Welcome from Georgina Hania,

our Family Liaison Officer

I have been the Family Liaison Officer at Paddock School since 2012 and I am available during term time to discuss any concerns, or to provide our families with support. I can signpost you to a range of services which may benefit your young person.

I worked in the classroom at Paddock School from 1986 - 2012, across all age phases (Early Years to Sixth form) I worked with children with a range of needs and am experienced in helping children with their toilet training, feeding programs, communication programs and sensory development.

I am available to talk to families who are experiencing life changing events such as bereavement, a family break up or any other crisis if you feel you cannot share with your child’s class team.

I arrange a number of regular sessions such as supporting families including;

how to apply for grants, benefits or charitable funding ( Please see weekly newsletter for how to make an appointment)
family information sharing sessions
family visits to classes to join in sessions with your child

Some of the workshops are led by teachers from Paddock School as well as by therapists and external trainers. Sessions including specialist strategies aimed at supporting pupils' communication and development in the home, have been very successful. Other sessions have included Attention Autism, Sensory Integration, Toilet Training, 'Fussy Eaters', Puberty, Sexual Wellbeing, Relationships and Keeping Safe. I periodically provide First Aid Courses for parents giving them the skills and knowledge to cope with accidents that happen around the home.

Paddock is a Makaton Signing School. I am a Makaton Tutor and run regular communication training sessions for staff, parents and carers. I also work closely with parents planning for 'Life after Paddock' for families of school leavers. I support the Careers Team in arranging visits to Post 16 provisions and liaise with staff in transition programmes.

First Aid Course

Elklan Training

Elklan is a speech and language therapy training organisation that writes, delivers and verifies learners on bespoke training courses which support the development of communication in children and young people. Our parents/carers have been given the opportunity to attend a 5 session 'Let's Talk' course. We will continue to offer this course to parents, so please contact the school to find out when the next course will be running.

All of the Let's talk courses are very practical and throughout each session there are opportunities to:

Think about your child's communication
Try new ideas
Choose activities specifically for your child
Discuss a range of issues
Practise using ideas at home
Gain recognition for taking part in the course by recording your ideas, observations and activities in a booklet. Parents have the opportunity to gain a certificate, and are given support and encouragement to achieve this goal if they wish.

We have run several Elklan courses since it started September 2015 and parent feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

"The course is very interesting and very helpful for my child. I learnt a lot. I got all the tips I wanted."

"The most useful thing was learning to work and interact more with my son. I am more aware of the way he communicates with me, have more patience and listen more to what he is saying."

"The course was extremely useful. It taught us how to encourage our son to talk more, and how to help control his meltdowns and to understand why he could be misbehaving when he does and how to tackle it. Since starting the course, me and my husband have tried out various methods and all of it has been successful and for the first time we are excited and very optimistic. Our son, who did not talk often, about once in three days, now has spoken about 10 new words a week. He has for the first time called us 'mummy' and 'daddy'. We are very grateful for this excellent course."

Georgina can be contacted through the school office or on haniag@paddock.wandsworth.sch.uk