Supporting Families

Our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer

Life does not always go according to plan and we all have ‘ups and downs’.  Our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer is an important part of our school and community partnership to help children and families get back on track as soon as a problem emerges, with the aim to stop problems escalating.

Tenacres First School offers a wide variety of strategies and support tailored to individual needs. Please have a look at our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer below for lots more information and contact details.

Our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer can help children and their families, including:

• Routines, behaviour and family rules.
• Keeping a healthy diet and lifestyle.
• Children’s mental health and wellbeing.
• Food bank referrals and school uniform for families in need.
• Children who are caring for a family member/being a young carer.
• Children who may not want to go to school for different reasons/attendance.
• Special educational needs (SEND).
• Children who go missing from home.
• Children at risk of being tricked or forced to work in the criminal world.
• Children who may need additional support because they may live in a home where there are concerns around drug or alcohol abuse or adult mental health.
• Children who have parents who argue a lot or become aggressive towards each other (physically, verbally or emotionally) whether the parents live together or apart.
• Children at risk of being groomed to join groups which support illegal views.
• Referral to external partner.

The most important part of our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer at Tenacres is our open-door policy. The Leadership team and class teachers are available and always happy to support parent/carers in the first instance and can often put actions in place very quickly.

At the start and end of each day, you will find senior leaders and members of the safeguarding team on the playgrounds. Please come and talk to us about any concerns that you may have.

For more private conversations, contact the school office (01527 528872) who will be happy to make an appointment for you to discuss your concerns with one of the team so that we can plan school-based support strategies or signpost to external agencies. It is helpful to have these conversations so that we can provide the best possible support to children while they are in our care at school.

Everyone needs help at some time in their lives and therefore an ethos of supporting families is important at Tenacres.

We work hard to put a range of early support interventions in place to support children and families; in many cases support will help a family get back on track and support children to thrive. Tenacres will refer to appropriate agencies when additional help is required. All staff are aware of our Supporting Families and Wellbeing Offer and consider strategies to support our families.

The DSL/DDSL Team

The Designated Safeguarding Team, alongside the teaching and support staff aim to provide support as soon as a problem arises, to stop it from escalating.

With the family we will always explore the best support that can be offered, this might be a member of the leadership team, class teacher, a familiar member of staff in school, our Family Support Worker, local support groups, the community, charities or more specialist support.

Examples of Early Help at Franche:

• Giving families the opportunity, space and time to talk
• Parenting support and advice
• A phone call to check the well-being of the family
• Family meetings
• A safe space
• Supporting meetings with external providers ie Citizen’s Advice, Women’s Aid, School Nurse
• Mental Health advice, referrals and signposting
• Mental Health support in school
• Bereavement support for children
• Food bank referral
• Reaching out to the community for specific items for a family in need
• Community support for families in need
• School uniform
• Completing an Early Help Assessment

For more information, see Worcestershire CC Children’s Partnership Professionals

Mental Health

Mental Health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through to adulthood and is a key part of our Supporting Families and Wellbeing offer.

Mr Fletcher is our Mental Health First Aider in school. The role of the Mental Health First Aider is to support children, parents/carers and staff by understanding the factors affecting mental health, identifying the signs and symptoms, providing support to someone in crisis or to signpost to professional help.

Mrs Oakes, our SENCo, and Mrs Hirst, our PSHE Lead, also supports mental health and wellbeing at Tenacres.

Family Support Worker

We are lucky to have our Family Support Worker, Lisa Sinclair, in school one day a week (Thursdays) to support children and families experiencing a range of experiences/emotions requiring support.  Lisa is a highly skilled and experienced family support worker.

A solution-focused approach is used to achieve positive outcomes for individual children, parents/carers and families. Supporting parents to understand and effectively manage their child’s behaviour, enabling them to build positive relationships at home.

Support includes 1-1 sessions with children focusing on anger management, friendship and social skills, emotions and behaviour.  Groups sessions for children focusing on self-esteem through confidence-building activities. Identifying barriers to learning and working with parents and staff to identify solutions. Working to improve school attendance and punctuality.

