Our Voice and SENDIASS held two videoconference sessions on 20th and 21st October, to give parents and carers of children in or close to year 6 to discuss the options and the process for transfer to Secondary schools. For those children with an EHCP, the deadline is 23rd October, and for all other children, it will be 31st October. 

You can see the presentation from our session here.

Resources for supporting your child during the transition

The following information may be useful in supporting your child during the transition to secondary school: 

For children and young people: 

Tips for pupils starting secondary school - an easy read guide for children and young people developed by The Foundation for people with learning disabilities, with University of Nottingham and University of Cambridge. 

Things I could say to start a conversation when making friends - a useful list from SENDIASS

For parents and carers 

Suggestions for families - a guide for parents and carers on how to support children with SEND during the secondary transfer - developed by The Foundation for people with learning disabilities, with University of Nottingham and University of Cambridge. 

Secondary transfer guide from the Enfield Advisory Service for Autism - a guide to supporting children with Autism during the transfer. 

Suggestions for supporting pupils - this is a guide aimed at teachers but which you may find useful (or wish to bring to the attention of your child's school) - it is developed by he Foundation for people with learning disabilities, with University of Nottingham and University of Cambridge. 

We are holding an important videoconference in conjunction with SENDIASS looking at the transfer to secondary school, for the parents of children who are currently in year 6. 

There will be two sessions: 

Tuesday 20th October 10.30 am to 12 noon - book here

Wednesday 21st October - 12.30 pm to 2 pm - book here

These are for parents who want more information on choosing a secondary school for children with additional needs and expressing your preferences for children who have an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan). 

We will discuss the process, how you can get information about secondary schools and what to look out for when making decisions. 

For more information see our flyer.

We are aware that parents/carers of children with an EHCP need to submit their forms by Friday 23rd October. If you are unsure of the process or need some guidance we strongly urge you to attend these information sessions to help you make informed choices. 

The October to December newsletter from the Enfield Carers Centre is available here. 

Our latest newsletter is out now, with news on all that Our Voice has been doing to support families over the last six months and updates from the Local Authority. 

Read the newsletter here. 

Ofsted will be visiting Enfield in October to look at how children with SEND have been supported during Covid. It is really important that they should hear from parents/carers and young people at this time. 

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey here. If you have a child/young person aged 16-25 please ask them to complete the separate survey here. 

The deadline for response is 7th October 2020. 

Please click here to view the Personal Budget Travel Assistance options available if your child or young person is eligible for Travel Assistance

Useful information on Coronavirus is available in a range of languages.

General guidance on Coronavirus is available in the following languages: 

Albanian      Arabic         Bengali         Dari         English        Farsi       French

Hindi       Kurdish         Mandarin        Pashto      Portuguese        Spanish

Turkish       Urdu             Vietnamese

Talking to your child about Coronovirus - this useful explanation tool is aimed at younger children and is available in English, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Portugese Brazilian, French, Polish, Hebrew, Indonesian, German, Turkish, Russian, Egyptian Arabic, Arabic, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Danish, Serbian and Welsh.  

Information in Turkish and Somali on supporting your child and your own mental wellbeing during the pandemic. 

Our Voice worked with Enfield Educational Psychology service and Mental Health Support teams to produce a set of six videos to help you create a sense of safety, calm, control, connectedness and hope in your child, and to look after your own wellbeing during this pandemic. A summary of each video is available in Turkish and Somali. For more information and to view the videos and summaries see our website here.

Resources to support wellbeing, provide support for children or adults who are anxious, and general support in dealing with the current situation.

The Coronavirus pandemic may be a source of great anxiety both for adults and children, and may be especially difficult for individuals with existing mental health issues or those who find the situation hard to understand.

Videos to help you support your child

Our Voice worked with Enfield Educational Psychology service and Mental Health Support teams to produce a set of six videos to help you create a sense of safety, calm, control, connectedness and hope in your child, and to look after your own wellbeing during this pandemic. 

For more information and to view the videos (and links to support materials) see our website here.

General support for children with SEND

The BBC Bitesize SEND Toolkit includes a wide range of resources for supporting children with special needs and disabilities (as well as home learning support and fun activities) with managing emotions, keeping calm, mindfulness and Mental Health support. 

Educational Psychology Service Family Telephone support line

If you would like help and advice with supporting your child's emotional wellbeing and mental health (or your own) or managing behaviour at home you can contact the Enfield Educational Psychology Service's Family Support Helpline. The helpline also provides help with supporting your child's learning at home, concerns about their general learning, development or well-being, access to information and resources and signposting to other services. 

The Good Thinking Guide

The Good Thinking Guide produced by the Health London Partnership contains useful resources for managing your own wellbeing and that of your children, including dealing with anxiety, stress, sleep problems and low mood. It includes information about a variety of resources available including helplines and apps which you may find useful.   

A collection of top resources to do with your kids and help them manage their wellbeing here. 

