St Paul 'sInformation and Helplines
Resources / Advice to support from Mrs Garland:
Helping children and young people to cope when someone dies.
Talk about the person who has died, it’s important for them to share how they are feeling.
Use photos, stories or create a scrap book to remember good things about that person.
Create a memory box, this can include photos, shells, personal objects, poems and messages to remember that person.
Encourage them to capture an event or memory of the person, ditch the sadness and switch to the positive thought or special memory.
Notice their mood changes, show empathy, acknowledge their feelings and give them time to process what you say before expecting a response.
Don’t feel bad about sharing your own grief, it is ok for them to see you are upset as well.
Useful numbers and websites
Child Bereavement UK – call 0800 028 8840 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, or email support@childbereavement.org
Cruse Bereavement Care – call 0808 808 1677 Monday and Friday, 9.30am to 5pm, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9.30am to 8pm, or email info@cruse.org.uk
Grief Encounter – call 0808 802 0111 Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm, or email contact@griefencounter.org.uk
Hope Again – call 0808 808 1677 Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm, or email hopeagain@cruse.org.uk
Winston's Wish – call 0808 802 0021 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, or email info@winstonswish.org
You can also find out more about children and bereavement from the Childhood Bereavement Network
Domestic Abuse
Abuse can be physical, emotional, psychological, financial or sexual. Anyone forced to alter their behaviour because they are frightened of their partner or anyone living with them should seek help.
Domestic abuse/violence can happen to anyone, regardless of age, social background, gender, religion, sexuality or ethnicity. Whilst domestic violence/abuse happens in all relationships (heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), statistics show the vast majority of domestic violence incidents are carried out by men and experienced by women.
Domestic violence is a crime. We all have a role to play in bringing domestic violence to an end.
There is help out there!
Useful numbers:
Refuse 0808 2000 247 (24 hours a day)
Gemini N Somerset 0800 6949 999
Government publication for Domestic Abuse: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-and-domestic-abuse/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-victims-of-domestic-abuse
Helping children to deal with Corona virus
As soon as your child has questions, or notices that things are increasingly different, you’re going to have to be prepared to talk to them. The issue is how differently you talk to a five-year-old and a 15-year-old. Five-year-olds still live in a world of magic, things are real to them in ways they aren’t to older children. So the virus is a terrifying thing, and they can’t think logically. Keep your answers short … mostly they’ll be reading how you’re feeling more than anything that you have to say. They may be picking up snippets from television broadcasts, social media and on-line games with friends.
If you have older children it’s a great opportunity to work with them around how they hear media, what it means, and what reliable media sources are. You might say, “I’m sure you’ve noticed things are different around here, do you have any questions?” You can use this as a check in from time to time. Really young children don’t need a lot of information, they need their questions answered. They’re not distinguishing simple things: many people who are sick don’t have coronavirus; most people who have coronavirus aren’t going to die. If your child has a fear about how the coronavirus is going to affect a grandparent or a vulnerable family member, as a parent or carer you should be honest. You might say, “You know, coronavirus can make older people, or people with some health problems more sick than younger people. That’s why we want to make sure we’re washing our hands, sneezing into our arm or a clean tissue and putting our hand up when we cough.”
Encourage regular contact, if possible, with vulnerable relatives through phone, texts or face time. This will help to reassure children.
Reassure children with positive comments…
‘Everyone is working really hard to make everyone safe.’
‘Most people get mild symptoms and recover.’
Resources support Online Safety:
Support for parents:
Get Safe Online
Info on a little bit of everything including personal use and business
https://www.getsafeonline.org/
Common sense media
Reviews apps, games, books and films to help parents understand the positive and negative aspects and appropriateness for their child
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
Safety Centre
App, website and game guides on setting up security, privacy and how to report and block
https://oursafetycentre.co.uk/
NSPCC
Articles and advice on a variety of topics to address with children
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
O2 helpline
In conjunction with the NSPCC, a helpline for any of your online safety questions or concerns
0808 800 5000
Internet Matters
Good advice by age guides
https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/
Help to set up parental controls
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/
Support for children and young adults
Zipit
App in conjunction with Childline to help young people decline requests for nudes and inappropriate content
Yoti
Another app supported by Childline to assist young people in removing nudes from the internet
Remove Harmful Content
Help to remove upsetting content from the internet (this can include things that aren’t illegal such as impersonation accounts and self-harm images)
https://reportharmfulcontent.com/
Childline
Advice on a variety of online safety issues
https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/
BBC Own It
A collection of videos on a variety of topics including the online world. Videos hosted by celebrities and other young people. Can also be used for wider PSHE topics.
Axel Scheffler has illustrated a digital book for primary school age children, free for anyone to read on screen or print out, about the coronavirus and the measures taken to control it. Click on the link below: