Parent/carer Support
At The Colne Community School, we not only want to offer support to our students, we also believe in offering support and guidance for our parents and carers. Below are some links to help guide you and support you and students in our school. They will guide you through what to do if you have a concern; link you through to support agencies for mental health, give strategies and documents to help support.
Essex County Council has an abundance of resources on specific areas within mental health. Please use this link to find the resource that may be best suited for you. Click here and scroll down to 'advice for families'.
If you are worried about a child or need advice and support for coping with anything affecting your child's mental health or wellbeing, there are different ways to seek help. The NHS have put together resources they recommend, click the logo.
Click on the image to download Headspace
Click the image to find out more about talking to your GP about mental health
If you need help around a death click here. Advice and guidance for bereaved children, young people, their families and communities.
The safety and well-being of our students is paramount. A copy of the school’s Safeguarding policy can be found on the Policies section of the school website.
Should you have a concern about any of our students please contact us on the school telephone number between 8.00am-3.00pm. If you need to speak to someone urgently outside of the school hours, please call the Children and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627 or the Police.
Any parents who are worried about the well-being of their own child can also contact EWMHS (Emotional Well-being Mental Health Service) on 0300 300 1600.
A list of other agencies who offer support for students and parents/carers can be found under the Student Support section on this website.
Support for Parents – Free online Safeguarding Training
Parents against Child Sexual Exploitation (PACE) have a free online course that helps parents understand what CSE is, recognise the signs, and know what help is available for young people. This course takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete and we feel it is time well spent – please take a look. Parents should follow the link and click on the green “Sign up now, it’s free” box – www.safeguardingchildrenea.co.uk
Support for Parents – Dealing with the Challenges of Parenting
There are a number of independent organisations that are able to offer support to parents. Courses on offer cover various topics and their websites contain a host of useful information, please see below.
Essex Safeguarding Children Board – www.escb.co.uk
The ESCB website contains a wealth of information for parents and carers.
In addition, they have a number of useful ‘Lets Talk About……’ publications.
Family Lives (formally Parent Line) – www.familylives.org.uk Tel: 0808 800 22 22
Family Lives is a national family support charity providing help and support in all aspects of family life. We are here for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We listen, support and never judge. We believe that happy children come from happy families.
‘Extra Support for Families’ – www.extrasupportforfamilies.co.uk
EXTRA is a local organisation which acts as a central agency to co-ordinate the provision of parenting support throughout Tendring. They offer help and support to anyone caring for children in the Tendring district to assist them with the challenges of parenting.
EXTRA’s activities can help to develop your self-confidence and parenting skills. This will help you to bring out the best in your child, reduce conflict in the home, improve family relationships and build confidence to cope with future changes. They offer local opportunities for parents to meet, organise one-off workshops and offer a range of parenting programmes.
EXTRA offers local opportunities to gain information, advice and support and meet other parents at one-off workshops, support groups and parenting courses. Courses are for parents/carers of children of all ages including those with additional needs. Activities are free, with refreshments and many have a crèche.
For more information contact EXTRA – Tel: 01255 475001 or email: [email protected]
The Ministry of Parenting – Based in Colchester, this is an exciting, innovative and growing Community Interest Company that works with parents and professionals to develop creative evidence-based solutions to the challenges faced by families in society today. Their website contains a wealth of information for parents to help them deal with the challenges of bringing up their children – ‘The Ministry of Parenting‘ – www.theministryofparenting.com
Essex Travel Training – www.travel-training.co.uk
Travel Training helps people with special educational needs or disabilities to travel independently on buses and trains. Their award-winning service has helped over 2,500 students and adults get more from life by giving them the confidence to travel independently.
Autism Anglia – www.autism-anglia.org.uk
Enhancing the lives of people on the autism spectrum across East Anglia. The Autism Advice Service provides support, advice, and guidance to individuals, families, and professionals. The team has extensive knowledge of local services, offering free information and can signpost to other support agencies.
The Maze Group – www.themazegroup.co.uk
• The MAZE is a unique approach, which offers an insight into how children with additional needs experience the world around them. They can help you to:
• Understand how your child is affected by his/her additional needs, and why they present in the way they do.
• Unpick challenging behaviours and explore how to replace these with functional skills.
• Explore how to improve emotional well-being and promote self-esteem.
• Understand how to secure good educational provision and gain access to services for your child.
•Share experiences with other parents of children with additional needs.
Interact – www.interact.org.uk
An innovative, enterprising, local Essex based charity that delivers support where needed most – in the heart of the community. Promoting creativity and empowerment InterAct is dedicated to improving the emotional well-being and opportunities of young people and young adults with disabilities, primarily learning disabilities/difficulties and autism, and individuals, families and communities who experience barriers through disability, challenging mental health, other disadvantaged and social difficulties.
Essex Youth Service – Young Carers – youth.essex.gov.uk
Information about children and young people who act as Young Carers for family members.
Including a link to ‘Refer a young carer for support’.
MindEd – mindedforfamilies.org.uk
A free helpful learning resource for families and carers about mental health.
The Prevent Strategy
Essex Police have launched their Prevent Strategy which:
• Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
• Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
• Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with.
The strategy covers all forms of terrorism, including far right extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism. However, we prioritise our work according to the risks we face.
If parents wish to find further information about this topic please check the Essex Police PREVENT website –
www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/t/prevent/prevent