Parents

Year 12 Parents Information Evening - Thursday 28th September 2023, 5:00-7:00pm

Year 12 Futures Evening - Thursday 7th March 2024, 4:00-8:00pm

Year 12 Parents' evening - Thursday 6th June 2024, Timings TBC

At LAE Tottenham we are happy to extend support from our aSpace counselling service to parents who may also be having some difficulties with their mental and emotional wellbeing.

Understanding emotional and mental wellbeing

Life has ups and downs for everyone. Research in public health tells us that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives. 

We all benefit from support

One reason these statistics are high is because many of us still feel embarrassment or even shame if we are struggling to manage, so we fail to ask for support. We may imagine that receiving help is too exposing or a sign of weakness or even failure. It can be tempting to believe that if we don't focus on our troubles, they'll just 'go away'.

However, we now know that emotional wellbeing is not simply the absence of mental illness. Just like physical health, if we don't manage our emotional wellbeing, we will be at greater risk of developing mental health issues further down the line. We usually have no difficulty booking an appointment with our local GPs - seeking help from professionals such as counsellors or therapists when life gets too much should be just as straightforward and non-stigmatising. Discussing our private feelings and our personal or family difficulties may not feel very comfortable at first, but it does get easier, especially if we remember that everyone has challenges sooner or later, regardless of their class, race, culture or outward successes.

Working on our emotional wellbeing 

Some days will feel better than others! We know we are doing well when we:  

• Feel relatively confident in ourselves and have positive self-esteem 

• Feel, and appropriately express, our different emotions

• Can maintain our relationships and manage personal boundaries

• Feel connected with the world around us

• Adapt and manage stress in times of change and uncertainty 

Counselling is a form of support that we can benefit from, as it helps us to: 

• Accept that we can't avoid painful feelings and difficult experiences, but we can try to understand what happened, strengthen our capacity to face the feelings and, in the process, learn more about ourselves and human relationships in general 

• Accept that we all have some limitations and we need not feel shame or embarrassment if we get things wrong, make bad choices or have personal or family troubles - we can learn from them

• Identify our strengths and abilities and build on them.

A Space for Support at LAET offers just what it says – a space to think through what’s on your mind and to feel supported. Everyone can benefit from having space and time for reflection.  Life is complex - we all have challenges to deal with at some point or another. And, at the moment, perhaps the Lockdown is bringing up feelings that you’re finding hard to manage on your own. Sometimes we just need to talk things through with someone who is trained to listen, who can help us make sense of personal difficulties and also help us to view things from a different perspective.

If you’d like to use the A Space counselling service for a confidential phone call, please contact Paul Spraggs at LAET (020 8352 6020 or paul.spraggs@laetottenham.ac.uk), who’ll put you in touch with one of the A Space counsellors.

ABOUT US: A Space for Support was set up in 1997 by the Glass-House Trust (a Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust) in partnership with The Social Science Research Unit (University of London) and the Hackney Education Authority. We provide therapeutic services to schools as well as engaging in research, delivering training, writing books and publishing resources. www.aspaceinhackney.org  

Resources for parents

1. https://www.camhs-resources.co.uk/coronavirus 

2. https://www.parentclub.scot/topics/health/coronavirus

3. https://www.camhs-resources.co.uk/

4. Tips on parenting during the coronavirus outbreak: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/coronavirus/parenting-during-coronavirus-outbreak