Parent Support

This year we have extended our opportunities for parents to discover more with regard to supporting their children. Parenting is a daunting task that becomes incredibly complicated as our little ones grow up and we add the complexities of school.  We aim to support you as parents with negotiating life as a mum or dad of a school-age child where we can!

Our first parent workshop of the year was a new one.  We have welcomed Mrs Charlie Abbonizio to our team this year in the role of School Counsellor.  Her role enables us to even more effectively meet the emotional and well-being needs of our children.  At her workshop on 5th September, she took parents through discussion around child development including the growth of the brain; recognising and reframing behaviour; and how to nurture a child's mental health.  This workshop was exceedingly well received and there are plans to provide more focused support across the year with regard to areas such as anxiety, depression, anger, and sensitivity in children.  Various documents were shared via email. 

We ran our annual parent open sessions in Week 3 to share expectations of year groups and information about the year ahead.  These sessions also included an opportunity to undertake an activity with the children which is always fun for everyone!

Next was our phonics workshop, which is held each year. This is an opportunity to explore and understand how this essential element of reading is targeted and developed. We recognise that the time available did not enable us to fully cover the development of phonics in Years 1 and 2 and we are looking to provide another focused workshop for parents in this group. Here is a link to a very handy list of phonics websites and apps to support your child’s development with this essential area of learning.

Most recently Mr Gould led an ‘Online Safety for Parents’ workshop. This provided an insight into how to develop a culture within your home that will support positive internet use. The discussion revolved around developing an understanding of what to do if your child comes to you having: engaged in conversation with a stranger online; come across age-inappropriate material, or is playing online games and the importance of showing an interest in your child’s time online. There are many tools to help support safe internet use but nothing is fool-proof, and the development of the internet and gaming is so fast, it is essential that the culture and trust are created in homes that will support open dialogue if things are not as they should be for your child online. The powerpoint presentation, which includes a number of valuable links and details of recommended websites, was distributed to all via email and can also be found Online Safety for Parents.