We would like to give you a look behind closed doors into PT Hub, our alternative education provision based in Colburn, North Yorkshire. We specialise in supporting children with SEMH (social emotional and mental health needs) and also cater for pupils with medical needs, or children with SEND. Most children who attend the Hub are waiting for, or have an EHCP.
The Hub is a nurturing, supportive and calm environment. A home from home, where each child is greeted at the door in the morning with a smile and joins their peers and teachers for a welcoming cup of tea and breakfast. We offer the academic and also creative subjects such as Art, Cookery, Forest Schools, Photography, Yoga, Meditation and more. We foster a multi-agency approach to cater to the holistic needs of students in an inclusive, positive and family environment. Staff are restraint trained and experienced in handling challenging behaviours, for the rare occasion that we may need it.
Students work in individual learning spaces one to one with a qualified teacher and are supported by a full-time teaching assistant and two Thrive Practitioners. This allows us to focus on their individual needs and help them to achieve their targets. Our unique setting is custom designed with the Thrive containment philosophy in mind. The personalised learning areas provide the pupils with a space where only they and their teacher spend their learning time. This method has proved to have an extraordinary effect on our pupils’ (Hubsters’) emotional stability. Students demonstrate a notable improvement when working within the containment of their personalised classroom. This serves to ensure that they feel safe, secure and valued.
Pupils can come to us for long placements, short respite sessions, or as a way of preventing permanent exclusion. We will work with them on a therapeutic level, ensuring that they achieve good educational attainment on par with their mainstream peers. When all parties feel it is appropriate, we will facilitate an integration into the elected setting. The Thrive Approach draws on insights from recent advances in neuroscience, attachment theory and child development to provide a powerful way of working with children and young people that supports optimal social and emotional development. The Approach allows us to work in a targeted way with children and young people who may have struggled with difficult life events to help them re-engage with life and learning. Thrive is firmly embedded in all aspects of the Hub, from the short lesson times, to individual classrooms, to a therapeutic and creative based curriculum. We hold daily group Thrive sessions, to promote and encourage appropriate social interaction with their peers, and improve self-confidence and tolerance.
Our provision is staffed with high quality, Thrive trained and experienced staff. Our specialist teachers understand only too well that behaviour is used as a communicator of emotions. The pupils’ dedicated individual teacher uses the Thrive approach to model appropriate discharge strategies by working as a co-regulator. Many children with SEMH difficulties have not developed an effective stress management system when they come to us. By using our dynamic, developmental and trauma-sensitive approach, we can tailor each child’s therapeutic and educational plan to help them develop effective strategies for dealing with dysregulation.
