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Children’s Mental Health Week
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Sent on behalf of Halton’s Public Health Team
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Governors Briefing / Ofsted Briefing – Attendance/ Key Stage 2/3 Vulnerable Pupil Transition Meeting -TATS
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The Young Carer in Schools Award (YCiS)
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Cheshire and Merseyside Children and Young People’s Mental Health Plan
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Free Webinar Schoolreaders – a model for improving literacy in Primary Schools
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School charity cheque fraud
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World Book Day
Children’s Mental Health Week
Children’s Mental Health Week will take place from 5th to 11th February 2024, with the theme of My Voice Matters. It was set up by children’s mental health charity Place2Be and shines a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health.
Resources and top tips for primary schools and others who work with children aged 4-11
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/schools/primary-age-activities/#resources
This pack contains everything you need to take part in the week – from group activities sheets, top tips for schools and an assembly guide, to lots of information on how to take part in My Voice Matters.
Resources and top tips for secondary or high schools and others who work with young people aged 11-18.
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/schools/secondary-age-activities/
A great way to keep children’s mental health and wellbeing prioritised throughout the year is by achieving or renewing 5 ways to wellbeing Award!
This is a local award based on a framework of 5 everyday activities that boosts children’s wellbeing, these activities are; be active, connect, give, keep learning and take notice. Schools are invited to work towards achieving the award by embedding these activities into every day school life along with promotion of the 5 ways to wellbeing message to pupils so they are aware of what types of activities can help them to feel good and cope better. The Health Improvement Team can provide support and guidance to help schools achieve this award. For more information email HIT@halton.gov.uk
To raise awareness of children and young people’s mental health, the Health Improvement team are running resilience workshops via Teams. The Resilience Framework Workshop will look at different ways we can support a young person to be more resilient. It will cover examples of how teaching staff have used the ‘Boing Boing’ framework and will highlight practical tools and approaches that can be used to contribute to building resilience with children when times are especially tough.
Dates
Tuesday 6th Feb at 15:30-16:15
Tuesday 20th Feb at 15:30-16:15
If you would like to book a place on the workshop, please email maria.mcnulty@halton.gov.uk
If you need information about mental health services locally and nationally, check out our Halton Mental Health Information Point. Here you will also find tips, practical tools and guidance for children, parents, carers and staff to look after their mental health.
Sent on behalf of Halton’s Public Health Team
Schools and early years settings play a vital role in helping to prevent the spread of infections, as well as providing information to parents and families. During the Winter period, there is an increase in cases of infectious disease, and this can be challenging for educational settings to manage. It’s really important that schools and early years settings are aware of the support and advice available to them in Halton to prevent and manage infections, as well as what actions to take and when. This support is available year-round but is particularly important during the Winter period.
Halton’s Public Health Team have developed the attached document as a ‘quick reference’ guide to the support and advice available. You should save this document somewhere quick and easy to access so that you can refer back to it. Please take time to read and share the document with appropriate colleagues so that you become familiar with the online resources and support available to settings from:
- UK Health Security Agency Health Protection Team (UKHSA HPT)
- Infection Prevention Control Team (IPC)
- Halton Local Authority Public Health Team
If you have any questions, please contact public.health@halton.gov.uk
IPCT poster attached
Governors Briefing Tuesday 30th January 2024 6pm-7.30pm
@DCBL Stadium The Bridge Suite
Audience: Governors
The meeting will give governing boards updates of latest legislation changes, statutory requirements for schools at this time in the school year, national and local priorities and or initiatives. It will inform their strategic planning and in order to ask school leaders about key priorities to ensure they are fulfilling their core duties and responsibilities.
Guest Speakers will be:
Maria Needham – Safeguarding
To book: https://forms.office.com/e/7bbGwL7cvN
Ofsted Briefing – Attendance
Wednesday 28th February 2024
9.30-11am
@ DBCL Stadium
School Improvement Halton have invited Rachel Goodwin HMI to talk about Ofsted and Attendance.
During the briefing Rachel will look at all stakeholder responsibilities and how this forms judgements around attendance during inspections.
