Guest Speaker: From Surviving to Thriving - Building Attendance, Belonging and Engagement for Every Child
At a glance
Guest speaker
Sharon Gray
Webinar duration
2 hours
Suitable for
Thrive Licensed Practitioners
CPD
Worth 5 CPD points
Price per place
£78 excl. VAT
Course outcomes
By the end of this 2-hour session, you will be able to:
- Understand attendance, EBSA, and rising persistent absence, and explain the value of a relational, support-first approach.
- Distinguish between anxiety and overwhelm, recognising the role of neuroscience, stress, and co-regulation.
- Use the Five Domains of Safety and a tiered model to assess needs and focus support where it has most impact.
- Track absence in days, not percentages, using clear triggers for early action across the school system.
- Apply practical strategies to support families, improve attendance for all, and identify clear next steps.
Who is it for?
This session is suitable for Thrive Licensed Practitioners who support attendance and EBSA
Introducing guest speaker: Sharon Gray NLE OBE
Sharon Gray NLE OBE is an Education Consultant at Wholehearted Learning, with more than three decades of leadership across mainstream, special and SEMH provision. A former National Leader of Education, Pride of Britain Teacher of the Year (2013) and Queen's Honours OBE recipient (2015), Sharon led Netherfield Primary to outstanding from serious weaknesses, served on the Youth Justice Board (2018–2024), and is a Thrive Trainer and co-author of Courageous Journeys in Education. She is an internationally regarded keynote speaker on inclusion, attendance and trauma-informed practice, and advises schools, trusts, local authorities and the DfE.
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What you'll learn
Persistent absence in our schools has nearly doubled since the pandemic. Behind every percentage point sits a child whose nervous system is telling them that school does not feel safe enough to attend.
This Thrive-informed webinar equips Licensed Practitioners with a relational, evidence-based response to attendance and EBSA, reconnecting the neuroscience of stress, the polyvagal lens, Five Domains of Safety with the Thrive Approach. We will map roles and responsibilities across the whole system and draw on Lebowitz's SPACE programme to support parents whose loving accommodations have, over time, helped maintain their child's anxiety.
This session focuses on immediate application. Through experiential activities, the “Meet Mia” case study, national data, recent EEF research, and a PATH-style commitment close, participants leave with clear first steps.
This is a session about systems, yes - but more than that, it is a session about the relationships that sit underneath every system. Children do not thrive because we have the right systems. They thrive because they have the right relationships.
The aims and objectives of the session include:
- Equipping Thrive Licensed Practitioners to improve whole-school attendance.
- Supporting compassionate and effective responses to emotionally based school avoidance.
- Drawing on Thrive theory to inform practice.
- Aligning with the statutory DfE framework and current research.
- Reflecting insights from Sharon Gray’s extensive experience in inclusive, trauma-informed education.