Pastoral Tips
Parents often ask us for advice concerning different issues and worries parents may have around their child and adolescence.
Here are some useful tips including copies of presentations used in workshops, help sheets you can print off and links to useful websites. We also run a series of seminars and workshops for parents, so keep an eye out as they will be promoted on our website and in The Blue Pinny.
Advice from Dame Rachel de Souza DBE - talk early, talk often. Children want an age-appropriate conversation that evolves over time in line with their growing maturity. Her advice to parents is create the culture before the crisis. See link
Emma Wins The Sunday Times Changemaker Award
What an exciting night! I am so delighted to have just won the Sunday Times Sports Women of the Year Changemaker Award!
The award comes nearly a year on from launching The Well HQ with Baz and Bella. It’s been a challenging and exciting year in equal measures – some pockets of women’s sport are really starting to talk seriously about women’s health, and take positive action. But there’s still work to do to banish the taboos around things like menstrual cycles and menopause, and to get organisations to put meaningful resource to making their sports places where women feel like they truly belong, and can thrive. This award is validation that we’re moving in the right direction.
We couldn’t have done this without all the incredible support from each and everyone of you who’s come to a webinar, joined our community, or taken a course. Together we are going to be able to steer the kind of change that’ll immeasurably improve life for girls and women in sport and beyond. You are all changemakers, and as a tribe we are greater than the sum of our parts – and that’s a pretty powerful movement!
Tips from Natasha Devon MBE
www.natashadevon.com/resources - Free downloadable resources including animated videos with BBC Bitesize, a social media activity sheet and a sample from my book for teenagers on motivation.
www.natashadevon.com/books - Download my recommended reading list here.
www.natashadevon.com/advice-support - Links to organisations who provide safe, evidence based and impartial information and support on a range of mental health issues.
Dr Thomas Curran on perfectionism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFG1b1-EsW8
Information regarding Netflix and one of it recent series 'Squid Games'
- IMDb - Parental Guide for Squid Games
- National Online Safety - ‘Squid Game’ Trending across Platforms: What Parents Need to Know
- Diggii Social - Let’s talk Squid Game and children’s exposure
- Parent Zone - Netflix parents’ guide: what is it and is it safe for kids?
- Teen Tips - How to talk to children about potentially harmful online material
asktheawkward-a-parent--carers-intro.pdf (thinkuknow.co.uk)
asktheawkward-parents--carers-help-sheets.pdf (thinkuknow.co.uk)
Here are some free online resources to help support our young people.
Internet Watch Foundation campaign launched to raise awareness of “self-generated” child sexual abuse material
In the last year, “self-generated” child sexual abuse imagery has increased by 77% and is a third of all child sexual abuse material identified and removed from the internet. These included images of girls aged 11 to 13 whose abuse had been recorded via a webcam in a domestic setting.
To help prevent the creation of this type of abusive imagery, a campaign has been launched by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) backed by the Home Office and Microsoft. It aims to help raise awareness of this type of criminality among parents and carers of young teens, empower and educate girls aged 11 to 13+ to spot the techniques used by sexual predators and give them the knowledge to Block, Report, Tell someone they trust.
It is a national campaign running from Wednesday 21 April for six weeks. You can find out more on the IWF website, as well as specific sites for parents and young people.
Please share this information with parents and carers in your network.
We are delighted to announce Godolphin's partnership with child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing experts Teen Tips and their ‘Wellbeing Hub’, The Wellbeing Hub is an interactive online portal, designed to help you understand and meet your child’s social and emotional needs. We believe it will be an invaluable source of information and support for our whole school community. Teen Tip's Wellbeing Hub offers a wealth of support and resources for staff and students too. Features include:
Parenting Teens Audio & Video Courses; Resources including podcasts, articles and tips; Weekly Live Q&A with a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist; Ask The Expert Q&A Service and more.
For further information and to register as a parent please follow this link.
Your Mental Health Toolkit: BBC HEADROOM
Mindful Tips ● Mood Mixes ● Personal Stories ● Motivation
We know we can’t solve all your troubles, but we can give you tools to help.
Whether it is everyday tips, sounds to relax your mind, strategies to cope with parenting right now or films to get you talking, we are here to help you look after yourself and your loved ones
Practical Tips for parents to support remote learning
Clinical Psychologist, Dr Elizabeth Kilbey, shares practical tips for parents to support remote learning in this new video. Support parents by sharing the video with them.
