Young Carers

At The Henry Box School we are very proud of the support we provide for those students who help care for and support a member of their family. In 2016 we were awarded the Oxfordshire County Council Gold Standard and The Young Carers in Schools Silver award in recognition of the quality of care we give to our Young Carers.

How The Henry Box School supports Young Carers

Young carers generally care for and support members of their immediate family who may be:

• A parent with an illness, disability, mental health problem or dependency on alcohol or drugs
• An elderly grandparent who is frail, or who has a health problem or disability
• A brother or sister who has a health problem or disability

When a young person helps to look after someone in their family, they may need a little extra support to help them get the most out of school. We have been working to raise awareness throughout Henry Box of the particular needs that Young Carers may have. In this way we aim to provide a safe and supportive environment for those students who may have more responsibility at home than their peers.

We aim to understand the issues faced by Young Carers and to support any student who helps to look after or support somebody at home. For example:

• We can provide students with confidential support and advice in school.
• We work closely with Oxfordshire Young Carers Service and can put students and their families in touch with them and other support services.
• We respect students’ right to privacy as a young carer and will only share information about them and their family with people who need to know so that they can help the student.
• Where possible we can negotiate deadlines for homework, controlled assessments etc in advance of these being set. (We may not be able to change deadlines for some things, such as certain controlled assessments which are part of an externally moderated module.)

At The Henry Box School we appreciate that there are many impacts on students who provide care or support and we do our best to meet the needs of our Young Carers in school. We encourage parent(s)/carer(s) to let us know if their child is a Young Carer.

We welcome any young person, parent or family member who wishes to discuss their family circumstances so that we can help their child in achieving.

 

For more information, please contact our Inclusion department: email inclusion@henrybox.oxon.sch.uk