New kids club The Retreat opens its doors in Colchester

This is especially true of two thoughtful teachers who are teaming up to boost the confidence of children in Colchester.

The Nurture Room has been around since 2013, with experienced therapist Kathy Thompson providing one-to-one emotional wellbeing services to primary school children in the area.

But now the company is changing things up with The Retreat.

This is a different kind of club.

It is not sports or drama related, nor is it about competing or showing off skills.

Activities are all designed to help children develop their confidence, learn emotional self-care skills, and make new friends.

The clubs will be led by two former teachers, Kahlia Bament and Romea Cafasso, who have trained in mental health support.

Kahlia had been a teacher for about 20 years before starting The Retreat.

As a teacher, she always wanted to do more for her students to help them with their mental wellbeing.

She started thinking about what would be good for children to give them more time to focus on their emotions. That was when she came up with the idea of dedicating a club to them.

After a chat with her mother Kathy Thompson, she decided to join her at The Nurture Room.

The Retreat has two groups, one for home educated children in the morning, the other, in the afternoon for children at school.

Kathy said: “I read an article about more children being home schooled because of the pandemic, and lots of them have anxiety issues, and then I looked into home education to see what was available for them.

“And actually, there’s not very much to support those families.”

She decided to include a club specifically for home-educated kids as well.

Everything in terms of the activities will be to support the children’s wellbeing.

“I feel like as adults we are quite well practised in how we manage ourselves.

“So if you’ve had a really bad day, some people might turn the music up in their car, others might chat with a friend.

“Children don’t always know what to do, because they haven’t had experience.

“So lots of the activities will be about them figuring out what works for them, and hopefully this will help their resilience, but also build those friendships they might not have otherwise made inside or outside school.”

Romea Cafasso

There will be a separate room for parents to meet up in the hopes they might form their own support group.

Parents will be able to ask the staff for advice, from anything academic related, to issues their children may be facing with anxiety, anger or low mood.

“We just really want to help those children who need a little bit more support.

“And those who are struggling in school as well, who find it difficult to build friendships, they’re anxious about things.

“Even before the pandemic hit we were seeing a lot more children like that, so we’re hoping to provide a real haven for them and to help them build their own self-care strategies.”

At the end of each session the children are going to be celebrating their Glimpses of Brilliance - a strategy that was shared with Kahlia during some training with Steve Head.

Kahila Bament

Steve is a full-time keynote speaker, inspirational trainer and coach.

“He noted the ideas of neuroscientist Rick Hanson who states ‘the brain is Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones’.

“In other words, it is all too easy for children to lose sight of their successes and focus on the negatives.

“Steve advocates trying to hold on to those positive memories and notes when we relive them it can actually create a biochemical response in the brain recreating the feelings we experienced in that moment.”

The sessions are aimed at 7 to 11-year-olds.

The club will start sessions from Friday and will run every Friday during term time at The Ark, Gavin Way, Colchester.

The first session is free.

Spaces are limited so contact The Nurture Room Retreat on the website www.thenurtureroom.co.uk/the-retreat for more information.