Young Carers

Sandown School Young Carers' Group 

At Sandown we recognise that sometimes a child who has caring responsibilities at home might need a little extra support to help them get the most out of school and so we have set up our Young Carers Support Group.

The whole school is committed to ensuring that all our children, including Young Carers, can access and engage with their education, with the right support where necessary, to achieve their potential.

We have a designated Young Carers' leaders in school, Mrs Male. Mrs Horrocks, SENCO, supports the group on behalf of the Sandown Senior Leadership team. We also have a school Governor, Mr Anderson, who is taking a special interest in and responsibility for our Young Carers' Support Group.  They will ensure that families and pupils are aware of the group.  They can be contacted via the School Office by phone or in person.  Pupils can speak to Mrs Male or Mrs Horrocks at any time during the school day or they can leave a confidential message in the box located securely in the School Office.

We have excellent links with external agencies and can make referrals to get support for Young Carers and their families, if they would like us to. We would only share information with professionals and agencies on a need to know basis in order to get the right support.  The school actively seeks feedback and ideas from young carers and their families to shape and improve support so we would be pleased to hear your views.

The school uses Pupil Premium funding to minimise any barriers to education and learning experience by eligible Young Carers.

What is a Young Carer?

At Sandown a Young Carer is “a child in Year 1 and above who provides care to another family member who has a physical illness or disability, mental health problem, sensory disability, severe learning disability or who has a substance misuse problem”. We include in this children living with siblings who have any of these difficulties.

What do we do?

We meet once a month at lunchtime in the After School Club Room. We have our lunch together, either a school meal or packed lunch, and then enjoy activities together.

NEWS AND UPDATES:   In September we started off the new school year with a visit to Chequers Kitchen. We were invited to make Stromboli, which is a rolled pizza. We made the dough ourselves and enjoyed kneading it before we rolled it out and put fillings of tomato sauce, ham and cheese on it. Then we rolled the Stromboli up and baked them. They smelt delicious and we were able to take them home to eat for tea.  We always enjoy our cooking sessions at Chequers Kitchen and thank the staff there very much for inviting us.