Our Voice

Our Voice hosted two videoconferences in conjunction with a panel of Speech and Language therapists, looking at how parents and carers can help their child/young person to manage and communicate their emotions effectively. 

You can see the presentation from the two sessions here. 

The 'safety toolkit' referred to in the presentation can be accessed here. 

You may wish to access some symbols to use when creating your own toolkit to use at home. This website has a good range which you may find useful - you can access a free 21-day trial (thereafter you will be charged a monthly fee so don't forget to cancel if you don't want to incur this). Alternatively, you may wish to talk to your child's school or speech therapist for suggestions.  

Our Voice are planning a busy programme of events for May and June 21 including: 

• Helping your child manage and communicate their emotions at home: Tue 18th 8-9 pm and Wed 19th 10 - 11.30 am
• Protecting vulnerable children and young people from exploitation: Wed 26th May 1 - 2.30 pm)
• Tree of Life support group (6/7 week course) Thursdays 10.30 - 11.30 starting 10th June 
• Protecting vulnerable dependants Tuesday 15th June 10 - 11.30 am 

For more information, and booking details see our events' booklet here.

Invitation for parents of children with ASD to talk about their experiences of home-schooling.

We have received a request for parents of children with ASD who are interested in participating in a research study on their experiences of home-schooling during lockdown. The study is being conducted by one of Enfield's Trainee Educational Psychologists, as part of her Doctoral studies at UCL. 

It is hoped that the results of this study will help to raise awareness of potential challenges and support needed during pandemics and school closures and identify areas in which improvements could be made for children/young people and their families. 

Parents are asked to discuss their experiences in an interview lasting up to one hour. 

Details of the project are on the attached information sheet. 

Our next event for children will be an online party exclusive to Our Voice members only. 

It takes place on Thursday 15th April from 3-4 pm, with the ever-popular Mr Marvel, and his magic bunny, lots of interactive games and magic. 

If you are on our mailing list you will receive details of how to book. 

If you are not yet on our mailing list - please email us at info@ourvoiceenfield.org.uk to join. 

Our Voice held a Q&A session with a team from Public Health, on 16th March 21, which focused on the specific issues of vaccinations for young people with Special Needs and Disabilities, and their carers. 

You can see the full Q&A from the event here

Additionally Public Health have provided us with a general Q&A which you can see here. 

Please note that this information was correct at the time of publication but is likely to change after that time. 

Our Voice held their 'Meet the SEND Heads' Q&A session on Friday 26th March, with a panel from across the Local Authority and Health including SEND Services, Education, EPS, CAMHS, Early Years, Health, Short Breaks and Social Care, Integrated Learning Disability Service, Travel Assistance and Transport Brokers. 

The panel, Chaired by Our Voice Chair, Fazilla Amide, answered a wide range of questions from parents. 

Please see below: 

• Updates from each of the different services 
• Q&A - including questions answered within the session and those which we didn't have time to include. 
• Q&A from SEN Services and Education 
• Introductory presentation from Our Voice 

We are still awaiting some final responses from SEN Services and Education and will update the Q&A document as soon as these are received.  

To help parents explain the current situation to children and young people, or individuals with Learning Difficulties a number of resources have been produced which you may find helpful. 

Easy Read guidance about Coronavirus and vaccinations here and a video aimed at people with learning difficulties or autism here. 

West Lea school have kindly shared with us the Easy Read Resources they have produced about Coronavirus testing - an Easy Read Guide to taking a Coronavirus test, and a Simplified version plus a Social Story about what happens if your Coronavirus test is positive.   

General guidance explaining what Coronavirus is and what we need to do - child-friendly guides include:

•  this one (available in a variety of languages including Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French, Polish and Turkish)
• easy-read version like this one from the Down's Syndrome Association,
•  Easy -Read guide from Mencap. 
• Easy Read information from Public Health England

Information about why schools have closed and the importance of staying at home and social distancing, useful child-friendly explanations in graphic format. 

• School is closed 
• What's Up with this Coronavirus? 

Answering questions from your child:

• Place2Be has a useful guidance page to help you answer questions from your child about Coronavirus including links to other sources of information like a Newsround item on the topic, and support for family wellbeing. 
• Young Minds has useful tips for talking to children from their helpline. 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey regarding their experiences during lockdown 3. We had a great response with 132 families participating, and have also been able t compare the information you gave us with responses across 23 other London Boroughs (with over 1700 people participating in total).  

