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Supporting your family's wellbeing
We all need to take care of our own health and wellbeing whilst we are at home. Take a look at the links and suggested activities your families can use.
Education Mental Health Practitioner
School Nursing Service
The school nursing service is part of the Hertfordshire Family Centre service. The service brings children’s centres, health visiting and school nursing together to provide a more joined up service for children, young people and their families from pregnancy through to when a child reaches 19. There is a range of different support groups, activities and services on offer for children and their families to help them be healthy, grow and develop. Families can access available services from any Hertfordshire Family Centre, allowing them to fit sessions and services around busy family lives. For more information, visit the Family Centre Service website.
If you have concerns about your child’s emotional or physical health and wellbeing, we can help. Call the duty line number 0300 123 7572 for more information.
The school nursing service works together with children and young people their parents/carers and school staff, to provide a comprehensive efficient and accessible service which:
When your child starts school at the age of five, care is transferred from the health visiting service to the school nursing service. The service has four distinct areas that it offers to children attending a Hertfordshire mainstream school. |
NHS Mental Health services
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A CAMHS specialist is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide specialist advice and support to families and professionals about children/young people in a mental health crisis and (if necessary) arrange for a face to face assessment. This service is available through our Single Point of Access line on 0300 777 0707 or email: hpft.spa@nhs.net (for non-urgent enquiries). When you become concerned that a young person may be experiencing a mental health crisis we would ask that your school advise the family/young person to call this number in the first instance, unless they are in a medical/physical emergency in which case they will need to attend A&E. |
NSPCC HelplineWhether you want support and advice for adapting to family life in lockdown, or you’re worried about a child, the NSPCC are here to help. Whatever your worry – call the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, email, or submit the online form – they can help. They also have advice about spotting the signs of abuse. You can call Monday to Friday 10am–6pm. It’s free and you don’t have to say who you are. |
5 Ways to Wellbeing
Be Active
Make time for exercise and breaks throughout the day.
- Start each morning with a PE lesson at 9am with Joe Wicks
- If you have a garden, use it regularly. If you don’t, try to get out once a day as permitted by the government (households can be together outdoors but 2 metres apart from others)
- Watch a dance video from Go Noodle to get the heart-rate going
- Try a dance routine for the whole family with Oti Mabuse from Strictly Come Dancing
Connect
- Get your children to write postcards to their grandparents or to pen pals
- Ask grandparents to listen to your children read on FaceTime (or ask grandparents to read to younger children)
Give
- Share the chores to do so your children feel more responsible about the daily routine at home
- Ask them to help you cook and bake
Take notice
- Use your senses to take notice e.g.:
- Listen. Can you hear the birds getting louder as the days are getting longer.
- Smell. Appreciate the aroma of freshly baked biscuits.
- Touch. How many different textures can you feel in your living room.
- See. Look out of your window. What can you see.
- Taste. Eat a different types of fruit and take time to notice they taste. Are they sweet or sour?
- Take time out of the day to reflect. Try these meditation and mindfulness links: https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ or https://www.headspace.com/headspace-meditation-app
- Accept that the children will probably watch more TV/spend time on their phone – that's ok but you might want to set/agree some screen time limits
Keep Learning
- Why don't you take up a new hobby. May be learn how to knit, how to sew, how to draw or how to bake.
Keep to a timetable wherever possible
- Create and stick to a routine if you can. This is what children are used to. For example, eat breakfast at the same time and make sure they're dressed before starting the ‘school’ day – avoid staying in pyjamas!
- Involve your children in setting the timetable where possible. It’s a great opportunity for them to manage their own time better and it’ll give them ownership
- Check in with your children and try to keep to the timetable, but be flexible. If a task/activity is going well or they want more time, let it extend where possible
- If you have more than 1 child at home, consider combining their timetables. For example, they might exercise and do maths together – see what works for your household
- Designate a working space if possible, and at the end of the day have a clear cut-off to signal school time is over
- Stick the timetable up on the wall so everyone knows what they should be doing when, and tick activities off throughout the day
- Distinguish between weekdays and weekends, to separate school life and home life
See the class pages and the home learning page for recommendations.