The Teacher in You
Evadne Bygrave
hosted our recent webinar offering support to parents struggling to home school in what we hope will be one of the last lockdowns that will involve children being kept out of school.
The current pandemic has caused major disruptions to the lives of each and every one of us, not just in the UK, but all over the world. But one of the main casualties of this pandemic is children losing out on education and the increasing pressures imposed on parents to be teachers, often whilst holding down another full time job.
This webinar was created, to empower parents by raising their confidence to enable them to support their children through home schooling. Parents have a natural ability to teach and the key objective was to give parents a safe space to explore and develop this instinctive skill.
To get everyone started on this line of thought, Evadne carried out an exercise with attendees to get them thinking about what things they had already taught their children. This helped raised their awareness of how they had already been teaching their children, in a wide variety of ways already, and drawing attention to the creative ways we teach without even realising it.
Parents then had a chance to talk in smaller breakout rooms about the challenges they had and the ways they had already overcome many of the problems along the way. This gave them a chance to share experiences and fill in the gaps they still had.
Some of the ideas that came out of the discussions were:
Routine is key, everyone agreed on this.
Everyone has different experiences of on-line learning. Some people are working, some people are available all day. Some schools have a daily on-line timetable, other schools don’t.
Home schooling this time round is a little easier than the first time. Parents and schools are more prepared, and have better solutions, such as ‘Live Lessons’.
Social media, gaming time and device management is harder than ever as this is children’s only social connection with their peers and the outside world.
Creative ideas for tackling the curriculum, you know your child best so use you sense of humour when things get tough – for example, interview your phone and write a newspaper article or story about it; create a comprehension based on their favourite film.
Hayley Nicholas then shared her moving story on the challenges of accessing support for SEN children and how parents might get round these challenges and access the support their children desperately need, in order to access education. All local authorities have an obligation to provide information about how you can access SEN information in your area. Here is an example from Hertfordshire below.
Accessing SEN support links:
One of the themes that came out of the discussion was children’s mental health, and the support available to parents and their children. We have shared some links below.
Children’s mental health links:
Schools in Mind is a free network for school staff and allied professionals which shares practical, academic and clinical expertise regarding the wellbeing and mental health issues that affect schools.
This is for you if you volunteer, work or are studying to work with infants, children, teenagers or adults. MindEd has e-learning applicable across the health, social care, education, criminal justice and community settings. It is aimed at anyone from beginner through to specialist.
Wiltshire Early Mental Health Service, run by Barnardo’s. This website has lots of practical tips and advice about supporting children and young people’s mental health focusing on a range of different subjects.
Information about the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Angelique Vassel founder of Walk With Me gave a short presentation on the work her organisation is doing to rebuild and strengthen family relationships using a non-violent resistant approach.
You can find out more about Angelique Vassel and her work at:
and email her at info@walkwithmeuk.co.uk
You may also find some of these links useful:
We hope you find this summary useful, if you would like to know about other webinars that will help during these times please have a look here:
The Steve Sinnott Foundation • February 9, 2021
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us.
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.
