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📢 Our latest HSPCF Newsletter is out now!

Inside this week you’ll find:

☕ HSPCF & HBC Coffee Morning – 24th September
💻 Evening Zoom – 1st October, 8–9pm
📍 Halton Local Offer LIVE
🧠 SHINE parent/carer training
🏠 WELL Runcorn
📘 Right to Choose information
💬 Thrive Emotional Health & Wellbeing Directory
🏥 Warrington & Halton SEND Health and Hospital Passport

We’ve also included posters and extra information at the back of the newsletter.

📌 Have a read, save the dates and share with any other Halton SEND families who may find it useful.

💛
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We’ve heard it called school refusal, emotionally-based school avoidance, school anxiety. But all of these names miss a fundamental truth. All too often we put the emphasis on the child to change their attitude – instead of asking why.

Sadly, we know that more than 70% of PDA children struggle to attend school regularly. Many PDA children learn to suffer in silence during school hours and then meltdown when they feel able to unmask safely at home. Others might get written off as angry or badly behaved. Eventually, for some children it becomes impossible to go at all.

We need to listen to what a child’s behaviour is telling us.

Most of the adjustments that can make a difference for PDA children aren’t expensive and they don’t take a lot of time. But they all start by trying to understand what exactly is making a young person feel dysregulated and out of control.

We’ve got a range of resources through the link in our bio for families and professionals supporting young PDAers.

#PDA
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Good morning all 😊

Coffee morning today – Thursday 17th

Come join us for a drink and a chat ☕️

📍 Bridgewater Park Hub
⏰ 9.30-12.30am
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Good morning all �

🌟🌟 Shared on Behalf of Beyond Words Collective🌟🌟Who is NAVIGATE for?

Parents, carers, support teams,and anyone who wants to feel more confident advocating for themselves.

It is 12 weeks online.

It is completely FREE to attend.

You might be:
• advocating for yourself
• a parent, family member or friend
• an unpaid carer
• a paid support worker, personal assistant or carer
• an education, health or social care professional
• part of a charity or voluntary organisation

You may be navigating an early diagnosis, changes in education, a move into adulthood, a period of crisis, ageing or end-of-life care. Whatever your stage of the journey, you don’t need professional knowledge or previous advocacy training to take part, just a willingness to learn alongside a small group of no more than 8 people.

Just 2 weeks until we begin — Wednesday 23 September, 7pm, online.

Registering your interest is free and doesn’t commit you to anything. We’ll send more information so you can decide if it’s right for you.

Register your interest: beyondwordscollective.org/register-your-interest/

Learn more: www.beyondwordscollective.org

#FreeTraining #AdvocacyForEveryone #BeyondWordsCollective
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🌟🌟 Shared on B

Good Morning all and Happy Wednesday!

Don't forget to come and join us tomorrow from 9.30 – 11.30am at our Hub for a coffee and a chat with other parents and carers in a relaxed understanding space
Our Guest tomorrow is Dean Tierney from HBC Transitions team

Look forward to seeing you all there

📍Bridgewater Park Hub, WA7 2LW
🕛9.30-11.30am
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Good Morning all and

🌟🌟Local Offer Live🌟🌟🌟 Don’t miss our first Halton Local Offer LIVE event!

A fantastic opportunity for families to meet local SEND services, support organisations and activity groups, find out what’s available, and get your questions answered.

📧 To learn more, contact tracy.ryan@halton.gov.uk

#SEND #HaltonFamilies #LocalOfferLive
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🌟🌟Local Offer

🌟 What is the “Knowing Me” profiling tool? 🌟

You may have heard about Knowing Me, a new tool being introduced in schools and education settings to help children and young people get the right support for their individual needs.

💡 What does it do?

Knowing Me helps parents, children and school staff build a better picture of a child’s strengths, needs and how they experience the world.

It is particularly helpful for children who may be neurodivergent — for example, children who may experience differences with:

🧠 Understanding and processing information
❤️ Managing emotions
⚡ Energy levels
👀 Sensory experiences
🎯 Attention and concentration
💬 Communication
🔄 Coping with change
💭 Impulsivity or overthinking
🤸 Coordination and movement
🌱 Becoming more independent and preparing for adulthood

It can help explain why a child may find things like changes in routine, friendships, schoolwork, noise, busy environments or expressing their feelings difficult.

❤️ Is it a diagnosis?

No.

Knowing Me is not a diagnostic assessment and it does not diagnose autism, ADHD or any other condition.

Instead, it is a way of having a shared conversation between the child, their parent/carer and a trained professional to understand what the child needs and what support might help.

👨‍👩‍👧 Who completes it?

A trained professional may work with the child and their parent/carer to complete the profile. This could be a teacher, SENCO, family liaison officer or another appropriately trained professional working with the school.

Information may also be gathered from people who know the child well.

The important thing is that the profile is completed with the family, not for the family.

🌈 Why could this be helpful?

The aim is to help children get support as early as possible, rather than having to wait for a formal diagnosis before their needs are recognised.

A child does not need a diagnosis to have additional support in school if they have identified SEND needs.

The profile can help identify practical strategies that may help a child at:

🏠 Home
🏫 School or college
🌳 In the community
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 With family and relationships

⏳ What if my child is waiting for an autism or ADHD assessment?

Completing a Knowing Me profile will not remove your child from an autism or ADHD assessment waiting list.

In fact, once introduced in a school, the information from the profile may help support the referral process.

The hope is that children can receive useful support while they are waiting for an assessment, rather than having to wait for a diagnosis before anything can be put in place.

💬 Most importantly…

Knowing Me is about understanding the child, not changing the child.

It focuses on their strengths as well as their difficulties and aims to help them understand themselves, recognise what they need and develop strategies that work for them.

It is also important that conversations consider other things that may affect a child's wellbeing, such as mental health, trauma and other physical or emotional needs.

🌟 Every child deserves the right support, whether they have a diagnosis or not.

Knowing Me is intended to help families and professionals work together to understand children better and make sure their individual needs are recognised and supported. ❤️

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
ADDvanced Solutions Community Network hosts Parent and Carer 'Knowing me' information sessions online regularly – next session is this Thursday 17th September
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