On Friday 26th April, we have a counsellor from Nessie coming in to school to talk to parents about supporting anxiety in children. They will be able to answer any questions and will have a specific focus on supporting children who are anxious about coming into school. This is an amazing opportunity to get some valuable advice from an organistaion who specialise in supporting positive mental health in children and young people. As you all know, referrals for agencies like Nessie are difficult to get and waitlists are incredibly long so sessions like these are highly sought after!

It will take place in the family room on the lower site. We will be starting at 850am for our regular coffee session so feel free to come in after you've done the drop off to offload and then the Nessie counsellor will start at around 930am, finishing at 1030am.

We hope to see lots of you there!

Family lives are running a FREE 6 week online group called 'Bringing up confident ADHD/Autistic children.' It runs from Wednesday15th May to 26th June from 7pm until 9pm.

Your child does not need to have a diagnosis for you to attend. You will receive support from other parents and gain a comprehensive understanding of Autism and ADHD and learn strategies to improve life at home and at school.

You can complete an online referral to join https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=_1v8xmMHAkWkdxzUTU-XK840q_kSeSxIkVCyL2Nx05lUMUxBSlY5ODJCQjczVzRCNVE2VURDWVJLRS4u or you can email services@familylives.org or call 0204 522 8700 0r 0204 522 8701.

If you wishing to pursue a diagnosis for either ADHD or Autism, we can help and complete paperwork however referrals are only currently being accepted if there is evidence of parents accessing courses like this one. Please let us know if you need any help.

Families in Focus, a Hertfordshire-based community interest company, which provides training information and therapeutic and emotional support to parents, are running a FREE 6 Week 'Handling anger in the family' (with primary aged children) on-line course for parents living in Hertfordshire.  The course is held via ZOOM (free downloadable app)

This CANparent quality mark course is for parents of primary aged children, and provides practical and proven techniques to reduce angry meltdowns in your family. The very popular, effective and award winning course offers:

• Gain greater understanding of how anger and other emotions live in your family
• Increase your understanding of triggers that cause angry outbursts
• Learn healthy anger management strategies for children & parents to reduce angry outbursts
• Discover creative ways to support children to ‘let go’ of anger safely
• Gain effective empathic communication techniques to reduce angry outbursts
• Meet and share experiences with other parents living in a similar family to your own
• How to raise confident & resilient children
• Helpful handouts each week

The course will run Monday evenings - 6.30-8.30pm - April 15th, 22nd, 29th and May 13th and 20th

Parents need to attend all sessions and live in Hertfordshire

To book your place email: bookings@familiesinfocus.co.uk

https://www.familiesinfocus.co.uk/current-parent-courses/

ADD-vance (The ADHD and Autism Trust) are running some really helpful on-line workshops after the half term break:

26th February - Supporting Emotional Development

4th March - Encouraging Positive Behaviour

13th March - Managing Anxiety 

For more details, and how to book your place, click here and scroll down to FREE On-line Workshops for Parents and Carers and click on the 'spring 2024 workshop poster' hyperlink.

Children's mental health week 5th-11th February 

This year's theme is:

"Our voice matters" 

At Fairlands, we weill be discussing why it is important that we share our views, opinions and needs with others and how we can support those that share with us. 

We will be thinking about positive things we share with our voices; things we are proud of and grateful for. 

Why not use the link below and click 'Take part at home' to access some wonderful resources that can support you in sharing your voices at home.

https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/

The supporting families leaflet can also be accessed via the attachment on this blog post. 

Supporting Links are running 6, weekly on-line sessions for parents/carers of children aged 0-12 sharing tips on how to:

Manage challenging behaviour with consistency

Encourage positive behaviour

Build your child's self esteem

Set and maintain boundaries

Respond to tantrums and difficult feelings in children

Develop a strong parent/child relationship now and for the future.

See attached flier for details of how to book.

Welcome back and a happy new year to you all!

We are very excited to announce that we have visitors from both Add-vance and HPCI attending our coffee session on Friday 19th January 9am-10am on the lower site. Add-vance are a charity who provide fantastic support for families of children with or on the pathway to a diagnosis of Autism or ADHD. Their aim is to improve the wellbeing and reduce social isolation of young people and their families and we know that both visitors will be able to provide some super advice and be able to answer questions. 

Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

Children's Wellbing Practitioner Workshops, which are delivered online via Microsoft Teams, are open to all young people and parents/carers of children and young people who attend a school or who are registered to a GP in hertfordshire.  See attached flier for more details.

NESSie (Positive Mental Health) are offering FREE webinairs next term to help parents support their children/young person on the following subjects:

• Avoiding School
• Anxiety
• Struggling to Attend School
• LGBTQ+ or Gender Questionning
• Bereavement and Loss
• Self-Harming behaviours

See attached flier for more details and how to book.