Dr Alex George's Top five tips for Good Mental Health and Wellbeing
Youth Mental Health Ambassador, Dr. Alex George, gives his five top tips for good mental health and wellbeing, ahead of the February half term holiday.
Hear his advice for pupils, parents and teachers below.
Aardman launches campaign to tackle growing mental health concerns among young people
Aardman, the makers of Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, launches new mental wellbeing campaign aimed at young people aged 17-24.
The ‘What’s Up With Everyone?’ campaign has been developed with leading researchers and mental health charities to positively impact the mental health of young people in the UK. The campaign forms part of a research project commissioned and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, at a time when mental health and wellbeing has been a core focus due to the pandemic.
The campaign has been uniquely co-created with young people throughout, to ensure that it is authentic and relatable to its intended audience. The campaign was led by Professor of Health Humanities Paul Crawford at the University of Nottingham, with research teams at The University of Nottingham, Loughborough University, the London School of Economics and Politics; young people's mental health expert, Dr Dominique Thompson; and with the Mental Health Foundation and mental wellbeing charity, Happy Space.
Website:www.whatsupwitheveryone.com
Facebook:/WhatsUpWithEveryone
Instagram:@WhatsUpWithEveryone
Twitter:@_WhatsUpWith
Questions to ask your child
Having a conversation about mental health with your child? Here are some conversation starters you can use.
Children's Mental Health Week 2021
For Staff, parents, and young people: find useful tools and young people: find useful tools, apps, and websites in our comprehensive list of mental health resources including support for young people who feel particularly overwhelmed by the pandemic.
- What’s Up With Everyone campaign- led by Professor Paul Crawford at the University of Nottingham with award-winning Aardman. This campaign of a series of animated stories and companion website—co-produced with and for young people—aims to increase mental health literacy.
- SafeSpot is an iPhone and Android app that promotes positive mental wellbeing in children and young people and has been designed to help children and young people with their coping skills.
- MindEd’s advice and resources for families on supporting children’s mental health.
- BBC’s wellbeing resources for families.
- Young Minds: a letter about how I’m feeling: worksheet to help pupils express their feelings and understand what may have triggered them. For use with pupils in school or at home.
- Mentally Healthy Schools: tools to support an emotional check-in with pupils. An anxiety thermometer as a wellbeing measurement tool.
- Mental Health at Work: Supporting Educators' Mental Health including during the pandemic. Round-the-clock one-to-one support by call or text from trained volunteers, plus resources, tips and ideas to look after your mental health.
- NHS: Mental Health Helplines for Urgent Help - NHS 24-hour advice and support for you, your child, your parent or someone you care for. Help is available to speak to a mental health professional.
- NHS IAPT: free online NHS adult psychological therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), for common problems involving stress, anxiety and depression. IAPT services can be accessed either through a self-referral by contacting your Local IAPT or via your GP.
- Cruse Bereavement Care: Coronavirus, Bereavement and Grief online information, advice and support. Helpline: 0808 808 1677
- MindEd: Coronavirus Staff Resilience Hub for frontline staff
- Headspace: Headspace for Educators offers educators access to free mindfulness and meditation exercises and resources for every age group, and a free Headspace Meditation App.
- Centre for Mental Health: Supporting Mental Health during Covid-19: a brief guide
- Public Health England Every Mind Matters: Looking After Your Mental Health Resources aims to support everyone to feel more confident in taking action to look after their mental health and wellbeing by promoting a range of self-care actions.
- Public Health England: Every Mind Matters Self-Care Tool when you complete the 5 ‘Survey’ questions, a ‘Mind Plan’ is generated, with signposting options to many useful resources.
- Young Minds: 10 Wellbeing Tips for School Staff
Covid-19 specific children and young people’s wellbeing and mental health support
For young people who feel particularly overwhelmed and troubled by Covid-19, these resources are helpful ways to manage anxiety around the pandemic, with helpful tools on homeschooling and self-care during lockdown.
- A downloadable guide from the Children’s Commissioner for children and young people about the coronavirus, including proactive advice to support mental wellbeing.
- The Think Ninja app educates 10–18-year-olds about mental health, emotional wellbeing and provide skills young people can use to build resilience and stay well. It has been adapted to Covid-19 to bring self-help knowledge and skills to those who may be experiencing increased anxiety and stress during the crisis.
