Dear Parents, Carers and Students,

National Careers Week
We are partnering again this year with National Careers Week (NCW). National Careers Week is a one-week celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. Our aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people develop awareness and excitement about their future pathways.

Please find linked the resource booklet from NCW with downloads, videos and sessions for careers and progression of all kinds. We also have our very own Careers Newsletter, led by our prefect team and Mrs Williams (Director of Careers and Progression), with insights on skills developed in their leadership roles from our prefect team, alumni biographies, university trips and workplace visits, university interview preparation, and our new feature - Associate Staff Career Pathways!

Townley Community – Opportunity to be a Host Family
We are excited to announce a great volunteering opportunity for Townley Grammar School families. We would love you to apply to host international students from our partner schools: London Academy (Morocco) and Modern School (India). Students from Modern School, India, will be visiting from June 16th to 21st inclusive. Students from London Academy, Morocco, will be visiting from July 8th to 11th. This is a wonderful opportunity to participate in cultural exchange and all families within the Townley School community are invited to apply. Please read the FAQ document here, for more information and how to apply.

Professional Software Development After School Sessions – booking required
In partnership with Brainzie Ltd, the school is offering 12 after school sessions for students to learn about professional software development.  The course of 12 sessions costs £126 and will run every Wednesday after school, beginning Wednesday 23^rd April. 

There are 27 spaces that will be offered on a first come, first served basis.  See here For information on the course content and curriculum.  Booking will open for parents and students to sign up from 8am on Monday 10^th March – please go to the ‘Clubs’ area on the Arbor Parent Portal.

Period Empowerment Survey & Initiative
We are writing to inform you about the following optional survey that will be shared with students via the student Hubs and Tutors next week. This survey is designed to gather valuable insights to support an initiative focused on period empowerment.

This initiative is being led by the Co-Founder of EWOCAN (Empowered Women of Change Action Network) who also has a background in Finance, Asset, and Corporate Management. EWOCAN is a business and movement dedicated to uplifting and empowering women by addressing key challenges, particularly in education, health, and gender equality.  The "Period Empowerment Package" aligns with EWOCAN’s mission to transform menstruation into a positive and empowering experience. This initiative aims to ensure that young girls feel confident, informed, and supported by addressing critical gaps in period education, reducing stigma, and tackling period poverty. They recognise that challenges surrounding menstruation, such as lack of awareness, accessibility issues, and social stigma, have often been underestimated and normalised. Through this initiative, they aim to provide young women with practical tools for self-care, empowerment, and a sense of celebration.

To ensure this initiative is truly fit for purpose, a survey has been developed to gather direct insights from young women on their experiences, challenges, and needs. The responses will help refine the initiative to better address the realities faced by young women. We have attached a copy of the survey questions to the website version of the parent communications here, for your reference. Please take a moment to review them.  This survey is completely optional, and all responses will be kept confidential. Please could we ask parents/ carers to discuss this with their children in advance, especially if you have any reservations about them taking part.  We truly appreciate your support in facilitating this important research.

World Sleep Day – Friday 14th March 2025
Sleep is essential for physical, mental, and social well-being. Sleep problems can affect health and quality of life. Most sleep disorders are preventable or treatable. Better understanding of sleep conditions will help reduce the burden of sleep disorders. The theme of World Sleep day 2025 is Make Sleep Health a Priority. 

It is recommended teenagers have, on average, 8-10 hours of sleep a night. But, when it comes to good sleep, it isn’t just about the number of hours we sleep, it is also important that our sleep is good quality. This means that we fall asleep relatively quickly, we don’t wake up too often during the night, and that the amount of time spent in bed asleep is high. Generally, sleep is said to be of good quality if:

• the time it takes to fall asleep is less than 30 minutes,
• wakefulness once asleep is under 30 minutes,
• achieve the recommended sleep length for their age; and
• the percentage of time in bed spent asleep is more than 85%.

Please do take the opportunity to speak to your child and read the tips below to encourage sleep health:

• Create a calm, relaxing bedroom environment.
• Avoid screen time before bed.
• Establish a bedtime routine.
• Try to keep the bedroom free of screens and electrical devices.
• Encourage reading or quiet music instead of screen time.
• Try not to encourage young people to eat or drink anything before bed.
• Encourage young people to take a bath or shower before bed.
• Keep a diary to see if there are any patterns or behaviours that might be contributing to disrupted sleep.
• Seek medical advice if you are concerned about your child's sleeping behaviour.

FREE Sleep workshop for parents
Flare are a friendly group of parents and carers who benefit from regular, and always FREE workshops and training.  They are also a support group offering peer support on all the challenges of living with young people, anyone with children can join and benefit.  You can also access regular events, training and workshops, all completely free! Here’s some of the workshops either previously offered, or coming up soon, to give you an idea of what they offer:

• Hearing your child’s voice
• Managing your mental health and family life
• Understanding more about school refusal, how to work with the school and help your child through this tough time
• Online Safety – keeping up with current risks and how to talk to your child about internet use
• Sleep workshop – tips from a sleep consultant about helping your child develop a healthy sleep routine
• Transitioning your child from primary to secondary school

If you would like to sign up to their mailing list to get details of sessions please email: flare@bexleymoorings.co.uk.  Alternatively, if you are interested in attending a sleep workshop, please do complete the Flare registration form and return to flare@bexleymoorings.co.uk.

Information from Bexley MHST
Bexley MHST are the Mental Health in Schools Team, an NHS provision that hopes to help young people and parents by providing early intervention and preventative support.  We are actively trying to reduce stigma and increase accessibility to mental health services. MHST aim to help prevent serious, long-term mental health difficulties from developing in the future by providing education and guided self-help interventions at an early stage.  

 We work with numerous schools in the area, but we can only take referrals from schools we work with.  As we grow as a service we can expand into more schools – which has allowed us to bring our services to your school.  For adolescents, our core offer is 1:1 guided self-help for low mood and anxiety, as well as workshops and group interventions within the school.  We look forward to meeting the school community and working with you.

For more information or if MHST sounds like it could benefit you, Townley Grammar School have a designated Mental Health Lead who liaises with the MHST team, as well as the Family Liaison Officer.  Please approach pastoral school staff if you would like further information about MHST, or to discuss referrals. 

Invitation to attend Kooth Talks on SEND and Neurodiversity
The workshop will explore how Kooth and Qwell meets the needs of SEND & neurodivergent young people. The 30-minute webinar is designed for families, exploring how Kooth - with its 'out of hours' availability, anonymous digital chat support and asynchronous messaging - is well placed to meet the specific needs of neurodivergent young people. Dates: Tuesday 18th March, 6pm- 6:30pm / Thursday 20th March, 6pm- 6:30pm.

A place can be booked via the link here - if you are unable to attend at the above times, please select the 'I can't attend' option and they will email the recording and additional resources after the live session dates.  If you have any other queries, please contact them at parents@kooth.com.

Kind regards,

Miss H Mitchem
Deputy Headteacher