York children set to take walk to school week in their stride

 
Twenty five York schools and over 7,000 pupils across the city are set to take part in Walk to School Week from Monday 16 October.

Walk to school week aims to get even more children walking, cycling or scooting to school.

The school that gets the highest number of pupils walking, cycling or scooting throughout the week will win the coveted Jack Archer award and £200 to put towards sports equipment.

It is recommended that children aged five to sixteen do at least sixty  minutes of physical activity that gets their heart beating faster than usual and they need to do it everyday to burn off calories and prevent them storing up excess fat in the body.

Regular activity is also important for adults and it is recommended that adults make sure they’re active for just 30 minutes each day, or 150 minutes a week.

The scheme is also targeted at families who normally take the car, and encourages them to consider walking or cycling to school instead.

Residents can find out more about changing the way they travel in York at: www.itravelyork.info
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York makes safeguarding everybody’s business

Helping everybody understand that safeguarding is their business is a line-up of events from the York partners joining in national Safeguarding Week from 9-13 October.

The Safeguarding Boards for Adults and Children and Safer York Partnership along with partners such as City of York Council, York Hospital, CVS, domestic abuse experts IDAS, North Yorkshire Police and The Retreat have published a programme of activities and seminars to help put the safeguarding of children and adults firmly at the fore of residents’ and professionals’ minds.

Mindfulness courses and ‘Confident parent, confident child’ and ‘Fit food, fit kids’ classes from York Learning are available from the council and will be promoted during the week.

  • The NHS Trust’s children and adult safeguarding teams will be on hand at York Hospital throughout the week to chat and meet visitors’, staff and patients alike.
  • Two introductory courses on safeguarding adults, plus a chance to ask questions on adults at risk, will take place on 11 October at the Gateway Centre, Front Street, Acomb, and on 13 October at Tang Hall Community Centre from 2-4:30pm. Please book a place with Penny.hutchinson@york.gov.uk
  • Nelli’s Cafe at New Earswick Methodist Church will host a drop-in question and answer session with the chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board Kevin McAleese on 11 October from 10am-12noon.
  • Come and chat about the ‘Strength and Wellbeing’ display in North Yorkshire Police’s mobile depot in Parliament Street on 11 October – when council staff will join them – and on 13 October from 9am-4pm.
  • IDAS will run a workshop on healthy relationships for practitioners working with children and adults on 11 October.
  • On the same day York CVS will run a seminar on the lasting effects of grooming which is open for workers in the voluntary sector, before holding its first ever parents’ forum run by its nursery team.
  • The Retreat is offering adult social services practitioners a seminar on safeguarding covering positive risk taking, partnership working and promoting positive wellbeing.

Among the social media activities by partners will be signposting services such as social prescribing which can support strength and wellbeing.

The full programme of events for Safeguarding Week is at: www.safeguardingadultsyork.org.uk
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Some surprises as Chapelfields residents give their views on public services

Younger residents want better play, sports and youth club facilities

Failure to repair the bus shelter – damaged 3 months ago – was criticised by many

A door to door survey of residents views, undertaken by the Westfield Ward Councillors and helpers, has revealed the top priorities of Chapelfields residents. 170 households completed questionnaires with the top priorities for local improvements being:

  • Better parking facilities
  • The reinstatement of a regular skip service (halted by the council in April) and
  • Better maintenance of trees/bushes & verges.

:There were a lot of concerns about security. 38% of residents described policing in the area as “poor”.

For the first time the survey included a separate section aimed at finding out the priorities of younger people.

The responses revealed that listening to music and watching TV were the most popular current pastimes.

Many respondents wanted to see better sports facilities with a usable football pitch a high priority.

The Grange Lane Park and Playground “needed an uplift” being described as “dirty and insecure”.

Some wanted to see more events at Sanderson House – the local community centre.

One child – with a more down to earth priority – said that she wanted to see the “ice cream man visit the estate earlier in the day”

All respondents gave a high priority to providing funding from the Ward Committee budget for younger persons activities.

71% of respondents rated the Acomb Explore Library as good or satisfactory with 57% giving similar support to the Energise leisure centre.

For the first time in the annual survey the bus service was the top rated public service 97% rated it as good or satisfactory.

A full analysis of the Chapelfields Residents survey can be downloaded by clicking here

The residents survey now being extended to cover the Kingsway West area

 

What’s on in York: Make peg dolls and animals

York Explore Library :

Wed 31 May :

10.00am – 12.00pm :

£3 for 1 adult and 1 child & £4 for 1 adult and 2 children

Peg DollsGet creative making animals and people using pegs and a variety of crafting materials. Artist and designer Kathryn Richardson will show you how. This fun activity is for children and accompanying adults to enjoy.

Booking is essential and tickets can be booked at any library.

For more information call York Explore Library on (01904) 552828 or york@exploreyork.org.uk.

