Family Support

 We recognise as a school that being a parent can be an extremely rewarding experience but there are also times when it can be very challenging and you may feel that you and your family need extra support.  If you think you might need some extra help or just need someone to talk to, school can help in the following ways:

Pastoral support

Click here to see the Mental Health Support available at Cheetham

In the first instance, we advise you speak to your child’s teacher.  You may need some more specialist advice, in which case, please make an appointment to see our Home Liaison Office, Mrs Zoe Gallagher, who is here to support parents with a wide range of issues.  Zoe’s contact number is 07720099191.

Here are some links to support children with bereavement:

Under 18s | Child Bereavement UK specific guidance on how to talk to your child dependent on age and stage.

Place2Be: Parenting Smart: When someone dies video and resource links on talking to your child.

Children and bereavement – NHS (www.nhs.uk) talking to your child and further links to support.

www.kooth.com is an online mental wellbeing community for young people that children can join for free that provides emotional support across a broad range of issues. It has discussion rooms, but children can also access free 1:1 text counselling through the site.

www.annafreud.org provides lots of digital emotional wellbeing support for young people and has some specific articles and a video about loss and bereavement: https://www.annafreud.org/on-my-mind/dealing-with-loss-and-bereavement/

Specific bereavement support can be found at:

• childbereavementuk.org 0800 02 88840 – they have useful very short guidance films including one called ‘explaining to a child that someone has died’ that might be useful for parents
• Grief encounter 0808 802 0111
• Cruse bereavement care 0808 8081677

• Winston’s wish https://www.winstonswish.org/supporting-you/

Early Help

Manchester City Council have a support service called Early Help to offer advice, support and guidance to parents is a support service that has been introduced into schools to offer advice and practical help on a wide range of issues ranging from housing, finance, health, education, parenting and emotional wellbeing. School already works with a range of professionals from other agencies such as speech and language, health, housing and other community services so Early Help is just a way of bringing this together in an individual plan for your family.

Early Help helps you to recognise what’s going well for you, where you may benefit from extra help and who is the best person to work with you and your family to make this happen. The person you will be working with is often a member of the school staff so it will be someone you already know and have a relationship with. Sometimes families ask for specific specialist help, for example with housing issues, and on these occasions a case worker from the Manchester Early Help Team will be asked to join the team.

Operation Encompass

We are part of a project that will run in partnership with Manchester Safeguarding Board and Greater Manchester Police.

Operation Encompass is a Police and Education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people exposed to domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools before the start of the next  school day when a child or young person has been involved or exposed to a domestic abuse incident the previous evening.

The information is given in strict confidence to our school’s Children and Families Team to enable support to be given, dependent on the needs and wishes of the child.

Operation Encompass is a Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive charity, acknowledging and understanding the impact of domestic abuse as an adverse childhood experience.

Operation Encompass mitigates against the damaged caused by exposure to domestic abuse and other adverse childhood experiences.

You can find out more about Operation Encompass by clicking here.

If you feel that you could benefit from some extra help in any of the areas above, please contact Mrs Zoe Gallagher on the school phone, or the mobile number above.