4 minute read
Link Age Southwark
from SE21 September 2020
by SE Magazines
Community News
Celebrity Ambassadors show support to Link Age Southwark to lift spirits during lockdown
Local charity Link Age Southwark’s ambassadors includes a host of actors who have come together to help lift the spirits of older people during lockdown. Stars from television shows such as
Downtown Abbey, Game of Thrones, Spooks, and
Scott and Bailey, have recorded themselves at home reading a short story or a poem, which Link Age
Southwark has turned into Lockdown Listens. Link
Age Southwark has been issuing a recording each week with the aim of giving older people and local volunteers a morale boost during lockdown. One of the actors featured is Heather
Bleasdale, who has starred in Coronation Street and in the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, reading the humorous short story Free White Towel. The novelist and comedian Jenny Eclair recorded herself reading one of her short stories
‘Valerie Lashes Out’. As part of the recording, Jenny offers a message of hope, saying: “Look after yourselves. Let’s hope that very soon we’ll be over all this and we can get out and we can enjoy our friends in the sunshine and see people we haven’t seen for some time. ” One service user fed back about a reading by
Robert Glenister, star of the BBC series Spooks: “I enjoyed hearing Robert Glenister read Wordsworth’s wonderful poem Upon Westminster Bridge”. "Free White Towel" is read by the actor Heather Bleasdale Link Age Southwark originally shared the actors’ recordings by email with their service users and volunteers, but based on feedback from older people they are now keen to share these moraleboosting recordings with the wider public. Link Age Southwark’s Director, Sophie Wellings said: “We are very grateful to our celebrity Ambassadors and volunteers for taking the time to get involved with this project and are delighted with how well the Lockdown Listens series has been received.” Link Age Southwark plan to incorporate the readings into materials for their Dementia reading group which has now moved online so even more people can take enjoyment from the series. Link Age Southwark’s Lockdown Listens are now available for the public to listen to on their website. www.linkagesouthwark.org/news
Back to school: coping with the new normal
Dr Elyse Waites, Deputy Head Pastoral, discusses how to support your child’s return to school. A new academic year is always a little daunting, but September 2020 is likely to bring a host of different anxieties. While there have undoubtedly been benefits to increased family time, children need to reintegrate with their peers and re-socialise themselves before they go back into the school environment. During lockdown, your child's friendships may have become strained or deteriorated. To combat this, allow children the time to meet friends in small groups face to face to slowly build up their confidence and widen their social sphere again. Online socialising may be a bigger part of your child’s life these days but nothing can replace the interpersonal connections forged in face to face interactions. Many young people have experienced fear and loss recently. All schools will be required to teach mental wellbeing as part of the PSHE curriculum from September 2020 but it is important that you encourage speaking to friends and teachers about what they have been through or access school counselling. Aside from screen time for online lessons or keeping in touch with friends and family, there may have also been a more ‘relaxed’ approach to online entertainment from parents desperate to get their own work done. Online teaching provides a varied and accessible curriculum and the number of educational apps and websites has surged
enormously worldwide, with estimates tripling the worth of the Edtech market by 2025. Despite legitimate reasons for your children to spend more time online, the increased risks that come with this are not to be ignored. Speak openly and honestly to your children about internet safety. Sites such as Childnet, Netaware, Internet Matters and Think U Know have very useful resources to help you do this. When your child returns to school, it will not be to the ‘normal’ timetable and routine. Classes may be relocated, movement restricted and teachers may be changed. Lunches may be staggered, assemblies may not happen and sports fixtures and school trips are likely to be cancelled. I recommend sitting down with your children and speaking about this frankly and honestly. It is not a permanent change, but it is certainly an important one. Managing the disappointment and potential anger at the injustice of a missed residential or sports tournament is something that would be good to get out of the way before September so that the return to school won’t be more difficult than it needs to be. Remember to have regular open and honest conversations. Children take their emotional cues from adults so it is important you remain calm, listen to their concerns and reassure them. Discover more about Sydenham High School this autumn.
