The Thrive Approach

At Easterside Academy, we strongly believe in the Thrive approach. Thrive is a dynamic, developmental approach to working with children that supports their emotional and social well-being. It is based on the latest research in neuroscience, attachment theory and child development, drawing on research into the role of creativity and play in developing emotional resilience. Thrive is used at our school to help support children with their emotional and social development.

The Thrive approach offers practical strategies and techniques and is built around assessments which identify children’s emotional development and provides action plans for each child’s 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 supporting children to recognise and notice these feelings and emotions it can help with their development and learning. People sometimes need some additional support with their emotional growth, which can be temporary or over a longer time frame. Thrive promotes their emotional and social growth by building positive relationships and helps children to explore and understand their feelings through various activities.

Thrive is a whole school approach. We all believe that behaviour is communication, and the communication needs to be understood and supported. Thrive feeds into everything that we do and although not all children will have individual Thrive sessions, all children will be participating in Thrive activities throughout their school day.

We use the following guiding principles of the Thrive Approach:

  • Every child is a unique person, constantly developing and learning in different ways and at different rates, each with their own abilities, talents and potential to be fulfilled.
  • Children’s healthy development, emotional well-being and learning are crucially dependent upon, and promoted through, positive relationships.
  • Children flourish when they are confident, self-assured, capable and resilient.
  • Children thrive in enabling environments, in which their individual development, learning experiences and needs are understood, responded to and supported through strong partnerships with parents/carers.

     

Teachers are trained to use Vital Relational Functions ‘VRFs’ which are tools used in Thrive to address and support a child’s emotional state.

Attune - This is where we show we are alert to how the child is feeling. We connect with the child and match how the child is feeling through our pitch, pace, volume and body language.

Validate - This is when we let the child know that it is okay to have their feelings.  (“I'm wondering if you might be feeling ____. If that had happened to be I would be feeling ___ too.)

Containment - This is where we catch and show that we understand the pitch, intensity or quality of their feelings. We break things down into manageable chunks.  (First, we will...)

Regulate - This is where we must demonstrate emotional regulation by soothing and calming the child. The children must experience being calmed before they can begin to calm themselves. 

We currently have four trained Thrive practitioners who work across school with individual children and/or small groups. Our Thrive practitioners are Miss Weetman, Mrs Coates, Mrs Carter and Miss Wilkinson. Most of our individual or small group Thrive sessions take place within our dedicated Thrive room. It’s a calm, and cosy room where children can spend time engaging in activities from their action plan.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Thrive Lead, Miss Weetman, via the school office to ask for more information.

Welby

WELBY is a wellbeing programme developed by Middlesbrough Educational Psychologists to support children’s emotional health, resilience and positive relationships.

WELBY focuses on five key areas:

  • Wellness – looking after our body and mind  

  • Emotions – recognising and managing feelings

  • Learning – developing confidence and a positive approach to learning

  • Bonding – building friendships and positive relationships

  • You – understanding yourself, your strengths and your needs

The programme is used as across school for 5 minutes a day through whole-class teaching. It helps children develop emotional literacy, self-regulation and coping skills, supporting positive mental health and wellbeing.

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA)

In schools, ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. ELSA support in schools is a project designed to help schools support the emotional needs of their pupils.

ELSA acknowledges that children and young people learn best when they feel happier and their emotional needs are being addressed.

Our ELSA, Miss Butterfield, is trained to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils in our school who may be experiencing temporary or long term additional emotional needs.

A lot of work that Miss Butterfield does will be on an individual basis with one child, however, there are cases where group sessions may be appropriate such as when working on social skills and friendship skills.

Miss Butterfiled works closely with our Care Team and SENCo to identify children who would benefit from her support. 

There are a lot of emotional skills that an ELSA can help with, including:

  • Social Skills
  • Bereavement
  • Social Situations
  • Therapeutic Stories
  • Anger Management
  • Self-esteem
  • Real-life problem-solving skills
  • Friendship

There are very few cases where an ELSA should become a permanent feature of a child’s support system, as the programme works best when there are aims for children to work towards and achieve. 

