Latest News - Billericay Parents Forum

100th Parenting Course Delivered

The Forum achieved its secong landmark in three months by delivering its 100th Parenting Course. The courses are based on the Family Caring Trust programmes and all facilitated by parents who themselves have attended our courses and trained as facilitators.     
The Trustees offer their thanks to the team of facilitators both past and present

The Autumn Open Evening and AGM

The AGM was held before the Open Meeting and the following Officers and Trustees were elected;-
Rosie Novis- Chair, Lesley Mitchelmore- Secretary, Charles Novis- Treasurer, Jean Lister, Nicole Moore, Agnes Roudebush

Following the AGM a very informative and productive evening followed.
The subject, " Is your Child a Talker?" drew over thirty parents.

The objective of the evening was to address how parents could help their child to communicate through the years.
After a short presentation  we had six interactive breakout groups covering:-

• Talking to babies
  

• What is normal in language development?
  

• Getting ready for school
  

• Children don't listen to you?
  

• Where do you go for help?
  

• The importance of sleep
  

The groups were led by a speech & language specialist, a parent, a librarian, a home-school liaison worker,  a nursery nurse and a facilitator.

1000th Parent Landmark Reached


Members of the course for parents of teenagers recieve their certificates

The 99th Parenting Course, run by the Forum, became a landmark event as one of its members was the 1000th parent to attend one of its courses.
After the final session of the teenage course Rosie Novis the chair of the Forum surprised the members by joining the facilitators to explain the importance of the occassion. She then  presented the 1000th parent with a small gift to commemorate the milestone.

The Summer 2011 Open Evening

'Juggling skills for Mums'
How to survive the pressures of being a parent and keep sane

Our well-attended Summer meeting helped us all to think about our priorities in life. Deirdre McBurney, Life Skills coach and mother of 3 boys gave a lively talk about managing our daily lives, so we have time for the really important things in life.

Some of the points to think about:

• Consider the things that are really important to you in life.
  

• Look at your friends – value and enjoy those who matter to you, but consider how much value the other supposed friends are who don’t actually add anything particular to your life.
  

• Don’t waste time on things like chatting on the phone – if it is important fine, if not forget it.
  

• Spend time with your partners – have a ‘hot date’ on a Friday night, when you do a special but simple meal and spend quality time talking and sharing things together and think of nothing else.
  

• Activities with your children, as a family, so that you all enjoy being together and they learn from you
  

• Learn to say No to things you really do not want to do, instead of just putting things off to a later date.
  

• Find ways to relax and recharge your batteries.
  

The Autumn Open Meeting and AGM

The proceedings were started with the  AGM when the chair presented the Trustees' report and the treasurer the accounts for the last year. The new committe of seventeen; comprising the trustees, committee members and advisors, was elected by members. The accounts and report have been lodged with the Charity Commission.


If you were feeling at all stressed before you came to the AGM on October 12, then you would certainly be feeling relaxed afterwards! Chilling out was the order of the day.

Sandra Hörmann gave us a fascinating and very relaxing talk entitled;

‘IMPROVE FAMILY LIFE realistically and without effort!’

She encouraged us to find the secret of how to understand and value ourselves, our children and our time. You could have heard a pin drop as she led us through relaxation techniques and visualisation and whilst there may have been a few who nearly fell asleep, her calm, reassuring voice kept us all listening. The 40+ attendees seemed to leave in a relaxed state and gave very positive feedback.

The techniques really do work – I tried it on my grand-daughter who as a typical seven year old is always on the move and finds concentration difficult as her mind is so active. She responded well and seemed much more focused and relaxed. It may be a little harder to try out on my two-year-old grandson!

The Forum, in partnership with the Billericay Childrens Centre and the Extended Service of the Billericay Community Trust, has launched a website dedicated to provide signposting to a large number of family related services provided in the Billericay area. Links are also provided to national organisations.
Why not check it out ?

www.billericayfamilies.com

The Summer Open Meeting

First we had a short presentation by the MEND 2-4 team including a short film taken at one of their sessions . MEND stands for Mind-Exercise-Nutrition-DoIt!!! and ten week courses are run for parents and their children aged 2 to 4. Why not have fun with your child while you both learn some important messages. The next course in Billericay runs from 24 September to 3 December. Further information is available from Carole on 01375 413462 or click here.

The talk and demonstrations given by David Soraf were well received by those attending. This action packed evening saw David preparing and cooking many dishes including lamb burger, a steak and vegetable pie, pizza, vegetable stir-fry, salmon and chicken dishes. Drinks were catered for by fruit infused water to have ready in the fridge for when the children get home and a lovely smoothy.  The chance for everyone to partake of the food was especially appreciated by those who had not eaten before coming. The serious message of the evening was to avoid where possible highly processed foods and try to use little or none of the white "poisons" sugar and salt.

