23rd November 2020

Supporting the health and wellbeing of pupils and parents – Wave launches new online programmes during coronavirus lockdown

Wave Trust have launched an online version of their pioneering Parent/Carer support programme which helps parents to manage their child’s behavioural and emotional difficulties and build positive relationships with the academy and other professionals.

Based on the model developed by the world renowned Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, the programme provides a 10 week coaching programme to help parents raise their child’s progress; weekly family group sessions where parents can share experiences and support each other, and the opportunity to take part in social and creative activities with their children, such as art and design projects, drama workshops and visiting local restaurants.  

With the current lockdown restricting opportunities for face to face interaction, Wave have developed a series of online programmes to help maintain communication and provide support for pupils and their parents and carers.

“Children, young people and families are at the heart of everything we do at Wave” said CEO Rob Gasson.  “Ensuring the health and wellbeing of our pupils has been our main priority since the start of the term in September.”

“We already knew that by recognising and promoting the voice of mums, dads and carers, we could work together to better support our pupils.  The Family Schools programme helps us to achieve this by building strong and effective relationships with the whole family, rather than simply focusing on the child.”

“Parents have told us that the support provided by the parent/carer support programme and other Family Schools schemes has helped them to cope during the past few months and we wanted to ensure that we could continue to provide this support remotely during this second lockdown.”

Launched on 16 November, the online version of the programme provides access to pre-recorded sessions, along with links and resources for each session. The sessions will be released weekly over nine weeks, with the opportunity for live Q&A sessions in weeks 3, 6 and 9.

“The programme has helped me so much with my child and taught me so many different types of coping and how to retrain myself with him and understand what he is going through.” said one parent. “It has helped him and myself and brought us closer” added another.

Wave have also created a new Parent / Carer Hub which is due to be launched on 1st December 2020.  The online resource area will provide information and advice on a wide range of different topics, including SEND, child mental health, parent mental health, and careers.

The Trust has also developed a new programme aimed at supporting the physical & emotional wellbeing of primary aged pupils. The Learning Ninjas training programme uses exercises derived from the INPP Neuro-motor Readiness for Learning and School Intervention Programme to help improve physical co-ordination. 

Designed to help pupils access learning activities, enhance readiness for school and improve literacy  and numeracy skills, the exercises also include yoga and the mindfulness breathing practices to help them learn self-regulation skills and provide  a calming, sensory break during the school day.

Resources for the daily 15 minute sessions have also been pre-recorded and uploaded into the Parent/Carer Hub to enable pupils to continue to take part in the event of any further lockdowns.

Recognised as the most successful trust in the country for providing education for pupils who have been excluded from school, Wave runs six academies based in Cornwall, four academies based in Devon and the Community and Hospital Education Service (CHES) & Torlands based across three centres in Devon and Cornwall. 

“Wave staff are in constant contact with pupils and their families” said Rob Gasson.  “Every single member of the Wave team works very hard to ensure that we are providing the highest quality education for all our pupils.”

“The offer we are making to our pupils remains high quality and we constantly monitor the progress and safety of pupils to ensure that their needs continue to be met.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Wave Trust provides education for pupils across the whole of Cornwall and Devon who are excluded from school or who are not in school for medical reasons.

Wave currently has 346 staff and supports 437 pupils in Cornwall and 334 in Devon.