- The Rise Above website aims to build resilience and support good mental health in young people aged 10 to 16. The content has been adapted to Covid-19 and includes new mental health content based on insights from young people on remote schooling.
- The Every Mind Matters website aims to support everyone, including children and young people, to feel more confident in taking action to look after their mental health and wellbeing by promoting a range of self-care actions. It has been adapted to include advice and support about mental health issues that may have arisen because of the pandemic.
- The Young Minds website – provides online information on COVID-19 and mental health support to children and young people.
Mental health support for parents, carers, and school staff
Keeping in mind that parents, carers and school staff can often be impacted by children’s mental health, we have provided some select resources that can help adults better support children, and also find the help that they themselves might need.
- Public Health England advice for parents and carers on looking after the mental health and wellbeing of children or young people during the Covid-19 outbreak.
- Online wellbeing resources for home education - a list of mental wellbeing resources designed to provide guidance on how to support the wellbeing of children and young people being educated remotely.
- Mentally Healthy Schools: a range of free coronavirus and mental health toolkits with useful resources and guidance to support school staff, parents and carers through the challenges they face as a result of the pandemic. This includes:
- Resources for managing anxiety and improving wellbeing
- Dealing with the effects of lockdown
- Resources for building resilience
- Anna Freud: top tips to help families work together and support one another during the coronavirus outbreak.
- Barnardo’s See, hear, respond hub: information for parents and carers to help with some of the challenges the pandemic has presented.
- Family Links: Mental and Emotional Health in Schools: effective strategies and support for schools as they respond to the challenges of COVID-19 and its impact on the whole learning community: Free Online Course.
Following on from our 2021 GO Parent conference, please see information and links from the following speakers:
James Shone's 'Inner Critic vs Inner Coach'.
'During lockdown and the challenges it brings, I think a message on our ‘inner critic vs inner coach’ is so important. One thing I’ve found during this pandemic is that there is no where to run and hide from ‘myself.’ Put simply, it’s me and only me day after day after day. With this reality, it’s sometimes easy to get in to a place of criticism and not appreciating or valuing ourselves. That’s when the heading of this blog comes in.
A classic way to explain myself is to describe a moment when I was away on holiday over Christmas. There was an incident where my son went surfing and I wanted to go and watch him, but between where we were and the place where he was going to surf were some quite challenging rocks for a blind person to get over. My son kindly said “let’s go together and I can help you.” However, that didn’t happen and the surf drew him to forget about his father! I then found myself up in my room feeling angry with myself and my disability…. But I stopped and asked myself the question, “how can I do this?” I decided I simply needed a pair of shoes so I didn’t slip on the rocks and my watch word was going to be to go very slowly (this is the inner critic becoming the inner coach). So off I set and to my surprise I effortlessly overcame the rocks in front of me and it was not long before I was trying to ‘watch’ my son surfing.
I think in these tough times we must constantly ask ourselves ‘how can I best approach this?’ and not immediately lean on the self condemning and negative approach. Let’s coach and train ourselves rather than criticising and condemning.'
The Safeguarding Suite (SSS Learning) have posted an article about Child Mental Health & Wellbeing- 10 Top Tips for Parents.
The Red Cross have released Home Learning Resources that are available here. "The start of the spring term might look a bit different as we're back to home learning. Just a reminder that we've got a whole host of resources on wellbeing, kindness, loneliness and resilience. They're all available online and can support with home learning or can be used in the classroom.
Parents Warned of Sharp Rise in Eating Disorders. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/hea...
TikTok - Parents should be aware of unhealthy content on the app. Tiktok has added tougher parental controls. For more information, read the BBC article here.
Wiltshire Police have released advice for parents or carers regarding County Lines.
TeenTips have created a blog with tips & guidance on how to support and prepare your children for the return to school. Visit their website and read the blog.
Dr Dominique Thompson who will be speaking at Go Parent 2020 has written a special *free* Five Step Guide for parents of teens this (very strange!) summer. You can download the guide here.
Teen Tips have created a Parents Guide to TikTok.
Charlie Waller Memorial Trust has created webinars for students and staff in colleges. "We have produced a series of short webinars for colleges, all presented by our experienced mental health trainers. Within these sessions our trainers share information and explore strategies for maintaining positive mental health, paying attention to our own wellbeing and supporting those around us. We hope you will find them useful and engaging. Watch the webinars here.
