Family Support Services

The Family Support Team (FST) provides a service for parents and carers. It is a redefinition of the “Parents as Partners” philosophy, which has been part of Whitefield Schools and Centre practice for many years.

Aims

The role of Family Support is to involve parents and carers more actively in the education of, and decision making for, their children both in school and outside of school. As well as wanting to foster the interest of parents/carers, we are aware that parents/carers have an intimate knowledge of their children at home across a wide range of activities and experiences. Recognising this knowledge and commitment, we aim to support the development of a partnership with all the professionals involved with each child at school and beyond.

Personnel

FST staff are teachers with special educational needs experience, and some have management, consultancy and counselling qualifications. As members of Whitefield for a number of years in teaching and managerial capacities, those engaged in the work are familiar with all aspects of the life of Whitefield Schools and Centre and therefore well qualified to help parents/carers become more involved in the education of each young person.

Organisation

Family Support is distributed throughout the schools according to the differing needs of individual pupils and their families. Each parent and carer has access to a named Family Support Teacher and at least one team member will be available on each day of the week.

Resources

The main Family Support Team office houses an extensive Information Resource covering all special needs issues and local authority information.