MINDUP
At Riverside Willowbook Primary School we are proud to be part of the growing network of MindUP schools who promote the mental health and emotional wellbeing of our whole school community.
We prioritise Mind Up at the start of every academic year, to ensure pupils and staff are using the language and neuroscience to help them understand why we behave the way that we do.
The Curriculum
The unique evidence-based framework provides knowledge and understanding of neuroscience, mindful awareness, positive psychology and mindful practices to affect positive change within the classroom and beyond.
The 15-lesson curriculum includes practices developed to help children improve their focus, manage their emotions and face challenges with resilience, kindness and compassion.
The MindUP lessons are complemented by the ‘Brain Break’. This core mindful breathing exercise which takes place three times a day, enables pupils and staff to calm their minds, focus and get ready to learn.
The interactive teaching and learning approaches, complemented by whole-school mindful practices, help create an exciting learning environment within which children can thrive academically, socially and emotionally.
Our Shared vision
MindUP is central to our strategic vision, it supports us to create a whole-school culture of gratitude, optimism, happiness and respect within which we can all grow and flourish.
Further information
For further details about the MindUP programme, including research findings, the curriculum overview and case studies, visit mindup.org.uk
Thrive
At Riverside Willowbook Primary School , we have two fully trained Thrive Practitioners…. Ms Long & Ms Galbraith. THRIVE is a dynamic, developmental approach to working with children that supports their emotional and social wellbeing.
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 draws on an understanding of six ‘building blocks’ of development and growth that comes online sequentially and remains throughout life.
All children in school have a THRIVE online assessment, completed by their teacher twice a year, this allows classes to work at their ‘right time’ of social and emotional learning. THRIVE assessments also allows us to addresses interruptions that children might be experiencing.
Children come to school to learn, but some are not ready or able to do so. They may move appropriately through each stage and then encounter a life experience that creates a setback, as happens to us all at times. At these times pupils may exhibit behaviours that are challenging and disruptive, restless or withdrawn. Current brain science shows, for many of these children, their stress management, emotional regulation and seeking /exploring systems are not yet sufficiently developed for them to access learning, or are set back to our earliest levels of need through trauma.
THRIVE provides a systematic approach to the early identification of emotional developmental need so that differentiated provision to address those needs can be put in place quickly by our THRIVE practioners through 1:1 or group work.
As the children’s emotional and social development needs are met, they re-engage with life and learning.
Thrive school Parents and Carers flyer