Schools Newsletternewsletter Registered Charity No

Signpost Young Carers SchoolsSchools NewsletterNewsletter Registered Charity No. 1085727: A Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee: Registered in England No. 4176004

With a rewarding carers week across Stockport completed, what better way to share the success than a newsletter! So, first things first, what have the Primary Schools been up to since the last publication? Young Carers in Schools Award update Sincere congratulations to Romiley Primary School who have put in some worthwhile work and now earned themselves the impressive Bronze Young Carers in Schools Award. Well done to Emma and the team, very well deserved and here’s to the Silver Award next!

We are expecting a further number of Stockport Primary Schools and Secondary Schools to be receiving their awards after the summer break. Good luck to all those who have applied this term, we cannot wait to share your successes!

The deadline for this term is the 21st of July.

On the 15th of July we took 3 of our Young Carers to Manchester to join to the Young Carers Quality Assurance Panel for the Award. Young Carers have been involved in the development of the Award programme from its first inception 5 years ago and it is important that the voices and opinions of young people remain at the heart of their work.

As part of the monitoring and review of the awarding process for schools we have been able to take 3 of our Young Carers to be involved in the 6th ‘Young Carer’s Quality Assurance Panel’. It was a really enjoyable day and it was lovely to see our Young Carers getting involved with the process and sharing their insightful ideas and thoughts.

We know that they will be happy to share their feedback from the day. Young Carer Art Project

A big thank you to the Young Carers at Vernon Park who made an amazing display for school which; encompasses their roles, raises awareness and highlights the importance of recognising our Young Carers.

If your School would like to partake in an Art project (subject to availability) please email [email protected] and for Secondary Schools email [email protected]

“We are Doctors, Nurses, Cleaners, Mums, Dads, Brothers, Sisters, Chefs, Personal Assistants, Entertainers…! We give our family the helping hands they need. We are only children. We are Vernon Park Primary School Young Carers”

Carers Week in Stockport Schools 12-18th June 2017

It was so refreshing to see the fantastic support from Stockport Schools. We had lots of schools hosting their own Assemblies and PSHE lessons. Some schools booked Hannah and Jenni to come in and talk to the pupils and staff members.

Hannah was as ever impressed by the empathy and sensitivity shown by the Primary school children. A HUGE thank you to the pupils and staff in St Simons, St Elisabeths and Lum Head for making us feel so welcome. Throughout the PSHE lessons the children were exceptionally well behaved, listened intently, asked poignant questions and responded in a really caring and sensitive manner. They were an absolute joy to work with!

Stockport Academy ran Young Carers assemblies throughout carers’ week to make sure that the awareness keeps on spreading through Stockport Academy. Priestnall also made sure their form times were filled with Young Carers activities during carers’ week!

Although Carers Week has passed we offer assemblies, PSHE and staff training all year round. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch and check our availability. What have the Secondary Schools been up to since the last newsletter?

Regular 1-2-1’s in Stockport School, Stockport Academy, Bramhall High School, Cheadle Hulme High School, Priestnall and St James with 1-2-1s booked in with Marple Hall, Harry Town and Kingsway in September!

The 1-2-1s have proven to be a huge success and have really identified key areas and ways schools can be supporting Young Carers. They also provide a perfect opportunity to feedback to the family team any support that may be needed at home for the Young Carers.

A huge thank you to all the schools involved for your continued support!

If you would like to book 1-2-1s in for your Secondary School please email Jenni on [email protected].

What a fantastic response we have received from Bramhall High School! Jen has been in to do assemblies with years 7, 8, 9 and 10 which really raised awareness of Young Carers across the School. Alongside the assemblies Bramhall High School celebrated carers’ week with form activities, a cake sale and a Young Carers lunch!

Marple Hall and Castle Hill have both completed staff training, Castle Hill have had all the teachers and support staff trained and Marple Hall have had their inclusion staff trained. The training provided gives staff an insight in to a Young Carers life and key tools to identify and support Young Carers.

If you would like to have training at your school email Jenni on [email protected].

And don’t forget we are on the webwaves in several places, please follow us and keep on the pulse of the Signpost occurrences. @sk4yc www.facebook.com/Signpoststockport www.justgiving.com/fundraising/signpost-young-carers Professional Training Events

We would like to thank all those who attended our training event on the 3rd of July. This was our second event this year and we are hoping to hold a further event later on in the year. We would love to gain feedback for when would best time of year to hold it for school staff. We aim to communicate the date of the next event in our next Newsletter. Although the event was a great success we did have 5 attendees that did not show up (with no apologies sent). We would like to politely note that we are a Charity and for us to continue hosting this event for free we need attendees to ensure they can come. Our events become fully booked very quickly, and, by not attending it takes up someone else’s space. We acknowledge that sometimes unavoidable absences cannot be helped, but the more notice that can be given can ensure that your space can be reallocated to someone on the waiting list.

We look forward to full attendance on the next event!

What have Stockport Young Carers been up to over carers’ week?

From Mad Hatters tea parties to meeting the Olympic Taekwondo team – what a fun filled week it has been!! Young Carers across Stockport grabbed their best hats and put on their party clothes to attend the Stockport Young Carers Mad Hatters Tea party and what a success it was! The Olympic Taekwondo team were fantastic and the Young Carers thoroughly enjoyed it – for all the pictures see our twitter (@SK4YC)

Young Carers also visited the White hill fire station where they had the opportunity to dress up, squirt the hoses, complete a fire safety quiz and crawl through an obstacle course. What a fantastic time that was had – Thank you Sacha Gurling.

Please enjoy the fantastic pictures of what we have been up to! LET’S TALK RESIDENTIALS

SOUTHAMPTON Y/C FESTICAL Going on a residential can be tough for a Young Carer with mixed feelings before they go away, some including: ‘I feel in the middle because I miss those at home but I am also excited about nature’. A number of Young Carers felt stressed before attending the residentials therefore it is important staff are aware of this and fully support Young Carers during their time away. All of the Young Carers loved the trips with their highlights being ‘making new friends and having fun’.

The main aim for residentials is to give the Young Carers a break from their caring role and enjoy being a child so it was fantastic to see this aim was achieved!

And finally a HUGE thank you to the students and staff at Stockport Academy for their very generous donation of £1000. It will go towards supporting more Young Carers in the Stockport area. We had a wonderful evening celebrating the wonderful successes of the students, thank you again for inviting us to what was a fabulous evening.