Thrive Practitioner

The Therapeutic Practitioner will play a crucial role in supporting the unique learning and developmental needs of students across the whole of Samuel Cody School. The primary purpose of this role is to work under closely with students, delivering targeted Thrive based interventions to address unmet social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs based on your assessment of the child. By fostering positive relationships and implementing personalised action plans, the Therapeutic Practitioner aims to remove barriers to learning and enable pupils to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. This may also require collaboration with other professionals, such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, and/or physiotherapists.

The Therapeutic practitioner is responsible for using behaviour management strategies in line with the school's policies and procedures, embedded in trauma informed practice, to contribute to a purposeful learning environment for pupils, appropriate to their age and needs. They assist in creating and maintaining a purposeful, orderly, and supportive learning environment for all pupils, particularly helping to overcome barriers to learning, including physical, emotional, and behavioural difficulties and promote inclusion of all pupils, ensuring they have equal opportunities to learn and develop.

Key Responsibilities and Duties of this Role

• Carry out assessment of students to identify developmental groups.

• Devise and implement action plans, with the support of SLT, to address a pupil's learning needs and remove any barriers to learning.

• Work with students on a 1:1, 2:1, and small group basis to help meet unmet developmental needs as a foundation to learning.

• Deliver Thrive-based sessions to students who are on the Thrive programme.

• Support pupils through the delivery of specific learning programmes designed by other professionals e.g. occupational health, speech therapists, and physiotherapists.

• Be accountable for the progress of individual pupils, measured against the Thrive programme attainment standards.

• Maintain up-to-date Thrive files to document student progress.

• Communicate effectively with all stakeholders, including parents/carers, pupils, staff, and external agencies.

• Encourage students to interact and work cooperatively, ensuring all pupils are engaged in appropriate activities based on their age and needs.

• Demonstrate knowledge of complex special needs and the ability to use appropriate programmes such as Total Communication strategies and PRICE (once training has been given).

• Recognise that pupils may have communication difficulties and be able to use alternative communication techniques if required.