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Children’s mental and emotional health and wellbeing issues and their links with educational outcomes are now more significant than ever. Palladian Academy Trust, a family of 11 schools based in the South West, understands the impact of this and has embarked upon a journey to becoming the UK’s first Thrive trust to support its vision of ‘providing excellent and equitable opportunities so everyone can flourish’.
This is one of the reasons Nathan Jenkins (pictured left), newly appointed at Ralph Allen School, joined the Trust. As he said: “Ralph Allen School has earned its reputation as a high-performing school. I looked at its size, and its ambition and was really attracted to the role, but I needed to know where I could add real value. There is such outstanding teaching going on at this school, which is just blowing me away, but there is always something to improve with any school. Here, it is about looking at the provision across the whole school and ensuring every child has the opportunity to meet their expectations and future aspirations. I am not afraid of leading this improvement – it’s where I come alive. Ralph Allen is a phenomenal school. High quality teaching is in place and the subject leads are very strong. But as in all schools we still have work to do. We are striving to create an outstanding school for all our students, staff and parents and carers. It’s a journey and we’re all on board.”
As an ambitious and inclusive head and a supporter of Palladian Academy Trust’s vision and values, Mr Jenkins identified Ralph Allen School as the perfect place to continue his career. Already settled in, he is now looking at moving forward to creating an outstanding school using its new Thrive focus.
As someone who values relationships and expertise, he brought his former deputy head with him and has now recruited a further deputy head to aid school improvement and operations.
He added: “I spent my first few weeks watching, learning, and listening. I have met a considerable number of parents and carers and have already formed a strong bond with Ralph Allen School and the trust. This is a pretty amazing place to work and study. When you find a school with these foundations, you can really start to look at making it something really special.”
Some of the work will include investment in a central team of experts. This will include partnership working aiming to reduce the noise and distractions for school leaders and wider colleagues so they can focus on the things that matter. The Trust has key specialist roles to support all schools including a Trust SEND lead, Safeguarding Lead, Church School Lead, CPLD Lead.
It is also developing its ‘Pupil Champions’ which will see its Culture Champions developing the Culture Charter, Community Champions looking at how the Trust can work in partnership or support its communities, and Curriculum Champions – all working under the same premise of excellent and equitable opportunities in each strand.
To further benefit its Thrive initiative, Palladian Academy Trust has pledged its commitment to ‘Cradle to Career’, and will engage with the community to prioritise and develop the needs of its children from birth to 18 years old, The Trust has looked at the benefits of engaging with pre-natal classes and nurse referrals to listen and understand the needs of their community and young families and see how they can be supported throughout their children’s formal education.
This will aid Palladian’s journey to becoming the first ‘Thrive’ Trust, with ‘Thriving Together’ as its mantra.
Palladian Academy Trust has partnered with Devonshire-based Thrive Approach as it strives to become a ‘Thriving Trust Ambassador’ promoting social, emotional and mental health development.
Through this partnership, the trust will develop its language to improve engagement and connections with their children on an emotional level. One of these models is ‘WIN’ (Wonder, Imagine, Notice) which encourages young people to develop the skills to self-reflect. For example, if a child is finding it difficult to settle, their teacher is being encouraged to use specific wording i.e. ”I wonder if it is too noisy in here for you at the moment? I imagine that was very upsetting. I notice your sounds have changed, shall we go somewhere quiet?” This language engages and supports children in a non-judgemental approach.
Over 600 staff from across the Palladian family of 11 schools recently joined together at Ralph Allen School for the launch of its ‘Thriving Together’ approach. Amongst other guest speakers James Townsend, from Reach Academy, Ben Smith representing the 401 Foundation, and Eva Ford, relationship manager at Thrive Approach, presented a training module to help staff better understand their pupils’ emotional needs.
Eva explained: “I am supporting and guiding key staff at Palladian to give a deeper insight into behaviour and equip them with extra tools to better meet their needs. We talked about stress regulation systems and brain development from newborn to young adulthood. We also talked about the types of behaviours they might see within their classrooms and strategies to ensure the skills that they are developing are age or developmentally appropriate.
“The Trust is working towards our Thrive Ambassador awards. Each school will become a school of excellence for social and emotional development and mental health using Thrive Approach and, within that, the Trust itself will become an ambassador school trust of excellence.
“Palladian is well on its way to becoming a thriving trust and this is really benefiting its pupils.
“It is a leading light in this area and has already come on leaps and bounds in its thinking and deliverables. I’m really encouraged by this trust-wide commitment to the mental health and well-being of its pupils.”
“Using the Thrive Approach as a framework, each Palladian school is given a Thrive subscription and the training required so that the pupils benefit from the full Thrive Approach.”
Sarah Bubyer, Thrive Practitioner at Ralph Allen School, said: “One of the first things we have done since partnering with Thrive is to set up a base for our most disadvantaged pupils and those who struggle to stay in mainstream education.
“We are also working on a project to see how we can embed Thrive into each one of our primary schools by training one of their own staff up to be a Thrive practitioner. We will look at how we can effectively support young people when they become dysregulated and help enable them to ultimately achieve successful academic careers.
“It’s vital that everyone has a clear understanding of the principles behind Thrive and how they can use it – and carry this vision forward so we are able to become a Thrive Ambassador Trust. But ultimately it is about keeping the children at the centre of everything that we do and giving them the best experience that they can have.”
Together, staff from across the Trust schools will use its Thrive Approach and Cradle to Career initiative to embed its vision of providing ‘excellent and equitable opportunities so everyone can flourish and values of ‘respect, courage and curiosity’ across all aspects of school life, while fostering high aspirations and ambition for academic success across all ages.
