Thrive
Meridian High School: where students Thrive
MHS has been awarded the The Thrive School of Excellence award. We could not be more proud of our dedicated staff in making a difference in young peoples lives.
Thrive promotes children's and young peoples positive mental health by helping adults around them know how to be and what to do in response to their differing and sometimes distressing behaviour.
At Meridian High School we have embedded the Thrive approach. Thrive is based on established neuroscience, attachment theory and child development. Thrive equips our staff with the knowledge, skills, insights and resources to develop trusted relationships that help our students to flourish and learn. Thrive enables staff to meet the immediate need of the students, which supports them to become more emotionally resilient so they are better equipped to deal with life's ups and downs.
Thrive allows us to support the emotional well-being of our students as we all have a shared responsibility to ensure that our students are ready to learn.
Positive relationships with dedicated staff 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
- And much more…
How will my child Thrive?
We use a screening tool and activity planning resource called Thrive-Online. This allows us to assess children and to develop individual action plans with specific strategies and activities to ensure that they are as emotionally and socially supported as they can be. Thrive profiles will be shared with staff members so they can use the strategies to support the child in the best way possible. Thrive profiles are developed by our Thrive Practitioners.
Here is a link to the Thrive website:
https://www.thriveapproach.com/about-thrive/the-thrive-approach/
Thrive drop in sessions
In order to support our staff embrace and embed the Thrive approach within their practice we run a weekly drop in session which helps upskill all staff who work with our students.
Mrs Curd and her Thrive team also send out Thrive Top Tips which provide staff with addition 'quick fire' strategies that can further support our students.
The Thrive team have also worked with the Science department where sessions have been developed that look at how the brain functions with a view of helping children to understand what is happening in their brain and bodies in order to help them to cope with emotional distress and managing anxiety.
The Amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognise similar events in the future. The Amygdala is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression and in teenagers; it is always on high alert!
The Amygdala switches on automatically when it detects there might be danger, this leads to an automatic ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ response. The trouble is, it does not know the difference between a little danger and a big danger and sometimes it sees danger where there is none at all! The Amygdala just wants to keep you safe.
Another strategy is using the hand model of the brain:
The hand model is a simple way to support children to think about how their brain works and how they may react in certain situations.
Primary Transition
To support students upon their transition from key stage 2 to secondary school we have been delivering Thrive sessions for Year 6 students and parents. Together, parents, students and Thrive practitioners engage with the Thrive approach to help support students on taking their next steps.
The students and parents have viewed the sessions as "extremely helpful" and "they are not only reassuring my child, but I feel assured that my child will be well supported by such a wonderful team" (Year 6 parent).
The sessions will continue through the summer term.
Workshops
Requests for support for your child can be made through the school, or you can email MHS Thrive Practitioners directly:
Mrs J. Curd j.curd@meridianhigh.london
Mr D. Greenidge d.greenidge@meridianhigh.london
Mrs S. Holdaway s.holdaway@meridianhigh.london
Please do scroll to the bottom of the page for THRIVE leaflets.
We trust you find the information below supportive in using THRIVE strategies both at home and at school
| The guide below is helpful when thinking about how to manage pressure- this could be due to exams or the demands of remote learning. |
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| Using Zones of Regulation |
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