With lockdown restrictions easing and better weather coming, our services have been able to take full advantage of our fantastic allotment in the West End of Newcastle.

During the Easter break, our Young People’s Service and Families and Parenting service have been able to fully utilise our allotment to meet with our groups face to face for the first time this year.  With added funding from Newcastle City Council’s Holiday Activity Fund for our Best Easter Ever, we’ve been able to increase activities which have included Easter Egg Hunts, maintenance of the allotment and planting of the veggie patches.

Young People from our Boys’ Group meeting at our allotment

Young People from our Girls’ Group meeting at our allotment

Highlighting the invaluable resource our allotment provides, Denise Gilholme, Youth Team Manager at our Young People’s Service, said:

“Use of the allotment provides a valuable space in which our young people can meet in a socially distanced environment.  The therapeutic benefits of working together, in an outdoor environment, alongside the simple act of having lunch with friends, are phenomenal in terms of supporting everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.  Just switching off from the virtual world away from what must seem 24-hour screen use, has proven to be a much needed activity for both young people and staff.”

“In more ways than one, the allotment offers a place to grow for young people.  Alongside the Holiday Activity Fund, we’ve received support from the Co-op Local Community Fund, we have been able to invest in new tools.  To bear fruit from this labour, we are also in the process of employing a Youth Worker to support the increased use and development of the work utilising such an invaluable outdoor space and resource especially in response to recovering post-Covid!”

Children in the West End of Newcastle have been enjoying a host of activities during the Easter holidays as part of Children North East’s work with Newcastle’s Best Easter Ever, a holiday activity scheme, supporting the city’s 5-18 year olds through a combination of sport, play & proper nutrition.

From egg decorating and biscuit making to planting up seeds, the activities provided by our Families and Parenting team have been both educational and fun, giving families a friendly destination during the children’s time off school.

Suzanne Gibson, mum of Carlos, 12 and six-year-old Oscar (pictured above) said she was really pleased to have somewhere to bring the boys this holiday. “It’s something different for the kids. There’s not much for them to do and they would probably be bored of doing the same thing in the house. This brings them out to meet other kids, which is great.”

Manan Abdulla, said bringing her four-year-old twins, Kamal and Algarim, to Cowgate Community Centre had cheered up their school holidays too. “It’s very nice here, it’s happy,” Manan said.

Kamal enjoyed planting up bee friendly seeds with his mum  (above) while Algarim was more interested in playing cars with the other children.

Emily Frewin, a sessional family practitioner with Children North East, said the children had got a lot out of the crafts she and other staff had laid on. “They’ve made bunny masks, planted up seeds including vegetables and decorated biscuits – which is always a hit, especially the eating part!”

The activities at Cowgate and Blakelaw community centres are just one part of our charity’s contribution to Newcastle’s Best Easter Ever. Our Poverty Proofing and Participation team have been taking play to people’s gardens through their ‘Playful Lives’ project that ran so successfully during last summer and our youth team have been engaging with young people around the West End through a detached youth work programme.

The programme continues into next week, so any parents interested in bringing their children along to sessions should check out our Facebook page or phone 07895 253160 for details.

South Shields singer/songwriter Joe McElderry is the latest musician to lend his support to a special charity project which aims to celebrate our region’s rich musical heritage.

Joe joined the young people who attend Children North East’s Fabulous and Brilliant (FAB) Group on Zoom as part of their new ‘Voices of the Tyne’ research.

‘Voices of the Tyne’ is all about exploring North East music and giving a platform to both established and emerging artists.

The group is working on a ‘Voices of the Tyne’ website, due to launch in May, which is being built by one of FAB group’s members, Peter, who is studying Computing at Northumbria University.

And Haydon, another FAB attendee, who is studying Technical Theatre at Newcastle College, has conducted interviews with Joe and several other musicians for the filmed Q&As that will appear on the website.

Joe (pictured talking to Haydon above) just happens to be an icon for Haydon and fellow FAB member, Callum and it was a particular thrill for them to meet him.

Haydon said: “Me and Callum are fan boys! My interview didn’t go completely as planned – I had lots of questions written down, including ‘What was it like to work with George Michael?’ but I ended up asking him whether he’d ever thought of getting a Claire’s Accessories sponsorship as he’s been rocking different hair bands during Lockdown!”

Luckily Joe took it all in good humour. Haydon added:

“Joe had no arrogance, he just had this lovely calm, very sweet personality and it was so lovely to meet him.”

Callum is a great fan of the musical, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and Joe is his favourite Joseph – in fact he’s seen Joe perform in the show at least three times.

The ‘Voices of the Tyne’ project began in March and Haydon has also chalked up chats with two voices of the Wear – Barry Hyde of art pop group, The Futureheads and Kev Dosdale of Field Music.

Paige Temperley has also had the honour of being interviewed by our Haydon. Paige is an emerging artist with a new single out on Spotify (other streaming services are also available) called Whos’ Gonna Want Me? Why not give it a listen here?

As if all that wasn’t enough, theatre company, Twisting Ducks have been working with FAB group members, Thomas and William to produce a spoof Ant and Dec comedy sketch, which will also launch on the new website. And dance teacher, Lyn Campbell, of Get Connected, has worked with the group to choreograph a dance to Little Mix’s ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, one of their favourite songs.

The FAB group is for young people with disabilities and meets weekly on Zoom to socialise and have fun. The group also acts as a voice for other disabled young people in Newcastle, sharing their views with decision makers about accessibility issues and sitting on interview panels.

