July 2009  

A Parent's Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my sanity to keep.
For if some peace I do not find,
I'm pretty sure I'll lose my mind.

I pray I find a little quiet,
Far from the daily family riot.
May I lie back and not have to think
About what they're stuffing down the sink,

Or who they're with, or where they're at
And what they're doing to the cat.
I pray for time all to myself
(did something just fall off a shelf?)

To cuddle in my nice, soft bed
(Oh no, another goldfish--dead!)
Some silent moments for goodness sake
(Did I just hear a window break?)

And that I need not cook or clean
(well heck, I've got the right to dream)
Yes now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my wits about me keep,
But as I look around I know,
I must have lost them long ago!

Author Unknown

Now you may have noticed some rather colourful photos (including the one on the left with your coordinator dressed as a giraffe) so perhaps I should start this month's blog by explaining my choice of blog photos.  I've come to regard festivals over the past five years or so as my 'mummy battery re-charge time' away from my family….or according to the poem above “far from my daily family riot”.  Sometimes it may be a weekend up to my knees in mud, sometimes basking in glorious sunshine; but whatever the weather conditions it’s always a lovely opportunity to be more than 'just mum' for a short time.  I'm sure this sentiment will be shared by many 21st century mums when we read more and more 'scary' articles that children are no longer leaving the nest until they are well into their 20s.  And an increasing number of young people are also remaining at home to attend local universities to avoid running up huge student debts.  So the prospect of years and years of picking up dirty pants and biscuit crumbs, and a rather eclectic taste in music (which is fortunate with a wannabe musician in the family) is enough to drive this mother to the occasional festival. 

However I was drawn to Camp Bestival, set in the grounds of the beautiful Lulworth Castle in Dorset, because it had been hailed as "family friendly"; with the added bonus that children under twelve years could go free. What a bonus! This family focus became quite obvious on arrival at the campsite where small people strangely out-numbered the adults. It was like stepping into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory...with tents!   But with a very limited budget for a holiday this year and the attraction of free child places and lots of child-friendly attractions, I packed up my car to overflowing (it's amazing how much camping equipment and pot noodles are needed when travelling with children) and transported two excited children for their very first festival experience.  With the exception of a broken nail trying to erect a family tent in strong wind, and then hiking back to the car at the end of the festival carrying the aforementioned soggy tent (now the approximate size and weight of a small horse), it was an amazing weekend. 

So when I returned from my wonderful wonderland weekend I started thinking about Fareham families in 2009.  I wondered how, or perhaps if, other families are coping locally with the credit crunch?  Which sent me on a trail trying to find our local labour market data to find out how we compare with other Hampshire local authorities.

The Unemployment Barometer

An interesting report (available to view above) that was produced at the tail end of 2008 revealed that Fareham was one of the top towns in the South East of England for redundancies at this time. Construction, Finance and Hospitality industries (and surprise, surprise...estate agencies) have been most affected by the down-turn in consumer spending.  But without going into too much detail here, what this report does highlight is the worrying trend of our rising rate of unemployment and the subsequent threat of house repossession.  Surely the pattern would go: Recession = Unemployment & Financial Hardship = Homelessness?  However recently released Government figures are actually showing a big drop in homelessness.  Rather than going into a discussion about statistics and how figures can sometimes be manipulated by whoever collects them, you can read an interesting discussion report on this subject at: BBC.co.uk

A more recent Hampshire Labour Market Bulletin (July 2009) shows some slowing down of unemployment since the beginning of the year, but figures are still not terribly encouraging.  So it may sound like an obvious question - but how does this depression in the financial health and stability of our community affect out children and young people?

Before you try and answer that question (I'm happy to receive your answers on a postcard), could I just remind you all that the Hampshire Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-12 vision states:

“Making Hampshire a better place for children and young people, where all of them, including those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged, have the best possible start in life and are supported by the whole community to reach their potential”

And it is not surprising that the number one priority for the plan is “Reducing the incidence and impact of poverty on the achievement and life chances of children and young people”.

In fact the over-arching reasoning behind Children’s Centres and Extended Services (as well as providing protection and early intervention for vulnerable children) is to tackle child poverty and raise aspirations, achievement levels and subsequently the life chances of ALL children and young people.  We mustn’t forget that these little ones running around in toddler group covered in paint and goo are our future workforce in a rapidly-changing world; and will hopefully be keeping our country economically stable in our own rhubarb dribbling days. 

Therefore a little bit of help and support for vulnerable parents via their children’s school is always a welcome addition in these difficult times; as well as being incredibly useful for completing school’s self-assessment forms of course!  Often parents are not sure who to turn too for that little bit of advice and support before those little family niggles turn into a full blown crisis.  It may be a parent seeking advice about redundancy, repossession or increasing debt who might not feel they could approach a member of teaching staff.  And let's be honest - how many of us would be able to give really useful and constructive advice in this situation?  In response to a gap in our parenting offer, I am absolutely delighted to welcome a new member to our CAPP team who shall be offering this additional parental help and support across the Cams Hill cluster from September 2009.  Alison Rowe is presently the Family Support Worker at Wicor School and from the autumn term she shall be expanding her workload in our PSA pilot project across the entire cluster.  Although some of Alison’s initial time shall be taken up with training, I hope you will all give her a very warm welcome at our partnership schools.  I must also say a big thank you to Mark Wildman (head teacher Wicor School) and Wendy Eves (DPSO) for their hard work to make this project possible.

