Safeguarding News - January 2022

12 January 2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you have had a safe and enjoyable winter break. We are writing to let you know about some free online support groups for parenting teenagers and some Parent Webinars.

These are run by Anna Freud, The National Centre for Children and Families, via their Schools Support Services (SSS) Team. These are completely free and run independently from the school. The information on the different sessions is below.

Parent/Carer Support Group Sessions

The “Connecting Parents and Carers” groups aim to provide a space to think about the challenges of parenting adolescents, as well as a space for you as parents/ carers to attend to your own wellbeing which we think is just as important.

The groups are not webinars, and they are also not therapy, but rather aim to support parental emotional wellbeing and the connection between parents/carers and their teens. They are interactive groups with a mixture of teaching and discussion. They also offer one group specifically for Dads and male carers. Spaces are limited for these sessions so please refer to our Parent Zone under Parent Support for further information.

Parent Webinar Series

Five topics have been chosen to reflect common difficulties parents can struggle with. The webinars cover the following topics:

• Building resilience, staying connected and nurturing your relationship with your teen
• Weathering the storms of strong teen emotions: do’s, don’ts and when to consider talking to someone
• Adolescent self–harm: how to make sense of it and when to seek support
• Managing teen behaviour that challenges: tips and tricks
• Anxiety in adolescence: how can parents help?

All sessions are run virtually. Please refer to our Parent Zone under Parent Support for dates and times of sessions.

Best wishes,

The Safeguarding Team at Orchard School