We have been aware that these past few days have been something of a struggle - It has been true of our staff who in the last few days have set up emergency childcare provision, run a school, updated our IT infrastructure and moved to facilitating lessons for 100's of staff and students online - doing this against a background of managing their own family worries and changing priorities, & with no blueprint to follow other than 'What is the right thing to do here for our students and staff?'

Over the last week we may not always have got this right, but our major concern & intent has always been to provide clear information and realistic timeframes in which to develop new ways of working. 

We know parents/ carers & staff are working under tremendous pressure for lots of reasons and we continue to want to support as we can. We have reminded staff about our employee assistance programme as well as ensuring we have daily/ weekly contact as appropriate. We are sharing with you tonight some key resources & information to support wellbeing of all in the household. 

For parents/ carers the following guidance may be helpful for you or your family 

Health anxiety - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/health-anxiety/

Understanding the impact of homelearning and wellbeing on younger members of the family https://foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IOW-What-has-wellbeing-got-to-do-with-creating-a-positive-home-learning-environment-IOW-Factsheet04-1.pdf

The care centre for domestic violence - -https://www.ncdv.org.uk/

Anxiety related support & guidance  - https://shoutlink.info/AnxietyGuide

Anxiety related support & guidance - https://shoutlink.info/anxietyuk

Anxiety related support & guidance - https://shoutlink.info/mindshift

Safe online behaviours online workshop advice & guidance https://trustelevate.com/veripass-video/

For students and young people 

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

https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/ COVID-19 support and guidance 

https://dfelondonhornseyschoolforgirls.tootoot.co.uk/login Toot Toot - email based wellbeing service being manned during school hours  -but you can reach out to us on this. 

We are also working with our counselling service to continue to offer students and families an online provision for this - we will share information once we have this in place.

Any students or families entitled to free school meals will be contacted over the next two days with vouchers that can be utilised across the main retailers to support during this period of closure. This is a change from picking up food from the school as government advice has changed around travel. 

This period of time is a marathon and not a sprint. There are likely to be very few times in our lives where we are gifted this kind of time with our children, families and significant relationships - and also being asked to stay away from them if we are not living near them. We have prepared a range of tasks to keep you thinking and give some structure, but it is also important to balance up time to enjoy each other, to relax and to take time to readjust to new ways. Read a book, do some mental maths, take a virtual tour of a museum, watch tv together (with no other screens), make some space for silence - you will get through this.

Thank you too for so many following official advice and staying home. We are passionate about supporting you at this time. If you need us, please contact us using the platforms/ emails that you have. Can we also pass thanks to our key working families. Many have not utilised our emergency childcare whilst they haven't needed to. We will maintain contact and respond to changing shift patterns. These members of our community are truly heroic. On the front line, and with our gratitude for all they are facing on a daily basis. 

Until we open our doors again, stay safe, stay well and good health.