Produced by the Catholic Children’s Society Issue No.4 Date: September 2013
Welcome Back to a new School Year 2013/14 Welcome back to a new school year! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and enjoyed the sunshine at last! with some much needed rest, relaxation and joyful time with family and friends. The summer holidays offer a time not only for relaxation but also for reflection. Here at CCS we have also been looking back. Our school psychotherapy, play therapy and mental wellbeing training services have grown considerably and last academic year we worked with pupils and teachers in over 60 senior and primary schools in every part of the Diocese. In June we held our annual Maureen Roe, Trustee The Catholic Good Shepherd Mass where over 3,000 Children’s Society (Westminster) of our primary school children attended to hear Archbishop Vincent Nichols speak about the importance of making time for prayer. Earlier in the year we held a very successful conference for primary head teachers and undertook a piece of research with some head teachers to explore levels of child poverty witnessed in schools. With the start of a new school year we now look forward to growing more partnerships with our schools. Our web Site www.ccsconnected.org.uk offers important advice to teaching staff about services available to help support children who may be struggling at school as a result of bullying, family breakdown, and bereavement or who have behavioural difficulties. Whatever the issue CCS may be able to help, please do get in touch. We are also exploring ways in which we can engage more readily with schools and will shortly be launching our new ConnectEd Twitter and Facebook accounts. Please look out for our first message later this week!! We hope your school will help us to reach out to parents by re-tweeting or texting key messages about our work that are linked to our work with children and families. As we enter into this new academic year and the Year of Faith ends we must remember that we continue to grow together in faith as we encounter new opportunities to reflect on our personal, professional and spiritual growth. We continue to recognise and appreciate all that supports Catholic education and the Catholic community and offer our support to you as you deal with the multitude of challenges in preparing Catholic school pupils who will make a difference in our society.
Maureen Roe.
Trustee The Catholic Children’s Society (Westminster)
Newsletter for Teachers in the Diocese of Westminster Lenten Appeal 2014 The design of our Primary School Lenten appeal for 2014 is already well under way and this year we are planning to have materials available in schools before Christmas. This will allow teachers more time to plan their work and incorporate the lesson plans we have produced to support the appeal into their schedule. We shall be providing individual collection boxes for each child together with an exercise book backed by lesson plans for teachers with OHPs. If you have not already ordered your Lenten packs please contact: Julie Willoughby on 020 8969 5305 or e-mail juliew@cathchild.org.uk To support the appeal and tell students about our work, we would like to come and talk to your staff and pupils. Our presentations will be made from January 13th and continue throughout Lent. In the past these presentations have been very popular so please book early using the contact details above.
Unable to Pay the Rent? Being moved 'up north!' The recently introduced overall benefit cap of £500 per week and the “bedroom tax”, together with the local housing allowance cap, which was introduced last year, may leave some families where the adults are out of work and on benefits, unable to pay their rent. This may result in the local authority moving them to an area in which rents are cheaper. This may include outer London boroughs or areas outside of the South-East. If a parishioner seeks your pastoral support or advice at such a time, it may be helpful to advise them to consider applying to their local authority housing department or children’s social care, (both can be contacted via the town hall in the local authority in which they live) to see if they are eligible for a Discretionary Housing Payment. It they are, this will enable them to remain in their present accommodation or within the same borough. The Discretionary Housing Payment is used by the local authority to help families in crisis. The grounds for funding are discretionary – as the title of the funding suggests but the grounds on which it may be allocated could include: • • •
A child about to undertake GCSE’s/SAT’s Cases of domestic violence A child in the process of being statemented by the school
As circumstances of families vary greatly, the requests for help with discretionary payments are considered on a case by case basis. An application refused by a housing department may be considered again, and more favourably, with input from a children’s social care team or social services. Overall, there is nothing to be lost by a family seeking help through the Discretionary Housing Payment.
Student Mental Health - Training Programme for School Staff
CCS is gearing up for another year of delivering bespoke mental health training workshops for school staff across the Diocese. This training can help your staff develop new skills and practical strategies to support students experiencing social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.
3rd December 2013
Our workshops are delivered on-site at both primary and secondary schools and have received very positive feedback:
Dates for the Diary
Carol Service at Westminster Cathedral 5th June 2014 Good Shepherd Mass at Westminster Cathedral, led by Archbishop Vincent Nichols.
“I would recommend these sessions to other schools as they provide much needed insight into the pressures and factors influencing our students’ mental health, helping to raise awareness and build staff expertise in this important area” (Mark Anthony, Deputy Head, Maria Fidelis Catholic School)
It's Christmas
If you are interested in receiving this training please contact Philippa Carr at philippac@cathchild.org.uk or call our head office on 020 8969 5305. Philippa would be delighted to come to your school to discuss your training needs. CCS can also provide you with an experienced mental health professional to deliver counselling/ therapy at your school. To find our more please contact Greg Brister at gregb@cathchild.org.uk, call the number above or visit us at: www.ccsconnected.org.uk
If you would like to purchase your Christmas cards visit www.cathchild.org.uk or if you would like to request a catalogue please call us on: 020 8969 5305.
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If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Rosemary Keenan CEO on: 020 8969 5305 or by email rosemaryk@cathchild.org.uk