Early Help Transition Activity Sessions
Survey has concluded
Dear Parent/Guardian
Gloucestershire County Council’s Early Help team is pleased to be running a series of fun activity sessions during the school summer holiday, supporting young people with the transition to secondary school. The aim of the sessions is to provide early support to young people; so that the transition to secondary school is smoother and more enjoyable, meaning that they will be more successful in their secondary school.
Your child has been identified as a young person who would benefit from additional support in making the transition between primary and secondary school. This can be a difficult phase to navigate under normal circumstances but is extra tricky at present with the impact of Covid-19.
The sessions will focus on team building, relationship building and friendships, and will be run in association with your child’s secondary school, Play Gloucestershire, Midlands Air Ambulance and Gloucestershire County Council’s Early Help team. More details of the session content are in the attached leaflet.
In planning, running and evaluating the early help transition activity sessions, the early help team will collect data about your child(ren) and family in order to offer them effective early support. For the early help privacy notice, which outlines how we collect, process and share data, please go to: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/data-protection/service-specific-privacy-notices/ and scroll down to “Early Help Offer”.
The sessions will take place at your child’s secondary school in a group of up to 20 young people with a minimum of three adults in attendance; COVID-19 measures will be observed at all times in line with national guidelines at the time of the session. The adults leading the sessions will be a mixture of staff from your child’s secondary school, Play Gloucestershire, the GCC Early Help team and Midlands Air Ambulance. All staff have relevant DBS checks for working with children and there will be a first aider present at each session.
We plan for the sessions to be outside, weather permitting; your child will need to wear suitable clothing as well as bringing their own drink in a bottle. There will be toilets available during the sessions and anti-bacterial hand gel will be available.
The sessions will include a packed lunch provided for your child. On arrival at the session the children will be met in the school car park by activity staff. We ask that parents transport their children to and from the event on each of the session dates but if there are difficulties with transport for one or both dates, alternative arrangements can be made if necessary. At drop-off you will be given contact details of a member of staff for that session in case of emergencies.
In addition to the summer holiday sessions we will be providing one session before the summer holiday (during the school day) and at least one further activity session in September delivered in school by the GCC Early Help team. The session in the summer term will be designed to start building relationships with peers and school staff and the session in September will give the children opportunities to share their transition experience in the company of familiar faces.
We hope you will agree this is a fantastic opportunity for your child to be involved with and appreciate the benefits of such an activity in helping your child make the ‘leap’ from primary school to secondary school.
If you would like your child to participate in the sessions, please complete this online form by Friday 27th May.
If you have any further questions about the sessions being offered to your child please do not hesitate to contact:
Julie Jones: 07917 263349 Julie.Jones@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Laura White: 07827 084002 Laura.White@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Susan Higgs: 07557 759871 Susan.Higgs@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Thank you for taking the time to consider this exciting opportunity for your child.
Yours sincerely,
The Early Help, Advice, Guidance and Support Team.
Gloucestershire County Council
