We want all the children in our community to flourish, so we use The Thrive Approach in order to support their emotional and social development. Our aim is to help our children feel happy and secure, able to enjoy friendships, relate well to others and be ready and able to learn.
Thrive is a specific way of working with all children that helps to develop their social and emotional well being, enabling them to engage with life and learning. It supports them in becoming self assured, capable and adaptable.
The Thrive Approach
Positive relationships are at the heart of Thrive. We use these relationships, together with play and creative activities, to give children key experiences at each different stage of their development. Repetition of these activities supports their development, helping them to:
- 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.
"Thrive has helped my son tremendously. It has given him more confidence and also it has helped him to calm down in difficult situations. I can see a huge difference in him. He looks forward to his Thrive time".
How does it work?
The Thrive Approach draws on research into brain science, child development theory and attachment theory. It helps us to understand how babies' and children's brains develop, and how parents, teachers and other professionals can best support this development by providing the best experiences for the children at each stage.
Thrive also helps us to better understand the children's needs being signalled by their behaviour. Sometimes children struggle as a result of temporary setbacks or other, longer term changes in their lives such as a separation, a bereavement, a family illness or accident, or even the arrival of a new baby. They may signal their distress by becoming more withdrawn, or distant, or perhaps more challenging or disruptive, or even by trying too hard to please. If this happens we use Thrive to look beyond the behaviour to give our children the support they need to get back on track.
How will my child be involved in Thrive?
We use a screening tool and activity planning resource called Thrive-Online. This allows us to check that children are working appropriately for their age and to support the whole group with activities that ensure they are as emotionally and socially developed as they can be. Using Thrive-Online will also identify any children in need of extra help. We will then carry out a more detailed assessment to develop an action plan that gives us specific strateiges and activities for supporting your child at Weeting CE Primary. The plan will also suggest activities that you can do at home, so that together we can help them through any difficulties they are experiencing.
