Updates for Parents/Carers

Free School Meals during the Coronavirus outbreak

If you are a family who have had to apply for Universal Credit for the first time to help you out during these difficult times, please remember to apply for Free School Meals and let us know if you are successful by forwarding your confirmation email to us so we can change your status and add you to the voucher/hamper schemes school is operating.

The COVID-19 pandemic is identifying new vulnerable families within Derbyshire. Many have seen their personal circumstances change dramatically, have lost income and may be finding it difficult to claim benefits and seek assistance.

Derbyshire County Council are concerned that there may be some families now be eligible for Free School Meals but unsure how to apply or who don’t know if they are entitled. It is important to remember that families who become eligible now will be protected and continue to receive free meals until March 2022 under a new ruling following the rollout of Universal Credit. Taking up this allowance can save a family budget over £400 for each child every year.

Schools also benefit, as students eligible for free schools meals attract Pupil Premium funding of around £1,000 per student. This funding is guaranteed for six years, whether or not the student continues to be eligible for free schools meals during that time.

If you feel you may be eligible for Free School Meals you can contact the friendly Free School Meals team in any of the following ways:  Email: checking@derbyshire.gov.uk  Telephone: 01629 536400 / 01629 535743  Families can also apply directly online at: https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/education/schools/your-child-at-school/meals/school-meals/freeschool-meals.aspx

Access to free schools meals provides many benefits to eligible families during these difficult times, including reducing the financial burden of providing regular meals. Children receive the benefit of a consistent source of nutrition, improving concentration and the ability to learn, as well as encouraging them to eat a variety of foods and adopt healthy eating habits.

School Travel Insurance Claims – Update

Derbyshire County Council’s insurers are currently experiencing a very high volume of calls and emails and have advised that delays of 21-28 days should be expected at this time.

We appreciate that parents/carers are waiting for refunds and that finances are very limited due to the current situation but we have been advised by DCC that there will be delays of up to one month due to the unprecedented situation. We can only apologise for this.

Please be assured that both school and DCC are doing our best to monitor the claims and chase for settlements as far as we are able. However, we are very much in the hands of the insurers at this time.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Highfields Emergency Childcare

A reminder that school emergency childcare is a last resort for keyworkers. The government has defined keyworkers as teachers, teaching assistants supporting those with EHCPs, health workers, social care workers (both children’s services and adult services), carers such as foster carers, blue light services and those who provide vital logistical supplies such as delivery drivers and utilities engineers, children of shop owners who provide a vital link to ensuring the continuity of supplies for the local community and children of school staff. For a full list of keyworkers please click the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educationalprovision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

If your child is mature and capable of staying home alone, please consider this to reduce the spread of infection. High quality learning can take place remotely and we are offering basic supervision only in school. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson reminded families that they“should only

send your child to school if you have to, because your work is critical to our Covid-19 response. If you are able to keep your child at home, you should.”

If you are a keyworker and need help with childcare during the week, please contact Mrs Leverton by Friday each week with specific details regarding the days and times of the following week that emergency childcare is required (lleverton@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk).

Thank you to all our families who have shown tremendous resilience and understanding throughout this time.

Decisionz E-magazine for year 11s

The summer Decisionz e-magazine offering support to year 11 students can be accessed below: http://magazine.decisionz.co.uk/books/gpph/

Decisionz is a local careers and advice magazine. The summer issue contains useful articles including information on exam cancellations, a guide to higher education, filling in a job application and much more.

The Derbyshire magazine will be issued in September, January and May to year 11 students and will provide local opportunities, careers advice and useful articles.

Reminder: Virtual school musical permissions – Beauty and the Beast 2020

If your son/daughter was scheduled to participate in the school musical of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and you have not yet responded to the permissions email, please do so to let us know if you are happy for your child can take part in the ‘virtual musical’.

Students with permissions have already received a notification via Show My Homework on Monday 4 May with full details of their involvement in the virtual show.

You said – we are listening: Parent/carer and student survey feedback and our response

We had 289 responses to the student survey and 382 parent responses, which was fantastic. These were overwhelmingly positive and included some very useful feedback to us on how we can further improve our response to COVID-19. This is a brief one page snapshot of headlines. Summaries that expand further on these themes are on their way.

Positives – what we are doing well:

Communicating well, building our sense of community and caring for our students:

The daily assemblies have proved to be hugely popular and are widely agreed to be a very effective way of keeping everybody connected. The many other forms of communication we are using, including one to one communications with school staff are highly valued. The vast majority of students said they know that we care about their happiness, safety and learning Providing quality education remotely: Most parents and students told us that we are doing this very well, at least most of the time. You told us that we are usually setting the right amount of the right sort of work, and that this is helping learning to continue. Many of you told us that the weekly timetable has helped a lot.

