Month: February 2021

A part of our ongoing Safeguarding Training we focus on different areas of training and development with our team each half term. We select the areas to prioritise by referring to our ‘Cause for Concern Tracker’ where keep to record any areas of concern with young people who attend our provision.

This is all in addition to the statutory Safeguarding that we all continue to comply with and also additional training offered by other support agencies around young people.

In January we focused on eating disorders and how to spot the signs of these.

Eating disorders can start for a number of reasons. Often underlying anxiety or a fear or concern about not fitting in can be the driver for these conditions manifesting themselves. If they are left unnoticed or unsupported, they can lead to more serious problems. Therefore, it is important to identify concerns early on and ensure a young person receives help.

As a provider we are often asked to support young people as a part of their recovery, or on occasions a young person who is attending our provision may display signs of an eating disorder. It is important to be aware of the signs.

The TSOC approach can form an important part of a recovery programme and offer help to address the underlying reasons for this developing too. We embed physical and emotional health in all of the sessions that we hold because it is important for all of our clients to be aware of this.

Horses enable us to do this easily and making the comparisons with how their diet and exercise affect their moods and behaviours enables us to have those conversations in a very unobtrusive way.

If you are concerned that a child you know may have an eating disorder, here are a few places where you can get help and advice in the first instance:

Young Minds: Eating problems

National Eating Disorders Association: Warning Signs and Symptoms

Beat Eating Disorders: Downloads & Resources

Community Children’s Health Partnership: Eating Disorders

NHS: Bedfordshire and Luton Community Eating Disorders Service for Children & Young People

One of the benefits of working with The Seeds of Change is our ability to be agile in the way that we work and support learners in their work away from our sessions. One of the issues that our students can face is coping back in a more traditional learning environment, in the case of one learner a mainstream school. We practice strategies and scenarios during session time that learners can use away from us but if we can do more to facilitate this process we will always do so.

This week one of the teachers at a learners school has reached out to us to enquire if there are any tips or strategies that she can use to support our learner in school. During the learners session with us we were able to discuss how he was feeling and he was able to share that his frustration was he was frightened about “making mistakes”. When discussing this with his coach they discussed some exercises that he had done previously with the horses that had helped him to feel calm and how those exercises could be adapted back in school to help him to feel more comfortable. In addition they practiced the breathing exercise which we often use with students to reduce anxiety and promote feelings of calm.

Together they were able to prepare a “feelings volcano” that included quotes about the importance and positive aspects of making mistakes. He picked these himself and together the coach and student made a step by step guide that his TA can work through with him in school to continue the experience and build upon the positive steps that he had started during his session this week.

When he returns next week we will be able to review how that has gone for him and which parts he found to be helpful.

Our work with schools and a joined up approach really helps to support our learners in a more comprehensive way and for the schools who commission us to share in some of the strategies that young people find work for them back in school. We will look forward to hearing how this young person has coped when he attends his session next week!