Christmas Performance

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Selection of pupil feedback from the Christmas Production.

Wonderful as Always!! Perfect way to get everyone in the Christmas Spirit! Well done to all involved.

Good Effort for the whole school, great job.

Well children of the world, a great performance.

A fantastic performance by all children

Fantastic performance.

Super performance

Wow! Amazing Show! It seems to get better and better every year. Well Done!

We love it!

Brilliant everyone.

Wow, What a brill show.

Well done Kids.

Well done, you were all fantastic. Congratulation to children and stand at Donnington Wood for an amazing xmas show.

Go Candy!

Greatest Performance ever.

You are all superstars.

Well done all the children.

Absolutely Brilliant.

Another great performance- it has got us all in the Christmas mood. Thank you.

So proud of everyone’s effort. Well done.

Online Safety

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This letter will come out tonight.

Dear parents and carers,

One of our parents has reported that whilst their child was playing an online multiplayer game a stranger from the game directly messaged them. The stranger then tried to elicit information where the child lived. The child did not share this, blocked them and told their parents. The matter has been reported to the police, and they are investigating, but please make sure you are supervising your child’s use of the internet, in line with the information I shared on Friday.

Key rules:

· DO NOT REPLY! Sometimes strangers send out thousands of ‘hook’ messages to see who replies. These might include cheat codes, invites to private matches or fake praise (“you were amazing at that”).

· DON’T DELETE! You can screen shot it or take a photo, but keep the chat log. Make sure you get the times and any usernames. Make sure you also know the platform name (XBOX) or social media site. The police will use these to trace the IP address and user. Once you have done this, get an Adult to BLOCK and REPORT.

· Never share personal information. People may say they are a friend of a friend, I live near you, or I know where you live, in an attempt to get you to talk back to them. Block them and report them.

· If they are playing multiplayer games, turn off the voice and text chat.

· Only play people you physically know.

And, most importantly, if you are worried about anything, tell a trusted adult.

In an emergency, call the police on 999, or on the internet CEOP. NSPCC is also very useful to talk about concerns.

We have spoken to the pupils again and year 5 and 6 will be watching the Newsround ‘Caught in the web’ film, which makes clear the dangers of Online Safety. If there are any further concerns:

1) Most important rule! If you are worried about anything; speak to family members, friends or trusted adults.

2) Check the age ratings: NO DONNINGTON WOOD PUPILS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO BE ON OR BE USING the social media sites listed below.

13 year old: Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, Snapchat and Secret.

LinkedIn is 14. On WhatsApp it’s 16, Vine it’s 17. Some platforms, such as YouTube, WeChat and Kik, have a minimum age required of 18, although children aged 13-17 can signup with parent’s permission.

Stop Speak Support- when you see online bullying. https://www.stopspeaksupport.com/

Think U Know https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Parent Zone: https://parentzone.org.uk/

ChildLine: https://www.childline.org.uk/

NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

CEOP: if you feel you are in immediate danger: https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

Telford and Wrekin Family Connect www.familyconnecttelford.co.uk

We are also arranging for the police to come in and speak to our pupils in the new year. We are also able to help, come in and talk to us.

BEAM over the holidays

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Good afternoon,

Please find attached our up-to-date service information, including our new Beam leaflet and workshop calendars.

Some important information is detailed below about Christmas opening, drop-in end times and service capacity.

BEAM CHRISTMAS OPENING

We will be open on 23rd December running a reduced service between 12 & 4pm. This means shorter sessions will be on offer, with no sessions starting after 3pm.

Beam is closed and no drop-ins will be held from 24.12.19-01.01.20 inclusive.

We will be open on 2nd January at Palmer’s, running a reduced service between 2 & 5pm. This is likely to be service-information sessions only, with no sessions starting after 4pm.

Our normal drop-in hours will resume from Saturday 4th January 2020.

These hours are slightly different to what had been previously advertised within the service – we have ensured that these corrected hours are now on display within our venues. We would appreciate it if you could share the attached flyer on social media and anywhere else you can!

BEAM CLOSURE TIMES

No sessions will be started with any young person, parent or carer in the last hour we are open. This is to ensure we are able to finish no later than 7pm on a weekday, or 4pm on a Saturday.

We want to ensure we are giving young people as well as parents and carers an appropriate amount of time to listen to them so that they feel heard. As I am sure everyone will appreciate, the wellbeing of our staff is paramount in order to ensure we can continue to provide a quality service, hence the importance of the service closing at the times advertised.

I’d like to thank you in advance for your support in sharing this message with those that you are signposting to us.

SERVICE CAPACITY

Our team work really really hard to see as many of those who visit a drop-in session as possible. However, there are occasions where we are physically at capacity – something that is a particular issue on a Saturday at our Wellington venue.

We recognise the importance of young people being supported by those around them, whether that be friends or family, and we understand that accompanying young people to Beam sends a clear message of support. However, large groups can be difficult to accommodate within our venues, and we are asking that visitors to the service consider this before attending.

Capacity is quickly reached not only in terms of physical space, but also in the number of sessions being led by our staff and volunteers. I cannot stress enough how determined the team is to give each young person a valuable experience at Beam, but in order to do this we need to carefully manage the volume of sessions being offered.

As such, at times where all of our practitioners are in sessions and we have a number of people waiting to be seen, we will temporarily close the service, asking people to return later in the session or to a different session.

We will also be looking to manage how many sessions our practitioners are doing over the course of a drop-in. Again, this is to ensure each young person receives a high-quality service from us, as well as ensuring our team’s welfare is maintained. This means we may take the decision to close the service a little earlier on some occasions, on the basis that we can have up to 5 drop-in sessions running across the week. When this happens, notices detailing our alternative sessions will be displayed.

WORKSHOPS IN THE NEW YEAR

Our new workshop calendar is attached, along with flyers for our two new workshops!

‘Positive me’ focuses on self-esteem in young people aged 10+. This begins mid-January for 5-weeks on Mondays in Wellington and Thursdays at Palmer’s.

‘Sleepy heads’ focuses on the importance of sleep for wellbeing for young people 8+. This begins in March and runs for 5-weeks on Tuesdays in Wellington and Thursdays at Palmer’s.

Arts & Crafts will continue to be offered where capacity allows on Saturdays between 2-3pm at Wellington. However, the final Saturday of each month we will hold a relaxation session – this takes place 3-3.30pm. Please note on relaxation Saturdays we won’t provide any sessions after 2pm to allow space for this to take place.

From April onwards we will be producing a new schedule of Saturday workshops.

AND FINALLY…

… The team send season’s greetings, and thank you for your support throughout 2019!

Gemma Holland

Clinical Lead

Beam Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

The Children’s Society

Please note my working days are Mon-Thurs.