The Spring 2010 Open Meeting

Our Spring Open meeting took the form of a worshop on Cyberbullying.

The aims of the workshop were to raise awareness about how cyber-bullying differs from other forms of bullying and increase parents'confidence in supporting their children. The team from the Essex County Council Behaviour Support Unit gave an interactive talk followed by a short DVD showing the impact of cyberbullying on a young teenager. You could of heard a pin drop. Cyberbullying can be 24/7 with no relief even when at home. It opened our eyes to just how many sources of "technology" can be used in bullying, not just the phone or computer. We managed to list out about 30, from mobile phone to playstation to chat-rooms; apparently some children listed up to 41. In groups we then discussed how we would react and what we would do if we found out that our child was being bullied and also how we would deal with our child if we found out he/she was actually bullying.
Surveys show up to 33% of children are affected at some time by cyberbulling and it is a growing problem. Do take the risk seriously, if you would like some tips click below-

Cyberbullying Tips

Parentchannel.tv is an exciting new online service being launched by Parenting UK and partners, as part of the Parent Know How Innovation Fund.

The Forum is pleased that it has been selected as one of six groups from across the country who will form a virtual community in accessing this new site. The forum will provide a group of fifteen parents who will share views on the videos, ease of use of the site and act as a sounding board for prioritising topics.

This new website offers parents short and engaging videos about problems they may face as parents. It provides a new way of supporting parents and carers, especially those not currently accessing services.
The videos are designed for parents with children from the ages of 5-19 and range across three main categories of learning, behaviour and well-being. Through the website and videos, parents will be offered practical advice delivered by parents and experts combined with signposting to other resources and organisations.
We recommend that you take a look at this exciting new site

www.parentchannel.tv

We would be delighted to hear your views of this new site, to do so  click here

The Autumn 2009 Open Meeting

Sigrid Doktorowski from Essex Young People’s Drug & Alcohol Service gave a talk about drugs and alcohol with an emphasis on parents’ emotional reactions to the subject. Sigrid did, however, encouracge parents to learn as much as they can about the subject including the street names for the various drugs.
As with much of parenting good communication is vital and parents are advised to talk about the subject with their teenage children.

If you have concerns or would like advice do contact the service on 01245 493311

The Summer Open Meeting

Over eighty people turned up to hear Jon Gilmartin from I CAN give an inspirational talk on communicating with your child. Jon urged us to keep talking with children and said why it is so important to talk to your child from the moment s/he is born. Communication skills affect a child’s ability to learn, form relationships and make friends, as well as helping them express their feelings and needs. Without the right help at the right time, children can miss out and may never catch up.  
.
If you would like to look at the I CAN website click on the logo

Transition Sessions

In July the Forum  completed seven transition sessions held at local junior schools. Over 70 attended and from feedback felt that it was an evening well spent.
The Forum would like to wish the parents and their children well as they take that large step into secondary school

Open Evening on Knife Crime

Over 30 parents and students attended our Open Evening on Knife crime at Mayflower High School. The meeting was timed to follow on from the Year 7 students having attended the Essex Police award winning "2SMART Roadshow". Ann Oakes-Odger who has established KnifeCrimes.org spoke about the impact of losing her son to a mindless knife attack. Julie Dawes, our Community Police Officer explained the law and also the no tolerance policy implemented by the police and schools regarding students found with knives. Advice was given to help parents to support their teenagers and tactics to keep young people safe were suggested. It was emphasised that it is "Not Cool to carry a knife".  
Again it was emphasised that knife crime was not a big problem in Billericay or Essex and sessions like this help to ensure that it stays that way.

Prestigious Award for the Forum

At its February East of England conference the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners presented the Forum with an award "For work with parents that is innovative, sustainable and unique within the Eastern Region"

 
Celebrates its Second Year

The December meeting of the TiME group will be its second anniversary. Initially the meetings were held monthly but with the help from a grant from  NHS SW Essex we were able to run twice a month. Since September the sessions have been run in Partnership with the "Billericay Children's Centre" and continue to be supported by local Health Visitors.

Launch of "Be a Better Parent" DVD

The "Be a Better Parent" DVD was officially launched on Friday May 25th. by John Baron, MP for Billericay. The DVD, produced by Essex Media Workshop for Billericay Parents Forum, was funded by Billericay Education Community (BEC) as part of a commissioning agreement with Essex County Council. The DVD will be available to all schools in BEC to use with parents and encourage them to join our courses.

Chairman (Mark Conlon) welcomed the 50 guests and Rosie Novis spoke about the DVD, the Forum’s achievements and the value of working with our partners.  Heather Stuart (Extended Schools Co-ordinator for BEC) endorsed the Forum’s work, saying she herself had benefited from attending a course.

John Baron said that the DVD would be a very useful resource and thanked the team of facilitators and committee for all the hard work that they put into making the project a success. He wished the Forum continued success in providing a valuable service in the community.