For boys and girls aged 12-19
Thornby Hall is a residential therapeutic community and special school with over 25 years’ experience of providing therapeutic care, special education and family support for a group of up to 20 young people aged twelve to nineteen.
It occupies a beautiful seventeenth century manor house situated in rural Northamptonshire with 17 acres of grounds including a lake.
Thornby specialises in the treatment of young people who present severe emotional and behavioural problems, as a result of attachment difficulties usually rooted in early life trauma.
Through the use of our unique Integrated Systemic Therapy, which focuses on healing trauma and enabling healthy attachments and relationships, young people achieve exceptional outcomes in every aspect of their lives. In our 2010/11 Ofsted inspection Thornby Hall was judged ‘Outstanding’.
Our staff are highly trained to enable young people to work through their experiences of past trauma in a safe and containing environment designed for group living and learning. We provide a strong group-based culture which helps young people engage with their difficulties, and support one another in recovering and achieving their potential.
We aim to create a therapeutic environment in which we work with the young people enabling them to live together, learn and develop. We place much emphasis on caring and thoughtful relationships and creating a sense of belonging.
Education at Thornby
Thornby’s school offers the full National Curriculum, with a wide range of arts and crafts, sporting opportunities, educational trips and extra curricular activities. Classes are small, enabling individual attention.
Thornby’s high standards were noted in its recent Ofsted inspection. In particular, the following aspect of provision at Thornby was ‘highly commended’:
Young people are very positive about the staff support they receive. Staff provide a clear and enthusiastic commitment to supporting and encouraging young people to enjoy and achieve. Young people develop confidence in their personal identities, social relationships and achievements.
Many young people from Thornby go on to further education, and some to university. Of recent leavers, all have achieved successes at appropriate levels and gone on to employment, to college or to university. We are extremely proud that one Thornby alumna was recently awarded a first-class honours degree at the end of her university course. Childhood First have a contract with Northampton County Ed.Psych.service.
Families and networks
Each young person has a keyworker, who is also able to support appropriate members of their family and network to the extent that this helps the young person in their recovery. When it is time for a young person to leave care, the keyworker helps the young person, and appropriate family and network members, to think together as far as this is possible, and to plan each step. We are able to tailor the placement and family support that we provide to each young person and their circumstances.
Leaving Care
All young people have a leaving care plan. We have a Semi-Independent Unit on site where young people can spend time and experience what it is like to live apart from the community and to find their own solutions to everyday problems. We have a comprehensive Life Skills Programme and a Leavers Group which enables the young person to discuss issues around independence and leaving.
We work closely with Local Authorities to plan the transition for a young person and we always offer an extended after-care package for all young people leaving Thornby, no matter where a young person is placed.
Nearly every young person who leaves Thornby Hall remains in education, either progressing to college and sometimes university or finding employment. Young people are invited back to Thornby for Feasts twice a year. Many young people stay in touch and keep us informed about their successes and difficulties.
Referral Process
Initial telephone conversation to result in request for relevant documentation, such as: detailed chronology, psychological/ psychiatric reports and copy of statement of SEN etc.
- Visit to Thornby Hall for all parties professionally involved with the young person, to consider all aspects of placement.
- If all agree to proceed, a member of our referrals team will visit the young person.
- The young person visits Thornby Hall and meets the Director, staff and other young people.
- The young person phones the Director, at a time agreed on the visit, to confirm their personal wish to move to Thornby Hall.
- Arrival date agreed with all parties.
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists
Lynne Amidon
Qualification: Ph.D, MA, MA, M. Psych. Psych., MACP
Judith Trowell
Qualification: FRCP Psych, DMM, DCH, FIPsychanal
Professional Experience: Prof of Child Mental Health West Midlands CSIP
Consultant Psychiatrist Tavistock Clinic
