The role of the Home School Link Worker is to:

• Support parents, families and pupils on a wide range of issues.
• Help children and families to increase school attendance and punctuality.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships between the home and school and act as a link between home and school.

How can we help you?

The Home School Link Worker role is tailored to support the needs of your family and your circumstances; The Home School Link Worker can help in many ways including:

• Enabling parents and children to discuss concerns or worries in a safe and secure environment.
• Supporting families reacting to change such as parental separation or bereavement.
• Assisting parents / carers whose children are reluctant to attend school or have been excluded.
• Helping parents / carers who may need support on a wide range of issues or difficulties impacting on their family life eg illness, domestic abuse, disability or financial difficulties.
• Offering parenting guidance and support and courses.
• Helping families and children to access services, resources and local community information.
• Offering support in school meetings.
• Liaising with outside agencies (school nurse, CAHMS, health visitors, GPs) and signpost parents.
• Help to fill out forms such as: Free School meals, Education Maintained Allowance (EMA), Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

How to contact the Home School Link Worker?

You can complete a support request form found on the link below and email it to: 

hslw2@stmarys-byfleet.surrey.sch.uk

You will also find these in the leaflet dispenser on the small table in St Mary’s School office reception area. Please hand the completed form in to the school office in a sealed envelope addressed ‘HSLW Confidential’. 

Support request forms will be reviewed and discussed with the Headteacher and then you will be contacted about what support can be offered to you. If your referral falls under the HSLW umbrella, we will be in contact to make the necessary arrangements to meet. When we meet we will explore with you the difficulties your child or family is experiencing and together we can try to find the best way forward. 

Where it is considered that you could be best supported via the class teacher or SENCo your request for support will be passed on and they will be in contact with you.

Why you may be contacted

Staff at school can also complete a support request form to ask for involvement from the Home School Link Worker.

Confidentiality

The Home School Link Worker offers a confidential service regarding personal issues. However, all information is shared with the Senior Leadership Team as part of our confidentiality policy. If necessary, The Home School Link Worker would seek your permission to also share the information with other staff members within school or outside agencies. Should a safeguarding issue be identified, we are legally bound to follow Government guidelines.

Useful links

Here are some links to organisations that can offer family support:

• Surrey's Family Information Services provides information, advice and assistance for families with children and young people aged up to 19 years (up to 25 years old for young people with special educational needs).  
  https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/families
• Care for the Family has lots of useful leaflets to download and articles to help build a healthy family   https://www.careforthefamily.org.uk/
• Family Voice Surrey  supports families of children and young people with additional needs in Surrey  https://www.familyvoicesurrey.org/
• Family Lives is a charity with over three decades of experience helping parents with challenging family life.  https://www.familylives.org.uk/
• Surrey Mummy provides a calendar of local events
  https://surreymummy.com/
• Young minds provides advice and support relating to children's mental health  https://youngminds.org.uk/
• Money Matters offers financial advice http://www.moneymattersweb.co.uk/
• Think U Know aims to protect children online
  https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
• Health and Wellbeing Guide for Parents and Carers: Health and Wellbeing Guide for Parents & Carers v2 January 2021

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Healthy Eating and Lifestyle

During our HSLW/Nurture Coffee Morning this week, we were joined by a school nurse called Julia, who discussed the importance of having a healthy, balanced diet and keeping ourselves hydrated.

She also demonstrated how to use the Change4Life Food scanner. This clever app brings food labels to life and allows us to find out what’s really in the food and drink we’re buying!

Download from App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/change4life-be-food-smart/id1182946415

Download from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phe.c4lfoodsmart&hl=en_GB 

At the bottom of this page, you will find  a copy of Julia's presentation and a handy guide to portion sizes.

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