This page is to offer support regarding mental health during the pandemic. If you, a family member or a friend are experiencing domestic abuse or find yourself in a crisis situation, please don’t wait. Please contact specialist services or speak to us in school and we will support you with an immediate referral.
If you’re experiencing domestic abuse or know someone who is, tel: 08000 198 668 and you’ll get help from someone close by. If it’s an emergency, tel: 999. You can also email the support line giving a number you can be contacted safely at
If you’re deaf or hearing impaired, or unable to phone, text the Derbyshire Domestic Abuse Support Line tel: 07534 617252. Emergency SMS – text: 999.
For the National Domestic Violence 24-hour help line tel: 0808 2000 247.
Managing the needs of our children, work, financial pressure, family, illness and the many different, individual circumstances we may find ourselves in can cause us to feel overwhelmed or anxious at times. We understand the additional demands having children at home to learn is creating and would like to offer support in any way we reasonably can. We hope the links and information below provide some advice and reassurances.
HOW MUCH LEARNING IS ENOUGH?
As you would expect, we will champion learning and will plan a range of learning experiences for you and your child to choose from. We will direct you to core skills such as daily mathematics and reading and provide a range of online links for wider learning and tasks averaging 4 hours per day. The government have also provided a selection of lessons and several endorsed websites such as bbc/bitesize or lessons at the National Oak Academy.
This may result in you feeling like you must cover everything, everyday. Do what you can within the rhythm and routines that are manageable. Each child will achieve different amounts on different days and each child will have different strengths and talents. Try not to compare what your child is completing with the work of others. Completing the core mathematics and English tasks within the platform will result in evident progress leaving other time to access activities needing less adult input. If your child enjoys one particular aspect, do let them explore this as it may result in increasing self-esteem and a sense of achievement.This may be anything – model making, lego, drawing tutorials, audio books. Please know that by focusing on quality and not time taken the benefit to your child will be enormous.
STRUCTURE
You and your children may find that the better days are when a sleep routine is established with a regular start time and when a ‘menu’ for the day provides a focus. This, coupled with plenty of time outside and physical exercise, will contribute to home learning being more enjoyable.The suggested timetable within the home learning guide is to support you with how learning may look but on some days it won’t mirror this at all. Please do not let this worry you. You may prefer a list your child can tick off and not worry about the timing of each ‘job’. Children are learning all the time and all the wonderful activities you do in a day will be impacting positively – cooking, sewing, gardening, talking, reading,using a computer and lots more. Whilst it’s important to have routine and structure, be prepared to adapt and be flexible to suit your family needs.