Woodfield Weekly Blue Sheet
Friday 1st March 2019
Dear Parents and Carers,
Attendance Lottery Winners:
Year 7: Ilhaan Year 8: Krishan Year 9 : Malakai KS4: Cynthia
Congratulations to our winners!
Sad News
It was with deep regret that we had to inform you about the recent loss in our school. In the early hours of Saturday 16 February 2019, Jamal Balogun sadly passed away as a result of the effects of his medical condition, Dravet Syndrome. He had a seizure in the night which caused further complications and despite the best efforts of the paramedics and hospital, they were unable to save him. This loss has raised many emotions and questions for our entire school and has impacted our students, staff and school community greatly.
Our school has a Therapy Team made up of professionals equipped to help with the needs of students and staff at difficult times such as this. We are also investigating some specialist input from an external provider to support further. We are all deeply saddened by Jamal’s loss to our school community and will make every effort to help your child understand and come to terms with Jamal’s passing.
There is a book of condolences in the school reception. Please feel free to leave messages. If you would like to support the family in anyway, they have asked the school to pass on information about the Dravet Syndrome UK charity website and the link page for donations. Click on the link to find out more. Please mention Jamal’s name if you make a donation.
Our continued thoughts are with Jamal’s family at this very difficult time.
eSafety Update- Houseparty and MOMO
As part of our effort to alert parents of e Safety issues, we'd like mention MOMO and Houseparty.
Momo has been around for the last 18 months and is not new. The media has mentioned it quite a bit lately. It was originally an app, but that has been removed, and it is now scary videos and challenges that are being distributed via WhatsApp, YouTube and online gaming (live streaming). It is scary. A simple tip is to turn off ‘auto play’ on YouTube and ensure that your contact details are hidden on WhatsApp. Make sure the ‘no fill’ option is ‘on’ within Fortnite and all settings within your Xbox and PlayStation are closed. Although MOMO is not nice, you should be aware that there are much worse things on the internet than this. Police also believe it is being used by hackers to harvest information. As always, we encourage pupils to tell an adult if they see or hear anything on line (or not) that upsets them, and encourage all parents and carers to be involved and actively supervise what your young children are watching, listening to or reading, whatever orwherever it may be.
Houseparty is a live streaming app described as a face-to-face social network where people ‘drop in’ on each other to video chat, leave messages and hang out in groups. It‘s important to note that children under the age of 13 must have a parent’s permission to access the services, however, no proof of age required to create an account. Each time the app is opened, your child is instantly connected to other users who are also on the app. Users can create group conversations of up to eight people at one time. Your child can add contacts via phone numbers, search for their usernames, and share a link to their profile. They can have as many rooms as they want and move from chat to chat by swiping across the screen. Along with this functionality comes a few associated risks to be aware of...
Parent Carer Advice Sessions
Do you need advice or support? The Brent Carers Centre is a charity providing advice and guidance to family carers in Brent on a wide range of subjects including benefits. See their website for more details, or phone 020 3802 7070.
They can check your family entitlement to benefits and help with benefit claims and forms. They can look for grants for families who are struggling financially for things like uniforms or white goods.
They offer support groups, forums activities and respite for carers.
They are holding confidential advice clinics over the next few months on the following dates.
Monday 25th March, Monday 20th May and Monday 15th July.
Please contact Patsy at Woodfield on 0208-205-1977 if you would like to attend a clinic, or for any further information.
Emergency contact information
Parent/Carers may recall being sent a form requesting additional emergency contact numbers. This is now a legal requirement. The school specifically requires two additional numbers other than the parents. In the event of an emergency where we cannot get hold of the primary parent / carer; we have another point of contact who may be able to get hold of the parent / carer in another form. Please contact the school office to provide us with the additional numbers if you think you may not have returned the form.
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