Family Support Workers
Our names are Hannah Aldridge, Debbie Stagg and Sinead Ashcroft, we are the Family Support Workers at Freemantles School.
Our roles are to help provide a link between the School and home and to offer support and guidance to you, whilst your child is at our School. At Freemantles we believe that if we work in partnership together, we can help to achieve the best outcome for your child. By sharing important information with each other and learning from one another, we can enhance your child’s learning and help them to be happy and safe.
We are here to offer support when needed or wanted, to listen, to answer your questions to the best of our ability, to understand your concerns, to help find information from other agencies and try to ease worries whenever possible.
No matter how large or small an issue may seem, we are always available to have a chat, on the phone, by email, meeting at school or we can come to your home.
We organise and attend the Parents’ Groups and are available at Parents’ Evenings should you wish to speak to us.
Throughout their time at school, our children go through many different stages; starting in reception, moving from class to class, Primary to Secondary and Secondary on to the Further Education Department. It can often be very difficult for them as they experience a range of both emotional and physical changes during this time and this can affect all of you as a family.
We want to help make these changes as smooth as possible, so by talking things through and offering a friendly ear, we can try to help support you through these tricky times.
We aim to do this by:
- Facilitating communication between the School and yourselves
- Organising support groups and drop-ins, to offer advice and a chance for you to talk informally with other parents / carers
- Offering one to one support and advice in a non-judgemental environment
- Arranging a home visit where necessary
- Arranging guest speakers at School, to advise on a range of topics
- Providing clear guidance on Special Educational Needs and offering support with your child’s autism
- Helping you to understand and access information from external agencies, that can offer support to your child
- Signposting for charities and grants for specialist equipment
- Helping you to get the correct financial support with benefit checking assessments
- Keeping you updated with local upcoming events and groups that might be of interest
- Providing practical help and emotional support to you and your child, during times of crisis
- Providing support to you and your child, during times of change at School
- Providing support with form filling for DLA and DVLA
- Supporting parents at professional meetings for social care, health etc
- Helping to complete Transport applications and appeals
- Completing referrals for specialist dentist appointments and the continence service
- Providing supporting letters where necessary
We also run the Home Extended Learning Project (HELP Programme) which usually consists of 6x 1 hour sessions carried out at home after school. Two HELP practitioners implement strategies at home that are known to work at school for the student, with the aim of parents taking over and continuing with them.
Both Debbie and Hannah are Sleep Practitioners, through 'Sleep Scotland,' and provide support for all our families. This process starts with an initial assessment followed by a tailored programme.
If we can be of any help or you would like to speak to us about any matter, you can contact us on:
Hannah Aldridge - Senior Family Support, DDSL (Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) and Sleep Practitioner.
Mobile: 07704 338 799 Email: haldridge@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk
Debbie Stagg - Family Support, Intensive Interaction Coordinator, Sleep Practitioner and Teen Life Trainer.
Email: dstagg@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk
Sinead Ashcroft - Family Support.
Email: sashcroft@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk
Jane Smith and Jo Dwyer - EHCP Coordinators and Family Support Admin
Email: fsa@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk
