Harlow Hub News 2,000 children in 9 schools
Thank you to Harlow Education Consortium Catherine O’Connor
I
n December, we said goodbye to Jon O’Connor who stepped down from his role as Director of Harlow Education Consortium. I would like to express thanks to Jon who worked with The Place2Be from its outset to contribute to its success in Harlow. In January, Chris Fluskey took over as Interim Manager of the consortium. As the former Head teacher of Mark Hall School, he was already very familiar with us and has worked tirelessly to ensure our development and growth. We are extremely grateful to Harlow Education Consortium for their continued strong support of The Place2Be.
Attachment Catherine O’Connor, Hub Manager
W
e are fast approaching the end of our second full academic year in Harlow and it really feels that we are embedded in our existing schools. There have been some changes in our team of School Project Managers and Place2Be Counsellors this year, but what doesn’t change is the dedication and commitment shown by both The Place2Be and school staff, in ensuring that the service can be as effective as possible. A very exciting development in the hub has been our expansion into a secondary school, Mark Hall Community College. We commenced a full clinical service for Years 7 and 8 at Mark Hall in September. It can be hugely beneficial for the children moving up from primary schools to secondary school, to find The Place2Be in their new school. Children can become very attached to their primary school, often seeing it as a safe haven. It can be extremely difficult to leave this behind
and move into the much larger bewildering environment of secondary school. When everything else seems so unfamiliar, just the sight of the yellow Place2Be logo on the door is very comforting. Of course, this won’t be familiar to all, because some children won’t have had The Place2Be in their primary schools, but when they come to the school, they are told about The Place2Be and it doesn’t take long for those who need it to access our service.
"A very exciting development has been our expansion into a Secondary School, Mark Hall Community College." We are further expanding our secondary school service to Stewards School and will commence the clinical service, for Years 7 and 8, in September. We look forward, very much, to working with staff of Stewards School and, building on our experience of offering the service in Mark Hall, hope to make a very positive contribution to the pastoral care already in place.
Detachment Debbie Birley, SPM Spinney Junior School
T
he support and help I have received from Anne Todd, the SENCO at Spinney Junior School has been totally invaluable. Her knowledge of the children and families has enabled me in my role as SPM. Anne retires at the end of this year and I find myself feeling quite sad as I begin to detach myself from her. Our daily ‘catch-ups’ will be sorely missed. I’m also wondering what her leaving will mean to the children and staff within the school. Life will go on but it will be different and September will start a new phase in my role as SPM.