About Thrive

Our mission is to positively impact the lives of millions of children and young people, so they feel safe, supported and ready to learn.

Thrive offers a trauma-informed, whole school or setting approach that helps to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. We do this by providing you with training, resources and an award-winning online tool, so you can better understand the needs of your pupils and provide targeted, effective support where it’s needed.
 

 
How – and why – we started

"I've been s'cluded."

This was the response a six-year-old boy gave to Thrive co-founder Roe Lovelock in the early 1990s when she got chatting to his mum in a supermarket and asked him why he wasn’t in school.

The child, who couldn’t even say the word excluded, let alone understand the concept of exclusion, made a big impression on Roe, a social work trainer. To her, it spoke volumes about the flaws in the education system of the day and highlighted what needed to change. Roe and the three other co-founders of Thrive (Jan Banks, a psychotherapist; Julia Bird, a Gestalt psychotherapist and educationalist; and Lynne Tarrab-Snooks an integrative psychotherapist and educationalist) kept hearing about children who had been excluded, often from several schools, and often at a young age. They could see the damage this was doing to a generation of children and young people and the impact exclusions were having on their life chances, including the increased risk of outcomes including criminality, substance abuse and gang membership.

Behaviour stems from unmet need

They believed that children’s behaviour stems from unmet need and that until this need is met, children are unable to change their response to circumstances. The Thrive Approach was borne out of the passion these experts felt to effect change in the education system and to make schools places of compassion and understanding that seek to meet pupils’ need, rather than punish them for behaviour that is not a conscious choice. They combined aspects of theory and expertise in their respective fields to define key developmental needs and provide responses and activities to help strengthen children and young people’s engagement in learning and life.

With the growing crisis in children and young people’s mental health, Thrive is needed now more than ever and our focus has broadened from the specific issue of exclusions to the wider issue of poor mental health in young people including problems with behaviour, attendance and attainment.
 

 
Where we are now

Over 795,500 young lives impacted

More than 75,000 educators in 2,800 schools and settings have received Thrive training, ensuring that 795,500 children and young people aged 0–25 have access to the Thrive Approach.

Improving attendance, behaviour, attendance and staff wellbeing

Settings using the Thrive Approach report that mental wellbeing, attendance, staff morale and retention, relationships with parents and carers, behaviour and attainment have improved dramatically and often in a short timescale. They report that fixed-term exclusions, absenteeism and long-term mental health problems have decreased.

Saving schools money

Settings also tell us they are saving money on interventions and additional staffing costs to support poor behaviour. They are well-prepared for inspections because they have data to evidence pupils’ progress with behaviour and wellbeing. Plus, using Thrive-Online helps to streamline EHCP referrals and can be used as an early indicator of safeguarding concerns.

Award-winning edtech

Thrive was the global winner of the Digital Health and Wellbeing Learning Product of the Year Award and the Gold Award at the Digital Education Awards. We have also been shortlisted in the Education Resources Awards and the MAT Excellence Awards.

Dedicated to customer satisfaction

Our Net Promoter Score, which measures customer loyalty and satisfaction, is +67. The industry benchmark is +42.