The Parent Network meetings began in 2015 to share information with parents and primarily for parents to share their own experiences. The first one we did was around ‘Managing Challenging Behaviour’. Parents who attended, really appreciated the opportunity to meet, to find out more and to share in a supportive environment. Since then we have held further meetings. We have looked at ‘Managing Effective Bedtime Routines’ which included parents from both the Infant and Junior schools. We invited the school nurse and family support worker to share strategies and to encourage parents to share their success stories and their struggles. (And yes, there was cake!). More recently we hosted a ‘Healthy Eating Workshop’ for parents looking particularly at encouraging healthy eating, understanding how children use food to control situations and ways to help encourage children to try new foods, particularly the ‘fussy’ eaters. This was well received and was later followed up with a further meeting to share recipes and things tried out. This year we held a workshop for parents on ‘Understanding and Managing Anxiety in Children’- it was great to involve parents from across the local network as well as from St. Mary’s. This was led by Becky from NESSIE at the DSPL and Nicki McGrinder our Family Support Worker. We also held an ‘Enuresis Parents Workshop’ where information was shared about the ways parents can help their child overcome bedwetting and the strategies to do this.
Below is a link to the health4kids website and ERIC together with a link for parents to refer to school health for the enuresis clinic or any other needs. Also included are documents scanned from the Enuresis pack for parents to try before referring for clinic support. Bedwetting is a really challenging difficulty for the child and the family but it is very common. Parents found it helpful to know that their child’s needs are not unusual and that there is support out there.
If you would be interested in an opportunity to be involved in this group, look out in the newsletter for details and do let Miss Lyon know about any other themes you would like to explore.
Nicki McGrinder and the pastoral team from Brandles run an open coffee morning – always a good opportunity to drop in for advice or meet with others in a supportive environment.
Enuresis Pack links
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
ERIC – children’s bowel and bladder charity
The DSPL run a number of courses for parents. The courses run by the DSPL are always heavily subscribed and highly recommended. Have a look at their website for the current programme.