To book: https://forms.office.com/e/B8fzprN3i3
Key Stage 2/3 Vulnerable Pupil Transition Meeting -TATS
Wednesday 27th March
0830-3pm
@DCBL Stadium
After the success of last year’s event Halton will be running this transition event again. Feedback from secondary schools asked for it to take place at the end of March to ensure they have time to act on information. Like last year. a range of Halton services will be in the room support the transition of our most vulnerable pupils who are at risk of suspension and exclusion. They will be able to plan with you early actions for each child coming to their new secondary setting. Please check all relevant staff at your setting are aware of this event and have contacted Mike Stapleton-Chambers (mike.stapleton-chambers@halton.gov.uk ) to attend. This event is part of the TATS work which is ongoing weekly with our schools.
The Young Carer in Schools Award (YCiS)
The Young Carer in Schools Award (YCiS) is being relaunched later this month by the Carer’s Trust, in collaboration with The Children’s Society.
The new Award follows a consultation over the last year with young carers, young carer services, and primary & secondary schools, which has fed into the updated award. It will consist of two levels, the Award and Award Plus (which will be launched in Spring 2024), and will be valid for 3 years from the date of achievement. With the launch of the new award, all previous awards will be no longer valid.
They are hosting a webinar to explain about the award on 31st January 2024 at 2pm. (Launch of Young Carers in Schools Award Tickets, Wed 31 Jan 2024 at 14:00 | Eventbrite)
Further details around the changes to young carers (including how they are identified and recorded on the school census) will be shared at the upcoming DSL workshop.
Cheshire and Merseyside Children and Young People’s Mental Health Plan
We want to hear from you – Cheshire and Merseyside Children and Young People’s (CYP) Mental Health Plan
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is asking those with experience of children and young people’s mental health services and those partners organisations who also support CYP in our communities to share their views to help inform our new ICB wide plan.
The six-week engagement exercise begins today the 19 January and will run until 1 March (2024). It will involve gathering feedback from local partners and stakeholders across Cheshire and Merseyside, including people who work in services, Local Authorities, Healthwatch, and the Voluntary Sector.
It’s designed to understand more about what people feel currently works well, where there are opportunities for improvement, and where potential barriers to accessing services might exist for our Children and Young People.
We are asking professionals to share their views in an online questionnaire, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W5LRKLG-CYPMH . Please can I ask you to kindly cascade this opportunity to your colleagues/partners on our behalf so we can gather as much feedback and input as possible. You can do this by forwarding this survey monkey link. It won’t take long to complete and we really want to hear your views. Please note that the survey is for professionals only.
All feedback received will be used to develop a refreshed Children and Young People’s Mental Health Transformation Plan for Cheshire and Merseyside, which is due to be published in summer 2024.
Thank you so much in advance. We really want to hear your view.
Free webinar
Schoolreaders – a model for improving literacy in Primary Schools
Thursday 8 February, 4pm (45 minute webinar)
1 in 4 primary school children in England fail to reach the expected standard of reading by the age of 11. This leaves them unable to access their secondary education fully, which will have life long consequences.
In this teachers’ webinar, Caroline Dowson will share the motivation that led to the creation of Schoolreaders in 2013 and how the model works to improve literacy in Primary Schools.
Discover how your school could benefit from their service to recruit, place and support volunteers to go to local primary schools and provide free, weekly, one-to-one reading support for children, prioritising those most disadvantaged.
This webinar is specifically for teachers and educators across the UK and will include a presentation and live Q&A session with Caroline.
Caroline Dowson
Recruitment & County Coordinator
Schoolreaders
Caroline joined Schoolreaders, as an Operations Coordinator after a career in education, where she specialised in Autism. Originally from North Yorkshire Caroline now lives in Bedford with her family. She enjoys reading classic literature, going to the theatre, and travelling.
To register for this event, you first need to sign up for free to our Inside Track >> https://sls-uk.org/inside-track/
or log into the Members Area>>> https://sls-uk.org/inside-track-members-area/
School charity cheque fraud
Please see attched for more information.
World Book Day
Authors Aloud Awesome AuthorFest for World Book Day, please see attached for more information.