Our Early Help Offer

Darley Churchtown Church Of England Primary School works to provide Early Help to all of the families in our school community. 

Since September 2024 we have been providing Early Help through our school's Inclusion Team.

Our own Family Support Worker works closely alongside school staff (including our Deputy Inclusion Leader and SENCO). They also work alongside a variety of agencies. 

What is Early Help?

Early Help is a way of getting extra support when you or your family needs it, but getting it as soon as the difficulties start, rather than waiting until things get worse. It’s for children and young people of any age.

Help can come from all kinds of services and organisations who work together to support your family. You might be using some of these services already, but we want to make sure they are providing the right support for you and your family’s needs.

Who is our Family Support worker?

• Alex Southall

How do we contact our Family Support worker?

Alex can be contacted via our school office and via: earlyhelp@matlockanddales.derbyshire.sch.uk.

What support can they provide?

Alex provides a wide range of trained support. Most importantly, she is available for little and often, daily contact.

Alex also runs coffee mornings throughout the year for parents / carers, often with guest speakers. For example, last year we ran sessions on:

• Sleep workshop;

• Derbyshire Autism coffee morning;

• First Steps eating disorder coffee morning;

• Online Safety with PC Dufton;

• Year 6 to Secondary transition.

The Solihull Approach

Our Family Support Worker and our Deputy Inclusion Leader are both trained Solihull practitioners.

The Solihull Approach is about emotional health and wellbeing for all children, their parents, carers and grandparents.

We are passionate about sensitive relationships, early years support and understanding brain development to help nurture kind, emotionally aware children as they grow.

Social, Emotional & Mental Health support for children

Our school and partnership provides a strong offer of social, emotional and mental health support for children of all ages, from 4 - 11.

You can find out more about the support we provide using the links below.

Social, Emotional & Mental Health support for parents and carers

Our Inclusion Team run a series of coffee mornings and individual sessions to support parents and carers including:

• Positive Parenting;
• TeenLife (autism parenting course);

Our coffee mornings are advertised on our school Facebook page, and on our website and newsletters. We hope to see you soon.

Other services to be aware of