Dear Parents and Carers,

 

As we draw close to the end of a successful school year, many of you will be preparing for days trips, holidays and family visits.

 

However, we wanted to acknowledge that this can also be an anxious time for lots of our children, young people and their families and we are ever aware that big changes for our children can have a significant impact on their wellbeing and mental health.

 

We know that many of our children and young people rely heavily on school support, which is naturally unavailable during the holiday periods.  In preparation for the summer holiday, we have therefore produced new safeguarding flyers which sign post the most relevant services that you can turn to for help, should you require support during the school break.

 

These flyers have a new look and reflect the latest advice and guidance available from the Local Authority, Education Safeguarding Service and Education Psychology Service.  Parent and child flyers can be found by visiting the Summer Support 2023 page on this website. 

 

Please note, we will be encouraging all our staff to rest and recharge over the summer holiday ready for the new academic year. It is, therefore, important to remind you that we will be unable to support with any urgent requests or concerns during the holiday period. We will still be periodically checking e-mails, but our flyers contain contact details for other agencies that are more appropriately placed to support outside of school.

 

Our school website also has wealth of useful information, including details about the ‘Local Offer’, useful links, crisis lines and information about how to make mental health referrals via the ‘Single Point of Access’. Please visit our Wellbeing pages to find out more.

 

The information for the Single Point of Access and the Crisis Lines can also be found on the school’s home page on the ‘Pupil Wellbeing’ tab.

 

All Secondary aged children have been sent a copy of the child version of the summer support flyer, along with a digital copy of the Kent Youth County Council ‘Mental Health Friends’ booklet to their school e-mail address.

 

If you have any urgent issues you wish to discuss before the close of tomorrow, please contact us via the usual channels. Otherwise, we wish all families within our school community a wonderful and successful summer, and we will look forward to working with you and your children again in September.

 

Kind regards

 

Mr J. Payne

Assistant Headteacher - Safeguarding & Wellbeing