Good and outstanding children’s services in York says Ofsted

School children

Eleven inspectors spent four weeks at the city council in November and December, examining all areas of services provided to children in the city.   They also spoke with groups of children, young people and their parents and carers.

Their inspection report is published today (7 February 2016).

It concludes “A wide range of effective services are in place to help children and families [in York] to access help and protection when they need it”.

Strong leadership, effective and committed front line staff and a well-established culture of listening to the voice of children and young people are features of York’s services singled out for specific praise by the regulator.

York’s Safeguarding Children Board was judged by Ofsted to be outstanding.  It is only the second safeguarding board in the country to be given the highest rating.

The children in care council, ‘Show Me That I Matter’ also gets special mention. The inspectors highlight how it works very hard to influence how children in care are understood.
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Primary and secondary school applications open 12 September 2016

Applications for City of York Council school places for September 2017 open on Monday 12 September 2016 at Secret Life 5 YearOldGroup10--(None)_A2www.york.gov.uk/schooladmissions

Parents and carers of children born between 1 September 2012 and 31 August 2013, are invited to apply for places in the reception class at their chosen York primary schools. Also, parents and carers of children who have just started in Year 6 may apply for a place in Year 7 at secondary school from today.

All details and answers to frequently asked questions can be found at www.york.gov.uk/guideforparents. The guide, updated for 2017 admissions, contains information on school admissions and appeals processes as well as information on admissions statistics, oversubscription criteria and other information for parents and carers. Also online are details for service families and information on fair access.

School contact details are also available through this website, to help parents and carers to find out when any open evenings or days might be held or to arrange school visits.

For more detailed information, please email: education@york.gov.uk or call
.

Aspire to More – Celebrating the Participation of Children And Young People in Care

York’s Children in Care Council, is hosting an event on 13 September to celebrate the achievements of children and young people in care.

Members of the council, known as Show Me That I Matter (SMTIM) will celebrate their newest project Aspire to More www.aspiretomore.wordpress.com. It includes a series of posters and a website produced by Inspired Youth aimed at inspiring other children in care and care leavers to live their dreams.

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Police out tonight keeping York safe for young people

hoodyOrganisations in York are working together this summer to help children and young people enjoy their holiday safely right from the start.

Over the school holidays, North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council will head Operation Liberate, an initiative that will identify young people in potentially vulnerable situations, and take steps to keep them safe.

While York is a very safe city, young people may be at risk due to their location, the time of day, their peer group and the potential for anti-social behaviour.

Operation Liberate ran for the first time in 2015, and got underway this year on Saturday 23 July. Under the operation, young people identified to be potentially at risk can be brought to a designated ‘place of safety’. There, they will be spoken to and advised by police and volunteers, and referred on to other organisations if necessary.

Partner agencies including domestic abuse charity IDAS, the NHS, Lifeline and the council will work together with specially-trained volunteers to ensure any particularly vulnerable young people get the support they need.

Inspector Lee Pointon, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “It’s vital that we do everything we can to help young people in York keep safe. During the summer holidays, some youngsters may find themselves in potentially harmful situations. We and partner organisations can support them, to ensure they don’t put themselves at unnecessary risk.

“Operation Liberate is all about working together to support these young people so we can identify their needs at an early stage and help avoid any problems recurring in the future.”

All York schools to benefit from mental health project

childrens-mental-health-matters-utaheasy2loveA partnership of City of York Council, the Vale of York CCG and York schools has agreed funding to roll out a pilot project to further improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people across the whole city.

Each of York’s six geographical clusters of schools will now have a dedicated School Wellbeing Worker who will build on the very successful pilot undertaken in 2015/16, and whose results helped secure funding from the national Children’s Mental Health Transformation Programme, ‘Futures in Mind’.

While the pilot project involved three secondary and 17 primary schools, this next stage will involve all York’s schools. Funded by City of York Council (CYC), the schools and the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the pilot introduced a new form of partnership working between the council, the city’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and schools, in order to strengthen the emotional and mental health support arrangements for children and young people in school settings.

Although the health and wellbeing of children in York is known to be generally better than England’s average, the CAMHS Executive recognises the importance of giving high quality advice and support as soon as concerns emerge. This exciting project will ensure support is available from confident and capable professionals within the school community.

The School Wellbeing Workers will provide additional mental health capacity and expertise to local authority and academy schools across the city. They will focus on providing training, offering support and advice to pastoral staff, and delivering individual and group work to children and young people. This regular, proactive and consistent mental health resource which is based in schools, works alongside school staff with pastoral responsibility, to increase their confidence and competence as part of a co-ordinated and effective early response to children and young people’s mental health issues and concerns. The new team will also work with the city’s Primary Mental Health Workers and York Educational Psychology Service.

Feedback from young people involved in the pilot included: “I feel like I can share my feelings more, I know that I can talk to people. We have talked about solutions, it makes me feel like I can open up to everyone, it makes me want to come to school far more, it has improved my mood, it has made my self esteem go up and makes me want to get up in the morning.”
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