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

have a variety of useful resources which you can download from their website. These include specific guides and resources for dealing with Coronavirus anxieties and supporting our own and our children's mental health, for parents, younger and older children and young people. 

They also have a wide range of different more general resources and tools for parents or carers and children. Topics include anxiety, self-esteem issues, self-harm, sleep, building resilience, managing stress, positive parenting, ADHD, controlling anger, Autism, problem-solving managing emotions and melt-downs, depression, adolescence, online safety, OCD, eating disorders,  Tourettes, supporting children when someone close has a terminal illness or dies, Pathological Demand Avoidance and mindful colouring. 

Thrive Enfield

Thrive Enfield have created a variety of different guides to help support parents, children and young people during this difficult time: 

Wellbeing support - how to look after yourself and your children

Let's Beat Coronavirus - information for children - a child-friendly guide to the situation and staying healthy

Going to school - a child-friendly guide explaining why some children are at school and others aren't 

Staying home - a child-friendly guide about staying at home, what will change and what won't

Support for parents - caring for children without a break, caring for your teenagers, looking after yourself, feeling isolated, working from home and links to useful resources on these topics. 

Supporting primary aged children - a guide for parents looking at how to talk to children about the situation and support them if they are worried, supporting home learning and useful resources

Supporting secondary aged children - a guide for parents on how to talk to young people about the situation and support them if they are worried, hopeless or angry, supporting young people with learning, and useful resources. 

Healthy Enfield

Healthy Enfield has a useful Mental Health and wellbeing section which has a variety of tips and resources to support your mental health including Are you OK? - a guide to your mental health during Coronavirus.  

Mental Health Support for young people 

Kooth is a web-based confidential support service available for young people which provides a safe and secure means of accessing mental health and wellbeing support. Kooth offers young people the opportunity to have a text-based conversation with a qualified counsellor, available 12 noon to 10 pm weekdays and 6 pm to 10 pm at weekends, on a drop-in basis. Young people can access regular booked online counselling sessions as needed. Outside hours young people can message the team and get support by the next day. 

Healthwatch 

Healthwatch has put together a useful list of links about Coronavirus including a section on Mental Health Support, and Mental Health support for young people. 

Other resources 

Play is a great way for children to deal with their emotions and manage stress and worry. This short film on the value of play has been created by the British Psychology Society/Division of Educational and Child Psychology.  

Our Voice has been working with Enfield's Educational Psychology Service and Mental Health Support team to produce a series of six videos for parent carers. The videos aim to support parents in creating a sense of safety, calm, connectedness, control and hope for their children. The sixth video is about how we can look after ourselves as parents and carers. 

The videos are all short - between 5 and 10 minutes because we know that most parent-carers rarely get enough time to themselves! 

All six videos are produced by Enfield's Educational Psychology Service and Mental Health Support team in partnership with Our Voice. We hope you find them useful! 

Additional resources to support all the videos can be found on the Local Offer

Creating a sense of safety - see the video here. 

This video aims to help parents think about how to help their children feel a sense of safety during the pandemic.  You can also see a summary in English, Turkish or Somali. 

The video refers to a book explaining Coronavirus designed specifically for primary school children, the Blob guide to Social distancing and a suggested safe place meditation. 

Creating a sense of calm - see the video here

This video aims to help parents think about how to help their children feel a sense of calm during the pandemic. You can see a summary in English, Turkish or Somali. 

The video makes reference to Coronavirus: a book for children, Mencap Easy Read information, Carol Gray's social story about coronavirus, safe space visualisation, Drop the anchor exercise, progressive muscle relaxation, seated yoga and Cosmic Kids Yoga. 

Creating a sense of connectedness - see the video here

This video aims to parents think about how to help their children feel a sense of connectedness during the pandemic. You can see a summary in English, Turkish and Somali. 

The video makes reference to 'While we can't hug' and 'The Invisible String'. 

Creating a sense of control - see the video here

This video aims to parents think about how to help their children feel a sense of control during the pandemic. You can see a summary in English, Turkish and Somali

Creating a sense of hope - see the video here

This video aims to parents think about how to help their children feel a sense of control during the pandemic. You can see a summary in English, Turkish and Somali 

Looking after ourselves - see the video here

This video aims to parents think about how to look after their own well-being during the pandemic. You can see a summary in English, Turkish and Somali 

The video makes reference to the 30-3-30 wellbeing plan and Wellbeing plan from Learn4Mental Health. 

Introducing the Summer Support Pack for the Parents and Carers of children and young people with SEND. 

We know that this has been an exceptionally difficult time for many parents and carers, and that the summer is likely to continue to be challenging for many of us. 

Our Voice has worked with SENDIASS, with contributions from the Enfield Thrives partnership, to produce a support pack with information about events being run by the voluntary sector, support and services from the Local Authority and Health services and activities for families this summer. 

You can see the latest version of the pack here.

This pack will be updated as new events are announced, so do check back for the latest information.