Hastings Thrives has been working in partnership with schools in the Hastings area since September 2014 becoming a charity in November 2016. The purpose of the partnership was to encourage schools to work together to support improvements in outcomes for young people in Hastings. We needed to work together to overcome barriers to learning and achievement through training teachers and giving children enrichment activities to build confidence and develop lifelong skills.
We invested in training and programmes which centralise the needs of the individual child such as the Thrive approach and, more recently, ‘Changing Chances’ which moves beyond this to a whole school approach.
We have come a long way since 2014 with developing a range of totally inclusive enrichment activities in Music and the Arts which support the development of confidence and team work as well as a sense of achievement. The annual School Songwriting Contest is a particularly successful example.
Engaged parents are a positive contributing factor in children’s’ education and Hastings Thrives training and enrichment activities aim to include an element of parent support and celebration of their children’s’ successes.