Welcome back to the start of the new Summer Term. I hope everyone is well. This term in school we will be looking at Mental Health Week with a focus on LONELINESS. This will be done through assemblies and tutor times for students; for parents we will be sending you links to download with useful websites and parent guides. Staff will also be receiving wellbeing links and guides.
I am hoping to set up a Parent Safeguarding and Wellbeing Evening in the new term and invite some guest speakers along. This may include outside professionals who work with our young people, family support workers to talk more about the courses and support available to you as parents, internet safety, exploitation, mental health. I then hope to make this a regular monthly event moving forward. Now that we are doing more face to face, I would really like to hear what you as parents would like covered in these get togethers. They will be informal with drinks and biscuits and time to chat to people for advice and guidance.
If you have any areas, you would particular like covered, please do drop me an email: joedie.bradgate@rugbyfreesecondary.co.uk I can then start putting a calendar of events together. I am hoping to offer these in the early evening between 5.00pm - 6.00pm. If possible they will also be recorded so parents who are unable to attend, but would have liked to, will be able to access them at a more convenient time.
Warwickshire County Council provide a number of Parent Workshops through eventbrite. Click the link to access one of these:
Please click the link for the latest Family Information Service newsletter:
New Information and Links
Safeguarding professionals are warning school about a new TikTok trend called 'Guess who'. The ‘Guess Who’ trend involves young people creating anonymous profiles on TikTok, often including the name of their school and/ or their year group. It is loosely based on the well-known game ‘Guess Who’ and features young people posting images as ‘clues’ to someone’s identity, typically through interests or personality traits. Below is a link with more information:
inEQE Safeguarding Group have released some really useful advice on parental phone controls, recommendations on the best ones and what they monitor:
I also wanted to remind parents that all of our students have access to the KOOTH website which is paid for by Warwickshire County Council. This is a great website for young people, that not only offers our students an option to access and book sessions to speak to a qualified counsellor, but also offers forums, articles, mini activities, journals and more. Everything posted on the site is monitored before going live so it is safe to access. It is completely confidential; young people are advised to create a brand new username, not used for any other sites and a password they will remember. We have a 'dummy' account in school, so if this is something you would like to see we can certainly do a presentation on this at one of our evenings. Below is a link that tells you all about KOOTH and the evidence it really is making a difference to young people's mental health and wellbeing:
Parents' Ultimate Guide to TikTok
TikTok app safety – What parents need to know https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/esafety-news/tik-tok-app-safety-what-parents-need-to-know/
Teen Mental Health – A Guide for Parents - https://www.mytutor.co.uk/blog/parents/educational-advice/teen-mental-health-a-guide-for-parents/
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