24th April 2020
Dear Parents and carers,
Well, it’s the end of another week, and more updates and online links that may be of interest have come through this week. I have tried to summarise them for you as I’m aware of how bombarding all of this information is, and of course, they will also be available on the Henham School website.
Staying safe online: As previously raised, children will be spending more time on the internet and it’s important that they know how to stay safe.
The Essex Safeguarding Children Board has information and links to organisations that can offer online safety support.
The NHS has produced a guide to spotting child sexual exploitation.
Mental health and wellbeing: Now more than ever, it’s important to support children’s mental health and wellbeing.
You can find online counselling and mental health services listed on the Livewell Essex website.
Mind has guidance on coronavirus and mental health for young people.
There’s also guidance for parents on supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus outbreak on the GOV.UK site.
Supporting vulnerable families: the additional pressures that lots of families are facing given the current circumstances can place extra pressure on family relationships, or increase existing tensions. Essex have put together some guidance:
support healthy family relationships
Early years:
- Hungry Little Minds provides simple, fun activities for kids, from newborn to 5
- Talk, Listen, Cuddle is an Essex campaign helping parents, carers and families give their young children the best start to life through learning at home. You can find a home learning tip of the day on the TLC Facebook page
- The British Association for Early Education offers lots of free downloadable resources for early learning.
Education resources and activities:
- Essex Libraries: You can download e books, magazines, comics and audiobooks. For up to date information visit https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/
- Ebooks on Oxford Owl https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/books/free-ebooks/ you will need to sign up for this, but it is free!
- In addition to reading don’t forget about board games, playing in the garden / the park or tinkering/upcycling with household junk, etc. The Good to Know website has a list of fun activities families with children can access mostly for free; https://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/things-to-do-with-kids-66855
- Pretend to travel the world. Go on a virtual tour of these 12 famous museums. https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours
- The Oak National Academy is a government-backed online learning resource. It provides 180 video lessons each week for every year group – from Reception through to Year 10 – across a range of subjects, including maths, art and languages
- National Geographic Kids has activities and quizzes for younger kids
- BBC Bitesize provides online learning for children and young people aged 3 to 16. Their new ‘Daily’ package delivers a tailored day of learning across TV and online, with curriculum-relevant offers for Years 1 to 10
- Education Endowment Foundation have today released new Covid-19 resources to support schools and parents with home learning. They can be accessed here.
- Essex Music Service – have a range of eLearning and online resources available to students, and parents/carers in home-schooling. They are available on their website by clicking here
They are also launching online tuition as an extension of their in-school delivery. This includes tutors (DBS checked/on DBS Update Service) via Microsoft Teams, with online tuition policy and risk assessment approved by ECC. EMS will be contacting current parents directly.
Community:
- United in Kind – https://www.unitedinkind.org/
- (Public Health) Essex Coronavirus Action Facebook page – Essex County Council is working in partnership with Facebook, local Facebook Admins and Community Groups to develop a social media campaign that seeks to build community resilience and community through the Essex Coronavirus Action Group. It is a largely Facebook based initiative and can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/essexcoronavirusaction/?epa=SEARCH_BOX
- Essex County Council – Coronavirus information – https://www.essex.gov.uk/news/coronavirus
- Essex Child & Family Wellbeing Service (formally Children’s Centres).
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and for the protection of communities and staff, they are prioritising services so that face-to-face contact will only continue where safe to do so. Their website https://essexfamilywellbeing.co.uk/ has a host of information about services families can access.
- DWP – Job centres are now closed but are providing a phone service to customers. New claims for Universal Credit can be made as usual through GOV.UK. https://www.jobcentrenearme.com/loc/saffron-walden/
This week you will have received a call from staff; they have said how much they enjoyed making contact with you all.
From these calls, we were able to deliver out laptops and resources to those families that need them. If there is anything you need or want support with, please do get in touch with me or your child’s class teacher, and we will be happy to organise this for you.
We love hearing from you and have especially enjoyed reading the letters posted to school, so please do keep the emails and letters coming in as well as the posts and pictures on our Facebook page!
With my continued best wishes,
Kim
Kim Hall, Headteacher
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