We were grateful for the responses such as the one below, which summed up our feelings about the draw backs of ‘remote school’ compared to ‘real Highfields’, but which also reflected the views of many about our progress so far:

‘Nothing will ever be better than school but I think what you are providing in terms of learning support and keeping in touch is excellent’

What you told us we could do better (and what we are doing about this):

Around 1/4 of parents and 1/3 of students told us that could do better with getting

the amount of work we set and the nature of this work right: We are listening. It is definitely a challenge getting it right for the huge diversity of students that make up Highfields. We do have the expectation that students will be spending several hours a day learning but are clear that we do not want students working far beyond the time allocation for tasks. More contact and feedback appreciated: We are listening. We know that you like to hear from us. This is really important to us so there has been lots more checking in with students from staff and students over the last few weeks. More lessons using video conferencing e.g. Zoom or Teams: We agree that such lessons can be very powerful. All teachers have been given the go ahead to use such platforms, and are encouraged to use them safely if they feel they will support learning. We’ve had some successful lessons this week. Please help us by following safe use guidelines. Understand that this is a tough time and is hitting lots of families hard: We know that this isn’t an easy time. Many families include key workers, and have other children at home. Please get in touch with us if you need to let us know about challenges you are facing, or require our help. Please remember this extends to financial support through our We Are Highfields fund.

Thanks so much for your responses and suggestions. We’ll continue to work hard to make Highfields the best it can be at this time.

We are Highfields.

More top tips on how to support your child with dyslexia and other SEND conditions …

How do I manage my own (and help my children’s) anxieties during the Covid19 crisis? - Part 2

This article is based on the work of Professor Amanda Kirby who is a GP, a professor of developmental disorders and CEO of ‘Do-IT’ Solutions, who support children and adults with SEND.

Under normal circumstances, even with stress in our lives, our bodies can cope. We can rest, digest our food, lower our heart rate, we can breathe easily, our saliva secretes normally and our bladders work efficiently.

However, when we feel particularly stressed and anxious, or go into overdrive, we get the fight and flight response; and physical symptoms start to appear. Anxiety:  Inhibits saliva production  Accelerates our heartbeat leading to palpitations and feeling sweaty  Can affect our digestive system  Can lead to shallower breathing  Can produce adrenaline and noradrenaline which affects our bladder

Feeling really anxious and nervy in the ‘fight and flight’ mode can last a long time.

Creating Calm

STRUCTURE - is vital for good mental health.

Plan your days:

Morning routines might involve having breakfast together, watching Mr Marsh’s assembly together, morning study time

Afternoon routines – Set times for fun / exercise / play / reading / further study / some alone time

Evening activities – Shared activities – watching TV / playing board games / playing cards / jigsaws / family karaoke / reading together

Pin your daily timetable up on your fridge door!

Be realistic - if you and your family are feeling tired, watch a film together (see Mr Warrington’s top picks) or relax and play cards. If you are stressed, your children will pick this up and mirror your emotions.

Tension in the home can have a negative effect on children. Try to reduce arguments by having regular family meetings and talking through any grumbles. Doing some ‘fun stuff’ each day and being a bit silly are also really good! Try these:  What can you do whilst hula hooping (Miss Ould’s idea)  Building a den  Singing ABBA songs

Create a family song and use things from around the house as instruments (the Eurythmics band, if you remember them, made their first music with kitchen equipment!) Be experimental with science in the kitchen (websites listed at the end of the article – James Dyson foundation has a good one as well as British Science Week) What can you create with cereal packets? (Blue Peter eat your heart out!) Make a family joke book Learn how to plait or braid hair Draw together on an ipad or computer Potato printing Setting each other puzzles such as lateral thinking questions Building a straw bridge Taking funny photographs Tie dye an old T-shirt using food colouring Dance on the trampoline

Activities that are fun, focus you on the ‘here and now’ and connect you with your child/ren. The idea is that you are creating positive memories together.

Also, with social media, it can seem like every other family is making a real success of family life during the lockdown with pictures of perfect baking and news that their children are doing loads of work…

…the reality is that we are all struggling at the moment.

How to DEAL with WORRIES…

Create a worry box for the whole family:

 Write your worries down (it’s a good way to see what is worrying your child)  Place them in the box  The box takes the worries away or you could decide to use the box as a Time2Talk box where worries can be talked about and concerns can be addressed.

For younger children you can make a worry monster. The child writes down their worry and feeds it to the worry monster, which gobbles it up and it goes away.

So, think about YOUR child’s comfort triggers – music, dance, art, reading, building / making, sport etc., and use this a bit more if they are feeling uncertain.

Create a Project

 Write your family history together by contacting elderly relatives and asking what was it like when they were young or at school  Sort out the family photographs  Build an anger volcano from lego, papier-mache, play doh – research the geography of volcanoes, the history of volcanoes, explore how the volcano rumbles, bubbles up and then can erupt. Relate this to how they feel when they get angry. It gives children a way of expressing their frustrations but also gives them language around feeling out of control. You could then look at strategies of

how they might recognise their angry feelings and then controlling them better before they erupt Create a helping hands tree from twigs. Draw round your hands and write on who you identify in your life that you can trust and talk to if you have anything on your mind that is worrying you. They could also become proactive and decorate their hand showing how they can help others during this challenging time Gardening – planting apple seeds in yoghurt pots for a windowsill

Exercise

 There are loads of resources online and on TV for us all to join in with. But you can also set up your own circuit training if you are stuck inside:  10 wall presses  10 desk pushes  10 hand squeezes  10 second Superman poses!

