Our vision and aims

At Middlemarch School we believe every child matters and all children need to feel safe, valued, special, appreciated and included. We want every child coming to our school, to feel happy, content and confident, ready to embrace the day in our secure, caring and friendly environment.

However, some children face many challenges, which means that some of their social and emotional needs may be greater than those of others. By using The Thrive Approach, we will help support and guide the children in our care to allow them to develop emotionally and distinguish between their feelings to help them manage these appropriately.

• 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, and
• Use positive approaches to manage all behaviours. 

What is Thrive?

Thrive is a therapeutic approach to help support children with their emotional and social development.

The Thrive Approach offers practical strategies and techniques and built around online assessments which identify children's emotional development and provides action plans for their individual needs.

Research has shown that how we behave is linked to how we feel and our emotions are linked to how we learn. By teaching children to recognise and notice these feelings and emotions, it can help with their development and learning. 

Children sometimes need some extra support with their emotional growth and this can be temporary or over a longer period of time.

Thrive promotes their emotional and social growth by building positive relationships between a child and their peers and helps them explore and understand their feelings through various activities.

Why might my child attend a Thrive session?

Many children experience difficulties during their time at school. These may include:

• Difficulties with friendships,
• Getting into trouble at playtime,
• Finding it hard to settle in the classroom,
• Finding it difficult to manage their strong feelings, and
• Not knowing who to turn to when feelings are too big to manage on their own.

These situations can lead to many can lead to many different feelings which may seem overwhelming at times. They might include: anger, frustration, sadness, loneliness, confusion or anxiety.

All these feelings are very normal and happens to a lot of children. The Thrive sessions are to help children learn to manage their feelings and teach them strategies that will help promote their learning at school.

What will happen in a Thrive session?

The sessions may be an individual basis or as part of a small group of children and these are run by Mrs Stokes, who is our Thrive Licenced Practitioner. During each session there will be an activity which may include:

• Story telling,
• Circle games,
• Arts and crafts,
• Sand play,
• Movement and relaxation,
• Hand massage,
• Role play and puppet work, and
• Games.

All staff in school have received training in The Thrive Approach, which is also used in class when working with our children.

More Information

For more information about the Thrive Approach, please see the website: www.thriveapproach.co.uk or email Mrs Stokes on: stokes.t1@welearn365.com