Early Help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life.  Providing Early Help to our children and families at Frogwell Primary School means we can be prompt and more effective in promoting support and meeting the needs of our children and their families.

Support can be offered under an ‘Early Help’ service when families are in need of some additional support to manage the demands of family life, and can either be offered just by school staff, or by school staff and staff from other agencies such as health visitors, speech and language therapists, play therapists, CAMHS, educational psychologists or family keyworkers.

Early Help is offered and accepted on a voluntary basis, with the aim being to work with families to improve their situation.  We hope that by offering support early, when problems are emerging, or beginning to have a negative impact on families' ability to cope, these problems will be easier to address with short-term involvement from services.  

Frogwell Primary School's Early Help Offer:

Within school, we provide the following Early Help support for all children, striving to ensure concerns, no matter how small, are listened to and supported effectively, maximising the chances of effectively safeguarding all of our children.

We view behaviour as a form of communication.  Often, a child's behaviour can indicate an unmet need. 

Staff may become aware of unmet needs in a number of ways; noticing signs that are being communicated through children’s behaviour, listening to what children are telling staff about their lives, or through conversations with parents or carers.  As a minimum, staff record this information on CPOMS and it is read and acknowledged by a DDSL or the DSL. If staff have concerns about children’s unmet needs that they wish to discuss more urgently, there will always be at least one member of the safeguarding team in school at any time.   

We have a live, in-house “Children with unmet needs” document which tracks the development and progress of children who we believe may have unmet needs.  We monitor and discuss the needs of these children during weekly meetings of the in-house safeguarding team (DSL and DDSLs) and then decide which of the below options might be most appropriate to offer to the child and their family.  All offers of support are discussed with parents.

Universal Support offered to children within school

• Thrive: Frogwell Primary School is a 'Thrive' school and our behaviour policy is closely aligned with the Thrive approach. All staff have undertaken Thrive training. 
• PSHE and Relationships and Sex Education Programme: Our school delivers Personal, Social, Health and Economics, (PSHE) and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) programmes through the SCARF scheme. This programme supports the children’s understanding of how to keep themselves safe. It also broadens their understanding of strategies to develop their resilience, as well as their awareness of their mental health and approaches to keep this aspect of their lives healthy.
• Online safety: Project Evolve: Each year group is taught 3 units of online safety lessons throughout the year, linking directly with areas of computing they are working on.
• Extra-Curricular Clubs: Extra-curricular clubs are offered to all children to encourage a healthy lifestyle, relationship building, physical activity and sports, social development skills and enhancement of the curriculum.
• Safeguarding and wellbeing policies – clear systems for identifying concerns early and ensuring children feel safe.
• Quality first teaching – differentiated lessons, inclusive practice, and adjustments that meet diverse learning needs
• Positive behaviour systems – whole-school approaches to behaviour, rewards, restorative practices, and clear expectations.
• Sensory Circuit: We have a sensory circuit to meet a range of needs of children within the school. This is accessible to all children and is housed within its own room.

Early Help Support offered within school to children and / or parents

• Family Support Worker: Jackie Parish is our school Family Support Worker. Jackie is able to offer targeted support to parents and carers, addressing a variety of concerns or difficulties. Support can be provided through face-to-face meetings, over the telephone and even via email – whatever method suits a parents’ circumstances best. 
• The Haven : We know that any child can struggle in school at times and there are a variety of reasons that this may be the case. We have a dedicated room in the school where children can go for support. The is staffed full time by highly trained teaching assistants. Children who use The Haven have an individual plan with Social, Emotional and Mental Health targets. 
• Emotional Literacy Support Assistants: Sometimes, a child may need targeted emotional support. This is provided through our ELSA programme. The programme is designed to offer short-term support in the school day for those children who need it. It is run by Mr Laurence Nash, one of our skilled teaching assistants. 
• Forest School groups – These groups are run by our forest school specialist, Mrs Davinder Gosal takes small groups or even whole classes to work on specific life skills.
• 1:1 or small group Thrive: We have two Thrive practitioners, Mrs Katherine Manuel and Miss Emma Wakeham. They offer targeted Thrive sessions to children who need additional emotional support. Children are carefully assessed at the beginning and end of the sessions so that progress can be measured. 
• Mentor Me: This is an in-school mentoring service and is delivered by volunteers – all recruited, vetted, trained and supervised by The RISE Trust. The aim of Mentor Me is to support pupils by complimenting the pastoral work undertaken in schools and offers pupils, referred by school, regular, quality 1-1 time with a positive, enthusiastic, interested adult.  The volunteer can act as an advocate and is someone who only has the best interests of the child at heart.
• In House SEND support: Mrs Vicky Davies is in school 3.5 days a week. She is available to offer advice to staff and parents and ensures that children receive appropriate provision. Parents can make an appointment to meet with Mrs Davies by contacting the school office. 
• Speech and Language Support: We recognise that communication is both a vital and complex skill that develops gradually over time from the moment a child is born. It is important that children develop a firm foundation of earlier skills such as listening and playing so that they can successfully develop later skills such as using tricky sounds and spelling. At Frogwell Primary School we are part of an evidence-informed approach called 'Cracking Communication' aiming to improve communication and language in the early years. 
• Educational Psychologist: Our Educational Psychologist is in school on a regular basis, offering a clinic to teachers. She uses her knowledge of child development to offer recommendations and support.
• School Nurse: We work closely with our school nurse, who is able to provide advice and guidance to parents on a variety of health and wellbeing issues. She visits school regularly to meet with the DSL and meets with parents, carers and children as and when required.
• Attendance support: Every child whose attendance is below 90% is carefully  monitored and support will be offered from our Attendance Manager, Miss Emma Wakeham.  Our school operates a first day response system, meaning that parents will be contacted on the phone by a member of staff if their child is not in school. Formal attendance meetings are held with parents, plans put in place and reviewed, with improvements recognised. Where attendance does not improve, the support of the Education Welfare Service might be sought in order to further assist our families.

Early Help Support offered by agencies, facilitated through Frogwell Primary School

• CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service): We recognise that sometimes, a child needs more intensive mental health support than can be offered within school.  In these situations, we offer to help parents make a referral to CAMHS and then support parents in accessing a service from CAMHS.
• Links with our Community Social Workers and other support agencies, including the Educational Health services: In addition to the above professionals, we have a close working relationship with Children’s services. A senior social worker works from the school once a fortnight where she offers a clinic for the safeguarding team to discuss situations which are challenging the school’s resources or where there seems to be little positive change.
• Mental Health Support Team: Early intervention on mild to moderate mental health and emotional wellbeing issues, such as anxiety, behavioural difficulties or friendship issues, as well as providing help to staff within our school settings. 
• PINS:  An opportunity for families, schools, parent support forums and health providers to work together to support neurodivergent children. We even host PINS coffee mornings in school!
• We also liaise with other agencies and people within the local community as indicated by the needs of the child and family.

Please see this comprehensive list of further support available to families