Mentoring

This service adopt a person-centred approach. Occasionally, children may struggle with certain elements of growing up. Of course, this is entirely natural though they may benefit from additional support through mentoring or coaching. Feeling that their voice is being heard can give children an outlet to share their thoughts, feelings, worries or concerns and help identify how they can be supported.

Traditional mentoring and coaching sessions look at everyday issues, such as friendship/relationship concerns, typical school struggles or other social, emotional or mental health concerns which may be outside the capacity of schools and below the threshold for external services. This services adopts a person-centred approach, allowing the individual to highlight support they feel is relevant and necessary to them whilst also aiming to develop their own self-awareness, confidence and independence.

Our son has been seeing Andrew at Headway for help with his self-awareness, self-esteem, and general anxiety. After a brief period of getting used to opening up to him and building a relationship (this was very brief as Andrew is so personable and warm) he really looks forward to every session and has made such noticeable improvements in his behaviour, ability to articulate what he is feeling and now has strategies to help prevent meltdowns developing to their previous level. His time with Andrew each week is one of the highlights of his weekly schedule and we couldn’t recommend him enough.

Paul and Linda, Parents

Mentoring Services

Primary to Secondary Mentoring

Heading off to secondary education can be a worrying, anxiety-inducing time for children. The thought of the significant changes moving to secondary school can bring often pushes our children outside of their comfort zone; trying to take on all the new rules, standards and expectations for some can be a truly daunting task.

To help prepare children for the challenges ahead, a course of transition mentoring may help. Drawing on personal experiences of the transition process, sessions cover core skills, such as organisation and communication whilst also looking at general high school life and what to expect.

Traditional mentoring/coaching

Our traditional mentoring and coaching service offers support to children and young people for a host of everyday worries or concerns. Our person-centred approach means:

The child/young person is put at the heart of our support.
We listen.
We offer a judgement-free environment.
We have an empathic approach.

Coaching and mentoring sessions are one-to one and held weekly or fortnightly, for either 50 or 40 minutes, subject to availability. We offer support for a range of issues including but not limited to:

Education concerns: work/homework, school anxiety, exams and more.
Anxiety: school or social.
Fears and worries.
Confidence: academic or personal.
Self-esteem and self-image.
Friendship and bullying.
Behaviour, anger and frustration.
Soft skills development.
Personal development.

Our sessions aim to develop self-awareness, confidence and independence through our person-centred approach.

School holiday activity events

Bringing children and parents, carers and grandparents together, school holiday activities aim to build stronger relationships between the young and old(er) through competitive tasks, quizzes, games and holiday related activities – such as ‘Happy Halloween’ pumpkin carving and ‘Eggciting Easter’ egg decorating.

Workshops

Our workshops are designed to offer support to children and young people in a relaxed, calm and judgement-free environment. To book onto any workshop, contact us.

We offer workshops in the following areas:

The Worry Workshop: a workshop exploring anxiety, what it is, it’s causes and provide practical techniques and strategies to help you when feeling anxious.

Wellbeing Workout: a six-week workshop covering a range of wellbeing areas including: self-management, the online electronic world, relaxation, friendships/relationships, exercise and diet and education.

11+ Prep station: a two-week workshop helping to prepare young people taking the 11+ examination.

The Helping Hand Workshop: Do you have friends who may be struggling emotionally or with their mental health? This workshop outlines how you can support them.

The WhatsUp workshop: designed to promote safety online specifically in relation to social media and messenger sites. This workshop looks at privacy settings, social media posts and reputation management.

The Check-in Workshops: for children or young people who may have struggled over the previous half-term in school. This workshop provides a safe, calm environment to share their concerns and meet like minded peers.

The Back To School Workshop: Worried about returning to school? This workshop will help you settle back into school with techniques and strategies to reduce anxiety and where to seek help, support and guidance.

The Exam Prep/Food For Thought Workshop: Exams fast approaching? Our 11+, GCSE and A-Level workshops help you prepare, from revision schedules to practical advice and strategies to lower worry. Add in our pizza offer and you’ve got a relaxed environment to help you get ready for your exams!

The Give Me A Boost Workshop: Constantly querying your ability in certain subjects? Feel like you’re not good at something? Come along to this workshop for strategies and support in boosting your confidence.

Our workshops are intended for small groups of up to eight individuals. Online sessions are held on Zoom or Microsoft Teams but are limited in number.