As promised we are now using the results to:

• Inform our discussions with the Local Authority and Health Services about what problems families are facing and what actions need to be taken now. 
• Feed into national discussions with the Department for Education and the National Network of Parent Carer forums. 
• Sharing the results with other local voluntary organisations to add to their own understanding of the issues. 

You can see a summary of the results here, and a fuller analysis here. 

Our Voice has a critical role in working with the Local Authority and Health Services in the Borough of Enfield to support the families of children and young people with a Special Educational Need or Disability. Our Chair is coming to the end of her term of office at the end of March, and we are now looking for a replacement to work with our management team and help us to continue to move forward. 

Please see the flyer for more details and the Job Description for a full outline of the role. 

Whilst many of our 'normal' day to day activities are cancelled or restricted, and many children are not attending school on-site, you may have concerns about the impact of this disruption on your children and be wondering how to help them adjust to the huge changes in their day to day routines for the immediate future.

If you would like help and support with supporting your child's learning at home, have concerns about their general learning, development or well-being, or need to access information and resources you can contact the Enfield Educational Psychology Service's Family Support Helpline. The helpline also provides advice regarding emotional wellbeing and mental health (your own or your child's), managing behaviour and sign-posting to other services. 

The Enfield Educational Psychology service has produced useful guidance for Supporting your child at home during the lockdown. 

Contact (the charity for families with disabled children) has produced a useful 'Top Tips for Home-schooling'

This short film on the value of play from the British Psychology Society/ Division of Educational and Child Psychology looks at the importance of play and the way in which play helps children to manage their emotions and stress. 

Managing the Transition to home-schooling is a useful document produced by the UCL's Centre for Inclusive Education which covers some of the issues you may be facing and gives guidance and tools for managing the changes with your child/children. 

There is also useful information from the UCL's Centre for Inclusive Education here. 

Resources for being at home with your children: 

Below are a series of resources focusing on children with SEND that you may find useful for supporting home-schooling and for keeping your children entertained, calm and happy at home.

BBC Bitesize SEND toolkit has a wide range of useful resources for both learning and wellbeing, including music, fun activities, adapting physical activities, Makaton, BSL and supporting reading. There are a range of specific resources for children with specific special needs and disabilities including hearing impairments, visual impairments, Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Learning Disabilities.

Home Learning activities for children with Autism and/or Learning difficulties - these resources have been produced by Enfield Advisory Service for Autism in conjunction with Russet House school.

Useful Websites for Home Learning - this document has kindly been provided by a teacher and Behaviour lead at one of our local Special Schools. 

There are some useful SEND specific resources (as well as a wide range of other materials) to support homeschooling on Twinkl - although this is no longer free to use, it is usually possible to download some specific items free of charge. 

You can also find a range of other inclusive / SEND focused educational resources and activities for children on The Sensory Projects website.

Music Therapy Tree have provided accessible music therapy resources, suitable for children with autism and learning difficulties in the new Self-Isolation support area of their website. 

Kids TV 123 - a YouTube channel with lots of educational songs e.g. numbers, phonics

GoNoodle - music and mindfulness

Cosmic Kids - Yoga and mindfulness for children

Stop Breathe Think - mindfulness and meditation for children 

The Singing Walrus - fun educational songs with accompanying worksheets and flashcards 

Just Dance - dance along to your favourite songs and follow the movements on the screen

Barefoot Books - animated singalongs and activity packs 

The Learning station - 'brain break' action songs

Singing Hands on YouTube has a wide range of videos of songs signed in Makaton.

PBS Kids Music Games - educational games and activities related to music. 

imoves - a range of fun activities to keep children happy, healthy and focused including Worry Monster, Pilates and meditation for mental health and well-being

Tate Paint - a tablet-friendly online paint game  

Bumble Bee Physio are offering live physio for children who are wheelchair users

Great Ormond Street The Power of Play has a range of fun games and activities provided by their team of play experts. 

Primary Homework help is a collection of resources aligned to the National Curriculum which is useful for searching multiple activities on a specific topic. 

Crickweb has educational interactive teaching resources and activities for primary level children - search by key stage and subject. 

Contact has a range of suggested resources for children with SEND here, which they will keep updated on a regular basis. 

If you have concerns about your child's online safety, see our list of useful sources of information here.