Hand on Heart @ THS

Our THS BIRDS are growing and learning all the time – emotionally, academically, and socially - and with any learning process misunderstandings, misses, messes and mistakes are made (these can be referred to as a ‘rupture’).

Of course, we all wish that we never made mistakes, even adults! But, hand on heart, we are human and we do. The important part of causing any type of ‘rupture’, whoever we are, is to acknowledge responsibility for your part in it and learn how to ‘repair’ it or make it right. Rupture and Repair is a principle which strikes at the heart of our Behaviour & Relationship policy.

We call our approach to managing behaviour ‘Hand on Heart’ where we deal with each rupture in an honest, regulated, measured and age appropriate way. 

 Additionally, we are a trained Trauma Informed school and understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on a child’s day to day life and how these can cause ruptures throughout the day. At THS we recognise that it is vital to have firm boundaries for children, but equally as important for adults to understand where a child is in terms of their mental and emotional health. A therapeutic approach to behaviour is based on an understanding of a child’s development and responding to behaviour in a proportionate way taking into account the mental health of the child and understanding the reasons that result in such behaviour. This allows children to develop strong personal skills, together with the cognitive ability to understand how to solve a problem with growing independence.  This is further developed through our Hand on Heart approach.