Guiding you towards the best outcome
Supporting Families:
Supporting Families, which covers a breadth of issues from finance to emotional support can be daunting to tackle alone, so to ease concerns, each school across the Foundation has a support system in place. Reaching out provides opportunities to combat current issues and prevent future ones, so please do speak to us.
Since the pandemic, vulnerable families have been negatively impacted, creating new sets of issues and exacerbating current ones. The Foundation recognises the role COVID-19 has played and is still playing even years later.
Fortunately, the ‘Supporting Families’ programme, which came out in 2012, has greatly improved the lives of more than 400,000 families from 2015 to 2021, revealing the success of this initiative. If you would like to learn more about the ‘Supporting Families’ programme, click here.
Young Carers:
A young carer is someone under the age of 18 who has the responsibility of looking after a loved one, helping with things such as: cooking and preparing meals; help with the shopping; taking on work to support with financial struggles and so much more.
Being young should spark creativity, inspire play, and be a learning curve for development. As Barnardo’s explains, the role of a young carer can lead to missed opportunities, isolation, and feeling overwhelmed. Within school, it can prevent focus, impact academic progress and lead to even more stress.
Students’ wellbeing is our number one priority. Remember, your wellbeing is as important as the person you are looking after, so it’s important to ask for help.
The Foundation has resources in place to support you and/or your family alongside external resources that may be helpful. If you would like to learn more, continue reading.
A helping hand
Initiatives that are in place across the Foundation to help families facing challenges include:
- Finance support, including eligibility for pupil premium. According to the Times report, found here, our grammar schools make up 25% of pupil premium as opposed to the national average of 3%;
- Pastoral care, including 1:1 support from a member of the pastoral team or support to access in school groups;
- Each school has a Special Education Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) to support children with a learning difficulty;
- On site family support – each school will have a member of staff, such as a Family Liaison Officer or Early Help Worker who can support you to address any concerns outside of school, this may include housing support, being a carer, transport expenses etc;
- On site external agency support – some of our schools commission agencies to provide 1:1 or group work, this may be therapeutic or provided by a qualified counsellor. Ask your school what services they commission and how to access these.
FAQs
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The Foundation highly recommends Barnardo’s for support. Whether you need to recharge your batteries, or are seeking advice helping your child settle back into school, please click here
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Keep an open dialogue at home, ask your child how their day has been, if they often say ‘fine’ guide them with questions such as ‘What was something you learned today?’ ‘Who did you spend your lunchtime with?’. Encourage your child to talk about feelings and emotions.
Click here for a full insight into building your child’s resilience.
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Please visit the Young Carer’s page here where you can find support.
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The Foundation’s sincere condolences.
For advice on talking to your child about grief, please click here
