Nessy is giving away a free app to children all over the world every week in October! Download them for free and you will be able to continue to access the resource for free afterwards.

If you are interested in learning more about Dyslexia, Nessy are also offering free access to training for parents.

Short breaks for children and young people with SEND survey

Essex County Council is developing a new Commissioning Strategy for Services for Children and Young People with Disabilities. This involves the commissioners and research team deepening their understanding of the diverse range of needs of the children and young people and identifying and improving the support and opportunities in place to meet those needs.

The first job is to look at the short breaks offer known as “clubs and activities” and “light touch care”. These are the opportunities that provide leisure time, informal education opportunities. This might include dance, sports, arts and life skills such as cooking. 

The contracts for these clubs and activities expire in September 2021. To help the Council put the right things in place for after September 2021 they want to hear what works best for children, young people and families, for example what you enjoy doing and things you would like to achieve by attending these opportunities. 

The information you provide will help the Council start to design the new offer with you from now until the new services are in place.

To complete the survey please follow this link https://consultations.essex.gov.uk/commissioning-delivery/f70bdfb5  

If anyone has any questions or would require the survey in another format please email CYPengagement@essex.gov.uk          

Reach Out, Speak Out

The Multi-Schools Council have developed a programme to allow children to talk about what matters to them and learn from older children.

Further details can be found on the poster below:

Broomfield Primary School will be participating in The Zones of Regulation Curriculum as a whole school approach to developing our awareness of emotions and our emotional regulation skills.

This approach was designed by Leah Kuypers, licensed occupational therapist, to help children gain skills in the area of self-regulation. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation. For example, when a student plays on the playground or in a competitive game, it is beneficial to have a high state of alertness. However, the same state would not be appropriate in the library. The curriculum is designed to help children recognise when they are in the different zones as well as learn how to use strategies to change or stay in the zone they are in. In addition to addressing self-regulation, the students will gain an increased vocabulary of emotional terms, skills in reading other people's facial expressions, perspective about how others see and react to their behaviour, insight into events that trigger their behaviour, calming and alerting strategies and problem solving skills.

It is important to note that everyone experiences all of the zones - the Red and Yellow Zones are not the "bad" or "naughty" zones. All of the zones are expected at one time or another.

For further information visit:

http://www.visionmatters.org.uk/electronic-resource-centre/electronic-resource-centre