Sleep

There is real potential for worrying changes here, especially with teenagers as they can go to bed really late, sleep in and not get up until the middle of the day (see below). Maintain a bedtime routine which could include:  A warm bath  Reading a story  Time for a chat  Some children like to be ‘tucked in’ or have a weighted blanket or duvet that adds pressure and can make children feel very secure

If it’s hard to focus… sort something…

 tidy the cupboards  clean the fridge  weed the garden  paint the fence… if you have organised / sorted something then you feel like you have achieved something which refocuses you and reduces anxiety levels.

Let’s focus on Teenagers…

Difficulties

Firstly we need to appreciate just how awful the current situation is, particularly for our teenagers and for many different reasons. The time between young adolescence and late adolescence is a time of emerging adulthood and identity formation.

You’re trying to sort out who you are, what you like, what you feel, what’s important to you and with puberty, there are body changes as well.

It is also a time, research tells us, that peer-to-peer interaction is more of an influencer than parents and with the lockdown, we’ve taken peer-to-peer interaction away from them.

At this stage, the prefrontal cortex at the front of your brain, which is to do with planning and organisation, changes extraordinarily between the ages of 11 to 19 and so at this stage teenagers are acting more like a toddler – acting without thinking – and are more likely to ‘blow up’ and have emotional dysregulation because of all these physical changes happening in the brain. They may not seem to be able to organise or prioritise effectively.

How can we help our teenagers?

Respect their space and privacy – Create an area that is specifically theirs. If they share a room, try and put up a sheet so that the teenager can have their own space, however small, that is theirs. Give them more leeway than you normally would – they may be feeling angry, annoyed, frustrated, fed up and perhaps very anxious, thinking about their future and they will take this out on YOU as there is nowhere else for it to go! Leave the door open for conversation – again and again and again… they may well say over and over again that they have nothing to say or that they are ‘fine’, but there may be a time, one evening, when they make a comment and you are there for them. Encourage them to eat with you – regular mealtimes or have regular times in the day when you start to reconnect with them Try to encourage them NOT to turn night into day – and if they are waking up in the night you can create a warm haven for them: o have a hot flask at their bedside o white sounds / music to help soothe o for very agitated teens, having access to an audio book that they can get involved in and then find they can drift back off to sleep Encourage them to make a documentary on their phone either about their current experiences of lockdown like a diary; or a CV video – what they like, what motivates them – this would be a project with a real value afterwards.

This suggestion came from a student - Create a self-soothe box

o o o o o o o o

Things they like to touch Memories of times / people that have made them happy Nice smells Music Calming technique cards Positive affirmation / quote cards Some activities https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/how-to-make-a-self-soothe-box/

Hope there are some ideas in this article that are low cost, no cost, need a few resources and fun!

Suggested websites for a variety of age groups:

This Dog is Worried About Corona Virus: https://nursedottybooks.com/dave-the-dog-is-worried-about-coronavirus-2/

Science tasks in the kitchen: https://www.jamesdysonfoundation.co.uk/resources/challenge-cards.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw3- bzBRBhEiwAgnnLCkxiaADpmFPHjg-vGJRCpo-SgB-KHJFPbyDMKKzH8LSM8hrZKFCYBoCc3UQAvD_BwE

Create a video on your phone and learn how to edit it together: https://www.educationalappstore.com/app/magisto-magical-video-editor

Using cardboard boxes from cereal packets and see what you can invent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlC5bHOYbPc

Create an orchestra from your kitchen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUttqlyGPM4

Set up a science lab in your kitchen: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activitypacks/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoPTF2bOe6AIVmKztCh1I_QB5EAAYASAAEgJFlvD_BwE

Cook with children: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/kids-cooking

Set up a yoga class at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X655B4ISakg

Ten-minute Shake Up activities for children: https://www.nhs.uk/10-minute-shake-up/shake-ups

Look up the funniest jokes and make a family joke book: https://redtri.com/best-jokes-for-kids/

Next time… ‘How to prepare your child for success in life’

Mrs Finney SEND Teaching and Learning Coordinator & Specialist Teacher

10 top tips from the Highfields Cluster Family Support Team

Highfields family support team wanted to provide some helpful tips to help families during this current lockdown. Information is available on the school website through the link below: http://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/pdfs/NewsPDFs/HelpfulTipsForParentsAndCarersDuringLock down.pdf

Helping children and young people to manage anxiety

If a child is displaying signs of anxiety how can you support them? A practical guide to supporting pupils and students during periods of disruption from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families: https://www.annafreud.org/media/11465/helping-cyp-manage-anxiety-apr2020-v3.pdf