Are you looking for a way to spend some time over the Easter holidays?  Our fantastic designers have put together this rather lovely colouring ‘book’ that you can download and print to help get your creative juices flowing.

If you scroll to the end of the ‘book’ there’s a fantastic ‘Happy Easter’ colouring sheet that would look lovely stuck in your window to cheer up passers-by too.

Download your colouring book here

An ‘administrative’ change to the way in which pupil premium funding is allocated to schools will leave schools in the region short between £5.16 million and £7.26 million in the coming financial year.

The calculation for pupil premium has been changed by the government so that it will now be based on the number of pupils who were eligible for free school meals (FSM) in October 2020, rather than January 2021, as has previously been the case. Analysis of newly-available data suggests there was an increase of 5,400 pupils in receipt of FSM across the North East between the school census of October 2020 and that of January 2021, but schools won’t receive pupil premium funding for these students.

Regional organisations Children North East, Schools North East and the North East Child Poverty Commission have joined forces to write a letter to the Education Secretary to urge him to reverse this decision to change the way in which pupil premium funding is calculated, and to base the pupil premium calculation on the January 2021 census. The Department for Education has repeatedly committed to supporting our schools and ‘to do everything possible to ensure that no child, whatever their background, falls behind as a result of coronavirus.’ However, this change will seriously impact the ability of schools to support a growing number of disadvantaged students in the coming year.

Schools North East Director, Chris Zarraga said:

In a year where many families have faced difficulties with furlough and widespread redundancies, the number of students eligible for pupil premium has increased. However, this decision from the government means schools won’t receive the money they need to properly support those students, and existing high levels of deprivation and a wider gap in learning loss means that schools in our region are likely to be hit even harder than elsewhere. With school budgets already suffering due to continuing outgoing costs of Covid safety measures, this will have a serious detrimental impact on our students who have already suffered significant disruption over the last year.

Director of the North East Child Poverty Commission, Amanda Bailey said:

We all know the Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on people’s lives and livelihoods and these new figures illustrate quite how stark that economic impact has been for thousands of families across our region, given how stringent the free school meal threshold currently is. It’s not right that some of the most disadvantaged pupils in the North East could lose the additional support they are entitled to as a result of this change, not least after the enormous upheaval they have faced to their education and wider lives over the last twelve months. Providing additional funding with one hand, whilst taking it away with the other totally undermines the Government’s pledge to support students through this pandemic.

Children North East have seen first-hand the challenges many schools and their pupils are experiencing across the region. Some schools Children North East have worked with through their Poverty Proofing the School Day programme have implemented various initiatives as a result of the pupil premium funding. Headteacher of Ridgeway Primary Academy, Alex Golden shared:

Pupil premium allows us to make sure that we can meet children’s needs and make sure that they are not disadvantaged by their out of school experiences.

Assistant Principal at Kenton School, Sarah Price also shared:

In order to support our pupils who are in receipt of the pupil premium we have delivered weekly food parcels to families, supported with utility bills so that they didn’t go cold over the winter, provided access to the internet in order to ensure pupils were able to keep up with their home learning and funded transport to allow vulnerable pupils to attend during the closure.

The joint letter from Children North East, Schools North East and the North East Child Poverty Commission to the Education Secretary can be read here.

Children North East has also prepared a briefing on pupil premium, including further information on what it is, eligibility criteria, how it’s used and case studies from Jarrow School and Kenton School on how this pupil premium is used. You can read or download the briefing here.

School Research and Delivery Practitioner, Gwen Dalziel, shares details of a new online, interactive storytelling game, offering a fun and engaging way to support children’s mental health:

I’ve been thinking a lot about how in Covid times we all seem to be in a constant state of doing at least two things at a time.

We are expected to be experts at our job and now IT consultants or at least IT competent!  Many of us have had a steep learning curve to adapt the way we work and harness technology in a more widespread way to be able to carry on.  As parents, we have faced the dual role of teacher and parent while probably failing miserably to be good enough company so our little ones don’t miss their friends too much. Schools have squared up to unprecedented demands to offer learning in-person and online while desperately trying to support their communities through change, loss and tough times.

At the moment I’m involved in helping schools to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of their pupils. We at Children North East have joined forces with our esteemed colleagues at Mortal Fools to offer schools a wonderful resource – the MELVA game.

MELVA is an interactive digital resource for KS2 children.  The resource consists of a game for electronic media interspersed with activities for the classroom or at home. Not only is it great fun but it does a serious job too. It allows schools to fulfil their obligations for supporting mental health and relationship education. This amazing tool supports busy school staff to ensure the continuation of this compulsory aspect of the curriculum, while also offering an opportunity for parents to engage in key wellbeing discussions.

The best part is that the MELVA game is a great multitasker. If we all have to do more than one thing at once, well then why shouldn’t our resources. A great game that teachers and parents can do together, and it provides space for these relationships to flourish. It adapts to all students and different circumstances; it is suitable for use in the classroom when school communities can be together and remotely, accessed for home learning or in periods of self-isolation. Or a blended mixture of both!

Multitasking can be hard; while MELVA as a tool develops coping strategies for the young, it also reminds us to look after ourselves and our worries. We can tell ourselves sometimes the pressure of doing two things at a time can be good bringing creative and efficient development, but we need to look after our well-being too. Engaging with a fun resource like Melva means we can enable young people to support their own well-being alongside, if you use it with young people, being reminded of the importance of looking after our own.

Any schools interested in accessing the MELVA game please contact Gwen Dalziel at [email protected] | 07936 369405. You can also find out more in the MELVA leaflet.