What is Early Help at Bawdsey School?

At Bawdsey we work hard to support children and families by providing support as soon as an issue emerges. This may include working in partnership with other agencies to ensure the right support is put in place. Our aim is always to ensure that children and families are supported effectively and at the earliest possible opportunity.

Our early help offer is designed to respond to a wide range of issues. This could be from a need which only requires advice or guidance, through to a child at immediate risk of harm.

Any child may benefit from early help. Bawdsey staff are particularly alert to the potential need for early help for vulnerable children as identified in the ‘Working Together To Safeguard Children’ (2018) guidance.

Suffolk's Early Help Offer         CAF Information- Referral for Early Help Services       

Bawdsey School's Early Help offer includes:

• SENDCo who leads our early help support and who has bookable meeting slots for Parents/ Carers fortnightly. SENDCo email is given to Parents/ Carers for them to contact for help. 
• SENDCo who is a Thrive practitioner, mental health first-aider and is the lead for mental health and wellbeing. 
• Five trained Designated Safeguarding leads who work in partnership. Two trained lead Safeguarding governors. A DSL who is trained to train other staff in Safeguarding and Online safety. (All staff are safeguarding and online safety trained.)
• Thrive for class, individual and group support as needed or identified.
• Induction sessions for children starting EYFS class, including visits to see children in other settings or at home.
• Lunchtime Play Leaders and pupil play leaders.
• Wrap around care provision, free in the mornings for vulnerable families. (All costs kept low for families to access these.)
• External agency support (Behaviour support, Bereavement Counselling, Child Specific Interventions, Family Network Meetings, Common Assessment Frameworks, Family Support Practitioners.)
• Open door policy – teacher’s pastoral guidance and support for families. Three Parent/ Carer meetings a year and three times when phone slots are released for Parents/ Carers who want a longer or more formal conversation with their child's teacher.
• Academic interventions with teachers and support staff.
• Buddy sytem for children in school, an older child being a buddy for a younger child. 
• NSPCC workshops.
• Learning to keep safe in our PSHE and RSHE curriculum. Learning about differences through the 'No Outsiders. All different. All welcome' resources,