St Jude's Catholic Primary School
St. Jude's Catholic Primary School

Family Help

At St. Jude’s Catholic Primary School, we aim to work closely with our parents and carers, as well the special community that is Druids Heath, in order to provide the best outcomes for our children.

Working closely with a number of agencies, we aim to support families, in a variety of ways. This may include signposting to external agencies or offering support within school.

Please speak to Mrs Orton in school for support, help or advice or email enquiry@stjuderc.bham.sch.uk. Her working days are Tuesday and Wednesday.

What we offer:

  • A warm welcome to school for pupils and their families each morning; there are always senior staff members and other support staff in the playground and at entrances.
  • A school that is open for all pupils from 8.45am with time to settle and prepare for teaching and learning.
  • A school run Breakfast Club with intentionally low fees making it accessible to all.
  • An understanding approach to the difficulties anyone can experience in life and attempts to remove barriers through internal support and signposting.
  • Visual timetables reinforcing routines enabling continuity and familiarity.
  • Quiet spaces in school and in the playground.
  • A broad and balanced curriculum with experiences to enhance learning and after school provision in sport, arts and education.
  • Adapted teaching to meet the needs of all pupils.
  • A celebration of each child’s unique characteristics and their successes.
  • A safe space to champion to voice of the child.

What support do families request in school?

A number of families seeks support and advice for a number of issues including: domestic abuse, mental health issues, housing concerns, financial worries and debts, morning routines, toilet training, managing screen time, bereavement and loss, cyber bullying and a wide range of other things.

Early Help Assessment and Our Family Plan

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2026) outlines that effective Early Help relies upon local agencies, including schools, working together to identify children and families who would benefit from support, undertaking an Early Help assessment and providing targeted services to address those needs to significantly improve outcomes.

At school we work to deliver Family Support and Early Help in line with Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership (BSCP) agreed Layers of Need as set out in Right Help, Right Time and consistent with Birmingham’s Early Help Strategy (currently being updated).

BSCP has agreed the adoption of the Signs of Safety and Wellbeing Practice Framework and have used this to strengthen and simplify the assessment process in Birmingham, with the ‘Early Help Assessment and Our Family Plan.’  Both these documents should be registered with the Early Help Support Team and BSCP will monitor the number, quality and impact of this work with families.

The Early Help Assessment is a tool used to discuss and record a family’s strengths, worries and aspirations. From this assessment the assessor can identify the family’s needs, which leads to a plan to support them, this plan is called the ‘Our Family Plan.’ The ‘Our Family Plan’ is usually drawn up by the assessor, who has completed the Early Help Assessment. The family’s needs/worries highlighted in the Early Help Assessment, should be transferred on to the plan. The assessor will recognize the correct professionals, who can support these needs and invite them along with the family to the initial Our Family Plan meeting. At this meeting the Lead Professional is identified, who will work with the family and relevant services to implement and review the plan.

Additional Support

In addition to Early Help Assessments, we can offer lots of support in other ways. We want to help families is as many ways as we can and Mrs Orton has such a wealth of knowledge and experience, she is well-equipped to support.

See the following websites for more information about Early Help in Birmingham:

There are a number of organisations that families might find as useful contacts for support with specific areas:

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Online Parenting Skills

Domestic Abuse

Problems with Drugs and Alcohol

 

Gaining children’s views, wishes and feelings is central to our Safeguarding policy, and the safeguarding team may also carry out some direct work with children completing the ‘3 houses’ sheet to discuss any worries a pupil may have, things that are positive for them and their dreams for the future.