Family Information and FOPHS News Friday 14th July 2023

Tuesday 18^th July 13.45. Leavers Assembly.

These are always a wonderful celebration of those who are leaving for pastures new of their time at PHS. You will have received an invite if your young person is leaving.

Wednesday 19^th July, 9.30-11.00: Friends of Percy Hedley School Meeting

Join in person if you can, or online via the link below:

Letters were sent out earlier this week about the charging policy for school meals from September. There was also a standalone blog with these yesterday.

There was another letter regarding free school meals. In fact, if your income is below a certain threshold, you may also be entitled to vouchers to cover school holidays which many of you are already claiming. These are provided by North Tyneside Council as part of the Household Activity and Food fund, currently funded by the Department for Education (DfE). There are strict eligibility criteria and if I am unsure, I forward evidence to them to check. I know that for some families, your income may be just above the threshold and I have passed this on to members of our leadership team who have assured me that they will give this some consideration. If you have any questions regarding this or the school meal policy, please contact me and I will help where possible.

Increasingly we hear stories in the media where this simply isn’t the case. For my own part, I try to stay ahead, and I do this by arming myself with knowledge to pre-empt dangers. Maria is a fountain of knowledge and the online safety information, and her blogs are always up to date. This week’s blog is on Cyberbullying.

Grants: From Contact-for families of disabled children

Use the new and improved Grants Search on our website to find the financial support your disabled child needs to live their best life:

You may be eligible for grants to pay for specialist equipment, therapies, housing adaptations and even holidays.

Thanks to a major redesign, the Turn2us Grants Search tool is now quicker and easier than ever to use, with more accurate results and a new Quick Check feature — so you’ll immediately know if you’re eligible for a grant or not!

Try it out: contact.org.uk/grants-search

Continence Supply Issues

Have you struggled to access continence supplies for your disabled child?

Our friends at Cerebra would like to hear more about the difficulties you experienced, when or how they happened, and what the consequences were for your family.

They’re also interested to know how your local health service justified their refusal to provide (or to limit) continence supplies for your child.

Take their short survey by 31 July

Image below is example and other brands are available, although if my memory serves me this brand is used frequently.

Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme.

What is a HAF program?

The HAF programme is funded by the DfE, to offer eligible children and young people access to free holiday activities and a nutritious meal during the Easter, Summer, and Christmas School Holidays.

It is designed for families to help children, young people and their parents have fulfilling, active, fun-filled, and healthy school holidays. The funding generally covers children aged 5-16 years. Whilst some make a real effort to include children with special needs/disabilities I get mixed feedback on this from parents.

Eligibility for these programmes is usually income related, with priority given to those eligible for free school meals. Have a look at the links below. The first, from the Council for Disabled Children explains the purpose of the HAF. The rest are local links.

North Tyneside Ease into holiday programme

For North Tyneside residents only. I have been asked to share the following information with you.

Here is some information on the ease INTO Summer programme. This is funded by the Department for Education and offers free activities during the holidays for children who receive income-related free school meals.

All activities for this summer are now available to book. Could you please share the attached flyers and below information with parents / carers.

‘Ease INTO Summer is a programme of activities taking place throughout the school holidays, created to help children be healthy and active while off school. There is a huge range to choose from, including sports, arts and crafts, music, theatre, trips out and more.

All activities are free for children who receive income-related free school meals, but there are paid for places available too.

There are a small number of funded spaces available for children who meet one of the non-FSM-eligible criteria. You can find out how to access those here. If you think you might meet this criteria, please contact easeinto@northtyneside.gov.uk before registering on the system.’

Wylam on Wheels.

Forwarded by a parent of one of our former students.

Library Arcade SEND Sessions

Meeting.

The final meeting of this academic year in next week on Wednesday 19^th July. We would love you to join us in school between 9.30 and 11 if you can or join online via Microsoft TEAMS.

The link is here:

We are looking forward to seeing some of you at our final meeting of this academic year. This is next Wednesday 20^th July from 9.30-11.00

The link to join online is here, and you are welcome to come in person if you are free.

Happily accepting donation for the fayre of gift sets, chocolate, and bottles (alcoholic/non-alcoholic) and raffle prizes. If you can help at all please send in for my attention.

Autumn Fayre

I’m looking for people to share our posters. If you can do this, please get in touch. I have A4 & A5 versions.

School Photographs

Thanks so much for the generous contributions towards the school photos.  The team are busy getting everything ready to send them out next week. We are really pleased with the results and hope you are too!

Facebook page:

This is a closed group for family and friends of Percy Hedley School, where you can share news and updates about school life. It is not for external professionals who may be working with families. To join, you need to answer the question stating your link with school.

Please note: this group is for sharing news and updates about school life and is not intended to discuss any issues around individual students, and as such all comments are moderated. If you have a particular issue or concern, please contact school directly on 0191 216 1811.