If schools have any concerns about my reasoning for identifying 'parenting' as one of our priority areas for improvement, then you may be interested in a recent research report (DCSF-RR151 Aug 2009) which shows evidence that PSAs can help improve school attendance and reduce the number of referrals to specialist services. Please feel free to read the full report by clicking the link below:

DCSF-PSA-REPORT-AUG-09.pdf

Although Alison has yet to complete her Positive Parenting Training Programme and will eventually be joining our team of Triple P facilitators, I have been issued with a useful list of group parenting information programmes that will be taking place across Fareham from September 2009.  Please feel free to download the list to signpost to your families:

  Parenting Programmes in Fareham 

In the meantime don’t forget that parents can be signposted to the newly furbished Fareham Citizen’s Advice Bureau for debt and housing advice.  For the local contact details and opening times please click the link below:

     Fareham's Citizens Advice Bureau

You may also be interested in taking a look at the Parent Support Adviser - Practice and Impact Report spring 2009. This maps out how the Parent Support Adviser role increases the school’s capacity to deliver the full core offer; in particular - parenting support and swift and easy access to targeted and specialist services.  It is an excellent report and I would recommend it to all of our partners.  I have a few hard copies of the document in the office so please feel free to request a copy if you would prefer to save on printing costs. 

Another newly available item that I have available in my cardboard box under my over-crowded desk for our partnership schools is the: Extended Services Disadvantage Subsidy (Narrowing the gap: raising attainment and improving well-being) Resource Kit.  This DVD toolkit is produced by the TDA to inform local authorities, schools and school clusters about the new disadvantage subsidy (presently being piloted by our neighbours in Gosport).  The subsidy will enable additional funding for our families living in relative poverty to access extended services activities from 2010.

Don't forget to keep checking back to the News Page on the Fareham Extended Services web site for inexpensive or free activities for signposting to your families.  Fareham Library and Westbury Manor Museum often offer free activities during the holidays. Although it incurs a cost initially of £69, the Culture All Passport is a fantastic idea for families and gives free 12 months access to the best of Hampshire's attractions.  Click the link below for more details: 

If you take a browse through the Culture All site for more details of how our CAPP schools Red Barn Primary kick started the Culture Relay.  Well done to Rena Randall (Head Teacher, Red Barn) and the eight children who participated.

May I also take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Cams Hill School for the advance listings of school expenses (both voluntary and essential equipment for each year group plus the costs of various school trips/visits and holidays) that was sent out to parents at the beginning of July.  I’m sure it will be invaluable for parents who are existing on very limited budgets to plan for the year ahead.  If any of our partnership schools have not already taken steps to offer a financial forecast for their parents (and I am very aware that this isn’t an easy task) then I would highly recommend doing so.

On the same vein – if any of our partnership schools are not offering a facility for selling second-hand uniform, then please feel free to get in touch. I shall be happy to discuss how to find a willing volunteer to attend school events to run a school uniform shop…and if all else fails I would be happy to kick-start it in the meantime.

For lots of excellent links to family finance web sites for signposting to families– I would recommend the following web page:

National family Week – Family Finance

Another mention of thanks goes to the Safety Net Team at Portchester Community School.  Jeanette Barker (Youth Team) in close partnership with our Safer School Partnership Officer and Fire and Rescue arranged a fantastic celebration event at the end of the Trailblazer/Inclusion Project to showcase the skills that had been learnt by the young people who participated in the programme.  It must have been a rather exciting (and for teaching staff, rather distracting) afternoon for all of the students at Portchester School when a fire engine rolled into the playground and their fellow students hopped out in full uniform and rolled out the fire hoses.  Back at Odyssey Young Persons' Centre following the demonstration, there was a slide show of the residential trip and a presentation event.  This gave the young people a chance to offer their personal feedback and evaluation of the project in their own words (sadly I do not have permission to publish the celebration photos here for safeguarding reasons), however, at the end of the event a parent said to me, "Well, he wouldn't have stood up a year ago in front of a roomful of people and said something like that" and that was one piece of evaluation of this project that I took away from the event. 

Which brings me finally to our D-Day, Discos and Downloads Community Play "Between the Hill and the Sea".  I hope as many of the partners as possible managed to find time to come to one of the five performances staged over three days in July.  It felt as though we were never going to manage it by the production date - but with the incredible hard work of Brendon Burns (Artistic Director and performing as the 1970s Head Teacher) and his dynamic team of staff and actors, somehow we managed to pull it off.  The verbal feedback from the audience was amazing!

Again I have some wonderful photos of the performance, but I am awaiting permission to use them for evaluation (as many of our performers were between the age of 13 and 17 years old) I thought I would put a delightful photo of Paul Woodman and his wife Hazel in their tin helmets from The Portchester Civic Society as my own personal message of thanks.  The Civic Society, in partnership with Portchester Community School, were truly instrumental in both making this performance happen and also securing the Lottery funding to make it possible. 

On a personal note, I have never been as exhausted (I couldn't believe that childminding seven primary school children could be so draining) but from the parts of the production I managed to herd my primary group around to see during rehearsals...the acting, stage set, costumes, the teamwork and enthusiasm shown by the entire cast of 60 people, was absolutely first class.  Well done to everyone involved and I hope that we can make soon make arrangements for a 'DDD Video-Viewing Party' later this year for all of our wonderful actors who gave up their time and in some cases...their sanity!

So that brings me to the incredibly late July Blog (for reasons that I shall explain in my August edition).  But I wish all of our partners the best for the remainder of the summer break and I look forward to seeing you all (refreshed and relaxed) again very soon.  I shall leave you with this final thought:

"The family,

that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape,

nor in our innermost hearts never quite wish to"