Please see a member of staff if you would like support from Lisa or alternatively Lisa can be contacted also throughout the week on 07999 828054 or by email at: cornerstonefsagency@outlook.com

Strategies to Support Children

There are times when children struggle to process events that have taken place within their life, ie. a bereavement, separation of parents or a falling out between a group of children (either online or face-to-face). At these times some children may struggle to regulate their feelings and emotions; they may also find it difficult to put into words how and why they are feeling the way they are.

At Tenacres we have many strategies to support children: time away from the classroom to reflect, have a chat through our check-in process may sometimes be all that is necessary to help, for other children a planned strategy of support may be put in place.

The Starlight Room

Mr Fletcher leads our Starlight Room. Children can access this for short periods of time or longer dependent on need. Mr Fletcher leads one of our Nurture breakfast sessions and support children through a range of interventions. These include Art Therapy, Lego Therapy, Time to Talk amongst others.

Trauma Informed Support

Staff are trained in supporting children who have experienced childhood trauma. The ethos of this support is to provide children with an emotionally available adult who understands the impact of trauma and to help children process and work-through their emotions.

External Agencies

Tenacres has good and effective working relationships with a range of external agencies.  Including Education Psychologist-Laura Meldrum Carter, Chadsgrove outreach, Play Therapist, The Beacon Behaviour support outreach team and the School Nursing Team.

Speech and Language Therapist

Amy Green, is our Speech and Language Therapist based at Tenacres during the week.  She works with individuals developing their speech and language skills.  She also advises and supports staff in training.

Lego Therapy

In addition to Mr Fletcher, other staff work alongside particular children using Lego as a tool to focus on and support: communication with others, social skills, solving problems using different strategies, identifying and talking about feelings, perseverance and resilience, fine motor skills.

Forest School

Our curriculum-based forest school provision supports all children i.e. wellbeing, mental health, ASD, emotional wellbeing.

School Dog

Additional Support and Advice

There is a range of support and advice online, via apps and through a variety of charities. Some examples:

• Andy’s Man Club – a men’s suicide prevention charity.
• Anxiety UK – a national charity helping people with anxiety.
• Balance – an app that is free for the first year.
• Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) – for everyone who’s struggling and to provide life-saving support for anyone affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts.
• Childline – free counselling service for kids and young people. Also by telephone: 0800 1111
• Mental Health Foundation – a UK charity solely focused on preventing poor mental health and building and protecting good mental health.
• Mind – committed to improving mental health. Also by telephone: 0300 102 1234
• Qwell – online mental wellbeing community; free digital mental wellbeing support for adults across the UK.
• Rethink Mental Illness – help to manage panic attacks, self-harm impulses, hearing voices or suicidal ideation.
• Sane – an independent mental health charity aiming to raise awareness, improve services, provide emotional support and host research.
• Samaritans – the charity that prevents suicide through the power of human connection. Connecting people in crisis with trained volunteers who will always listen. Also by telephone: 116 123
• Shout – the UK’s free, confidential, 24/7 mental health text messaging service. Text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258.

Additional support can also be accessed via:

Worcestershire Community Services

By accessing this, parents can be signposted to community support in their own community so that support is sustainable and bespoke for the families in your school’s community.

• The Eve Project: Domestic Abuse Service Information
• The Eve Project: Domestic Abuse Self-Referral Registration Form
• Helping Hands Agency Referral Form
• Worcestershire Community Services Directory
  Tel: 01905 768053

Starting Well

The Starting Well service has a parenting and community team that can offer on line and telephone support for parents, as well as parenting courses.

The parenting team can offer 1-1 parenting advice over the phone as well as virtual parenting groups around issues such as support with children’s behaviour, anxiety, eating and sleeping routines etc, and can also signpost to agencies that can support parents in their own community. In addition to this the parenting team can also supports parenting to complete Sollihull on line, as well as Birth and Beyond for expectant parents.

The school nursing service can remain in contact with primary, middle and high schools via phone and email. They are providing a Chat health texting service for young people and can also provide consultations via WebEx. The School Nurse team can also off a call or WebEx monthly session for all vulnerable families.

• Starting Well Partnership

If you would prefer to talk with a Health Professional, please call the Starting Well Partnership: One Simple Number on 01905 520032 (choose Option 2 for Redditch and then Option 5 for the School Nurse team).

Citizens Advice