Thrive

The Thrive Approach: The Bewbush Academy ethos

 

 

What is Thrive?

 

The Thrive programme has been developed for young people and supports them with their emotional resilience, social skills and ability to attribute meaning and words to feelings they have.

 

It helps children engage, or re-engage, with learning and life through social and emotional developmental work and activities, which match the support that they need.

 

It supports the emotional health and wellbeing of all children.

 

It explores interrupted emotional development, which if not explored may lead to troubling behaviour, under-achievement, mental health difficulties in later life and social isolation

 

The Bewbush Academy believe and recognise that:

 

Every child deserves the best life chance and we are the privileged people that can support children to develop the social and emotional skills they need to succeed in life

 

Children and families may have experienced, for various reasons, social and emotional difficulties/hurdles in life. We will support children and families in overcoming these.

 

Life is tough! Things may happen that we can’t fully control. We will support children in developing the skills, language and resilience they need to manage the challenges they may come across in their life.

 

Our children are amazing. Along with the support of their families, we will ensure they become amazing adults. 

 

What do we do?

All children are different and have different responses and emotions to the things they experience in life. Thrive allows us to identify areas for development for individual children, building an action plan and series of sessions with a pastoral approach that will support them in understanding and naming their thoughts and feelings. 

 

Some examples of what we do are:

• Meet and greets

• Group sessions - often with a creative or outdoor focus

• 1:1 for children, if appropriate

• “Time out” AND “Time in”

• Whole class activities to name feelings, build  relationships and develop mental health awareness (we call these brain science lessons!)

   

We also work with a school counsellor, the Mentally Healthy Schools Teams and a number of external counselling and therapeutic services (for example, CGL and Paragon).

 

Some examples of what Thriving at Bewbush means to us

Child: “Thrive means a lot to me. I can have a break from my learning. It makes me feel calm and relaxed. All of my worries leave me. It makes me happy! It makes me smile! The thing I use most is the sensory bag, I keep it in my room and I use it for stress relief. THRIVE is Magical!”

Parent: “We got lots of positive ideas and support from the Thrive team at Bewbush. For example negotiating with the whole family on house rules, starting a photo wall of achievement for when the kids completed something special and setting up a reward system using marbles that converted into pocket money every weekend. Thrive has enabled us to approach difficult situations with positive consistent solutions.”

 

Staff: “Thrive is a whole school approach that includes every child and is not just for children with identified needs. The activities are specific for our class and are fun, gentle and relevant. The children who are having targeted help are happier, are better able to cope with difficult situations and are starting to understand their own feelings, which is having a very positive impact on behaviour. We have seen more smiles, better friendships and a more relaxed atmosphere for children.”

 

How does this all link to our mental health and well-being?

• Our brains develop at different stages as we grow and develop.

• Our brains are full of neurons (as a baby we have 200 billion brain cells!).

• These neurons then have to be connected to make neurological pathways. These pathways are what helps us know how to do things, how to respond in situations, how to keep safe, how to have relationships and how to ensure our needs are met.

• Strong and secure pathways are created through consistent and repetitive experiences. This means that the more we do something the more natural it becomes. 

• Our brains regularly re-wire - meaning they keep the pathways that are strong and get rid of the ones we use less often.

• Positive experiences create the chemicals that we need to make these pathways strong, secure and helpful.