Parent Coffee Meetings and Support Groups for Parents/Carers
We aim to work in partnership with parent/carers to meet the needs of every child.
We have termly Coffee Mornings and Afternoons where parent/carers are invited to meet with the Wellbeing Team to hear about what we are doing in school to support the children.
Spring 2026 Support
Spring Term Support
SPACE Coffee Morning - Thursday 22nd January at 9:15am
We are very pleased that peer educators from SPACE will be attending our next BFPS SEN and Additional Needs ‘Cuppa and Cake’ morning on Thursday 22nd January at 9:15am. Please find attached poster. We have asked for SPACE to specifically support with guidance on co-regulating emotions which lead to after school distress as this is an area that many parent/carers have asked for support with.
SPACE is a new service that offers free support to families of children and young people with SEND. We are very lucky that SPACE will be joining us in school to offer their services.
Please find below link to their website and details of the types of support they can offer:
Advice on SEND | Support for Parents And Carers in Essex - https://parent-send-support.essex.gov.uk/advice-send
Understand and support your child's needs
Understanding your child's behaviour, sensory needs, demand avoidance, visual supports.
Guidance on eating, sleeping, toileting, self-organisation and planning.
Brothers and sisters becoming Young Carers, explaining a SEND diagnosis to a child or young person.
Education and school engagement
School applications and attendance difficulties, communicating between home and school, after-school distress, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Mental Health Support Teams (MHST)
Growing independence and future planning
How to get Personal Budgets to help fund support, preparing to start work, vocational profiling.
This ‘Cuppa and Cake’ event is aimed at all parent/carers who have children with special educational needs, or who may be wondering about additional needs and would like to find out more about how to support their children at home. You do not need to have a child on the SEN register or with a medical diagnosis to attend. Come along for a coffee and hear more about it or just take the opportunity to meet us and other parents/carers in school.
Understanding your child's anxiety - Friday 6th February at 1:30pm
As you will be aware Barnes Farm Primary School are once again working with the Mid-Essex Mental Health Support Team this year.
We recently had a MHST coffee morning in September, and one of the areas that parent/carers requested support in was understanding anxiety in children. We have had a significant rise in requests to school from parent/carers to support with anxiety, so we very much value the MHST supporting our families. They have offered a face-to-face workshop to take place in school on Friday 6th February at 1:30pm. As a result of the workshop, further support may be available if needed.
This workshop will be particularly useful for those children who have worries about friendships, changes to routine at home at school, and who find it difficult to express how they are feeling. We have had excellent feedback from past workshops and parent/carers have found them reassuring and informative.
The workshop is aimed at all parent/carers who have children with special educational needs, or who may be wondering about additional needs and would like to find out more about how to support their children at home. You do not need to have a child on the SEN register or with a medical diagnosis to attend. Come along for a cuppa and cake and hear more about it or just take the opportunity to meet us and other parents/carers in school.
We also run support groups for parent/carers, such as ParentGym and TPP for Families and regularly invite outside agencies and charities in to support our families.
We will be arranging ParentGym sessions soon for the Spring Term: Please see below session overview:
Week 1 - 'Chat' - Get you and your child talking and listening in a positive way every day.
Week 2 'Love' - Boosting your child's confidence, with a balance between closeness and independence.
Week 3 'Behave' - Bring calm to your family with rules and routines that really work.
Week 4 'Care' - Keep yourself and your family healthy and happy with good sleep, eating and exercise.
Week 5 'Discover' - Help develop healthy learning habits with your child, including managing screen time.
Week 6 'Together' - Keep your family feeling happy, supported and loved.