Sessions will typically happen once a week across the length of a term and last between half an hour and an hour. During a session, Miss Butterfield will:

  • Check how the child is and how they have been feeling for the past week.
  • Review the content that was covered in the last session and see if any of the information needs to be revisited.
  • To introduce new content through engaging games and activities.
  • End the session in a way that helps the child to adjust to going back to class.

If you would like any more information, please contact Mrs Southern (SENCo) via the main office. 

 

InsideOut

InsideOut are the Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland Mental Health Support Team. 

Our partnership with InsideOut helps us to embed a culture of openness around mental health, forging stronger links between school and the wider Mental Health offer in South Tees and ensures our children and young people can access appropriate support and stay in education.

The InsideOut team works in school every Tuesday to deliver a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing and supports children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues.

Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP’s)

Our EMHP, Rebecca Shuttleworth, works in school to provide low intensity CBT sessions for children with mild to moderate anxiety and low mood. Sessions explore cycles of thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how a young person can learn to break out of negative cycles. CBT will aim to breakdown a presenting difficulty and identify how to change negative patterns to hopefully improve wellbeing. The focus will be on current events and difficulties rather than the past. EMHPs are also trained FRIENDS RESILIENCE facilitators which is an evidence based group intervention aimed at supporting children and young people to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms and increase resilience, self confidence, self efficacy, self esteem and social emotional skills.

Services Offered:

One to One Support

Low Intensity intervention
6 to 8 weeks of Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with children/ young people (including Parent-Led support).

Counselling support
Counselling is available and is aimed at improving psychological and wellbeing recovery outcomes for children and young people. This will have a focus on issues impacting on children and young people.

High Intensity intervention
We also offer High Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy,  which is a medium term therapy to those who are experiencing moderate depression, social, generalised or separation anxiety, panic, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or body image dissatisfaction. 

Group Support

We will identify children and young people to access groups focussing on improving emotional and mental health 

Parent Consultation

To help parents to work together to manage stress & challenges facing their family. We can offer support to parents around communication, problem solving & relationships

 

For more information, please contact Miss Sharp (Pupil Wellbeing Lead) via the main office. 

Play Therapy

At Easterside Academy, we employ the services of play therapist, Nicola Hanner, to support children who may have experienced bereavement/loss of relationships, parental separation, anger management, who have witnessed or been subjected to domestic violence or have parents with mental health difficulties. 

Services offered include:

  • One to one individual play therapy sessions, structured play therapy sessions with integrated techniques for children displaying concerning or harmful behaviours
  • Joint play therapy sessions with siblings and parents/carers
  • Consultation and assessment to parents/carers and professionals with regards to children's development, trauma, understanding children's emotions, managing challenging behaviour, and attachment issues

For more information, please contact Mrs Southern SENCO or Mrs Brewster (PPSA) via the main office. 

LEGO® Therapy (LEGO® Club)

LEGO® Therapy is a structured group programme that uses LEGO® play to help children develop social, communication and teamwork skills.

Originally developed for children with autism, LEGO® Therapy is now used to support pupils with a range of social and communication needs. The familiar and motivating nature of LEGO® helps children feel confident, calm and engaged.

At Easterside Academy, LEGO® Therapy sessions take place in small groups of 3–4 children with an adult facilitator. Children work together in different roles to practise turn-taking, listening, sharing, problem-solving and collaboration.

Sessions last around 30 minutes and include both guided and creative building activities, with a focus on positive social interaction and teamwork.

Applied Psychologies 

The school has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Applied Psychology. Our SENCO, Mrs Southern, works closely with the Educational Psychologist (EP) and coordinates their work in school by agreeing referrals with parents.

The Educational Psychologist supports both school staff and families by offering advice and guidance to help meet children’s mental health and wellbeing needs. With parental consent, the EP may also recommend or refer a child to other appropriate services when further support is needed.

The Bungalow Partnership

The Bungalow Partnership works alongside school to support children’s emotional wellbeing, mental health and resilience.

Through partnership working, the Bungalow provides targeted support for pupils who may be experiencing emotional or social difficulties. This can include individual or small-group interventions focused on developing coping strategies, emotional regulation, confidence and positive relationships.

By working closely with school staff and families, the Bungalow Partnership helps ensure children feel supported, understood and ready to engage positively with learning and school life.