Coping in Quarantine "Living with anxiety or OCD in these conditions can be terrifying, and having spent years obsessing over germs, diseases and viruses, I have come to terms with how to deal with my obsessions, and the compulsions that follow them. Upper Sixth Student, Isabella Butterworth shares her top tips for those suffering with anxiety about COVID-19.
Keep up to date with how to ensure your families social media profiles are secure during lockdown -https://swgfl.org.uk/resources/checklists/
Snapchat is a social media platform very popular with young people. They have introduced the feature Use My Eyes Only for privacy on the app. The guide for How to Use My Eyes Only is here.
Dr Kathy Weston has 15 years experience as a social researcher with a particular interest in parenting, education and family life. Dr Weston has created a useful guide on buying your child's first phone, view the guide here.
National Online Safety have created great 'What you need to know about...' posters which provide top tips for parents on the use of various social media platforms. Click the link to view the following: Online Grooming, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Sexting.
John Perry is Principal Teaching Fellow in Healthcare Communication, Lead for Communication Skills Theme and for Student Selected Units in Peer Teaching and Counselling Skills. The presentation from his talk 'Stress Management, Emotional Intelligence and Resilience' can be found here. We also have links to his Mind Your Language exercise, The Facebook Experiment and The Fusion Model's Blackboard Technique for sleep. He also recommended reading the article 'How does breathing make you feel more relaxed?' and information on Insomnia.
For the Common Sense Guide's 'Parents Ultimate Guide to TikTok', follow this link.
Dr Claire Hardaker joined us for our GO Parent: Mental Health and Well-being conference. She has provided us with some information on the risks and realities of young people online.
Satveer Nijjar who came to speak at Godolphin's GO Parent: Mental Health and Well-being day has provided us with some useful websites and apps for people struggling with self-harm.
Alicia Drummond from Teen Tips spoke to girls about Friendships & Relationships. Teen Tips offers practical support for parents and schools.
From Karl Hopwood's talk on e-safety, here is a session for parent's on online safety.
An emotionally healthy approach to GCSEs: a guide for parents provides good advice for parents of Fifth Year students.
Digital Wellbeing is a helpful guide for parents, which was created as part of Childnet’s work in the UK Safer Internet Centre. It is about the impact that the online world can have on the lives of young people. There are some tips on supporting children at different ages. Another article regarding safe internet use can be found here.
From CWMT News, here is an article about Social media and teenagers- a practical approach.
Natasha Devon MBE is a guru in Mental Health and consults with a range of experts in the field of psychology, neuroscience, body image and mental health. She was also Mental Health Advisor to the Government. She has provided us with her Mental Health Reading List following her visit to the school. We would also recommend following Natasha Devon on Twitter.
#UKPastoralChat, Pastoral Periodic is a great source of information for practical ideas on and activity on parenting by professionals in this field.
Teenagers Translated – Teenagers Translated is a website offering help, support and advice about parenting and understanding teenagers. (Jayne Downshire, founder of Teenagers Translated spoke to Godolphin parents in 2016.)
Digital Awareness – Digital Awareness UK offers tips about what to do if your child feels they are being bullied and gives advice on how to keep them safe online.
10 ways to manage screen time by Digital Awareness UK – Published on Apr 22, 2017
HMC and Digital Awareness UK have produced Tech Control, a groundbreaking video on digital addiction which will form part of new classroom resources to help children to use digital devices responsibly.
NSPCC – the UK’s leading children’s charity, preventing abuse and helping those affected to recover. This website provides useful tips for parents that are concerned their child is being bullied.In partnership with O2, the NSPCC has launched a new aspect of their Share Aware campaign, supporting parents to help keep their children safe online. Share Aware gives straightforward, step- by-step advice to help teach children how to make the right decisions online, even when their parents aren’t there. The campaign aims to drive frequent and informed conversations between parents and their children around online safety. The NSPCC has also recently updated their Net Aware guide, site and app, providing parents and professionals with an overview of safety and age appropriateness of all the sites and apps that young people use.
Youngminds – the UK’s leading charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. Driven by their experiences they campaign, research and influence policy and practice.
Living together at Godolphin – This document highlights the Safeguarding Policy for students at Godolphin.
LawStuff is run by Coram Children’s Legal Centre, and provides free legal information to young people. If you have any concerns about your daughter or you would like more advice, please get in touch to contact me, or alternatively, Sister Gill in the Health Centre.
Nicola Daubeney, Deputy Head Pastoral