Thrive helps children and young people feel safe, supported and ready to learn. Thrive has been providing training, tools and insights to organisations and individuals for over 25 years.

At Hillcrest, we have our very own Thrive Practitioner and Mental Health First Aider, Mrs Perillo, who is based in our Unworry Room.  Mrs Perillo meets with lots of different pupils to help them to thrive!

THRIVE supports children with their emotional health, well being and social skills, all of which are needed to enable learning to take place. Children cannot always put their needs into words, but the way children behave can tell us a lot about how they are feeling. For some children there may be an obvious reason why they need extra support. This might be due to bereavement, family break down or an identified medical condition such as ADHD. For others, there may not be any obvious trigger as to why they are finding some aspects of school and/or home life difficult.

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 us to understand the needs being signalled by children’s behaviour. Working with parents and class teachers, our THRIVE practitioner carries out assessments of identified children’s social, emotional and behavioural needs which help us to build an Action Plan of targeted strategies and activities to help children re-engage with learning and life.

The THRIVE approach is based on growing evidence that the brain develops through personal and social interaction. The relationships that we have with significant adults is fundamental to who we grow up to be. Our brain is built through trillions of brain-cell connections made by sight, sound, smell, touch and movement. Positive experiences enhance brain connections, and sustained negative experiences can restrict them. Through simple, repeated activities over time, within a safe and caring environment, THRIVE aims to compensate for interruptions in emotional development, when they affect a child’s ability to enjoy life and learn.

A THRIVE assessment helps us to identify emotional developmental needs as early as possible, in order to support and meet those needs on an individual basis. As well as offering new ways of dealing with challenging behaviour, THRIVE also offers both teaching staff and parents useful approaches to working with and helping any child who is experiencing emotional upheaval, whether short or long term. This is not a quick-fix; it  takes time and commitment to see results. However, from research it is clear that early intervention to support children’s needs is the most effective approach to preventing issues becoming more problematic in later life.

Initially conceived as a way of tackling the issue of school exclusions, Thrive now offers a whole-setting approach to supporting the right-time social and emotional development of all children and young people.

The Thrive Approach consists of:

1. Thrive-Online^TM (TOL) -  a web-based profiling, action-planning and progress monitoring tool enabling us to ensure the best outcome for each child or group.

2. Thrive training -  focusing on the emotional needs of different age groups, informed by established neuroscience and attachment research, as well as child development studies and research into risk and resilience factors.

You can find out more about the Thrive approach by clicking here.