. However, if a child requires regular out of class Thrive time, either one-to-one, in a pair, or in a small group, you will be consulted and asked for your input into their assessment and Action Plan.
What makes The Coppice Primary a Thrive school?
At The Coppice we don’t consider Thrive to be an intervention for just a few children done in the Thrive Room – we consider it to be a whole-school approach. We all believe that all behaviour is communication, and that that communication needs to be understood and supported and not just “dealt with”. Thrive feeds into everything we do: assemblies, celebration assemblies, relationships with pupils and their families, sharing all achievements (not just academic ones or ones achieved in school), and celebrating our diversity and collective spirit.
If you want to know more about Thrive, please visit the Thrive Approach website: https://www.thriveapproach.com/ or speak to the Thrive team at The Coppice: Mr. McGarry, Miss Carter. Mrs Woodyatt, Mrs. Small or Mrs. Flectcher.
