What is a Young Carer?

A young person under 18 years of age who helps to look after a family member who is disabled, physically or mentally ill or has a substance misuse problem. Caring can involve physical or emotional care, or being responsible for someone’s safety and wellbeing. The level of responsibility assumed by a young carer is often inappropriate to their age and beyond the level of simply helping out at home as part of the process of growing up.

Young Carers might experience:

• Being late or absent because of responsibilities at home
• Concentration problems, anxiety or worry in school
• Emotional distress
• Tiredness in school
• Lack of time for homework
• Poor attainment
• Becoming angry or frustrated
• Isolation-feeling no-one understands
• Bullying
• Low self-esteem

Therefore, it is extremely important that we support our Young Carers in any way that they may need.

What we do at Catchgate Primary School

Catchgate Primary School are a Young Carers accredited school awarded by Durham County Council Family Action Team. There are 13 points on the Young Carers charter that need to be met and only when this has been done are schools awarded accredited status. We show a great understanding of Young Carers and have sufficient provisions in school to look after their needs, as these may differ from their peers. Please see the bottom of this page to see our award and all 13 points.

Young Carers Lead

Mrs Lynn Whitehead-Lewis is our Young Carers lead and she directly supports our group of Young Carers. They meet weekly on a Friday after school and do all sorts of fun activities. There is also time set aside in case a Young Carer needs to talk in confidence. If you think you or anyone you know is a Young Carer at Catchgate School please speak to Lynn or Mrs Shaw, who can help.

Upcoming Treats....

To show our appreciation to our Young Carers and as a thank you for all they do at school ,and at home, we like to treat them in school or take them out to different places throughout the year.

Take a look at all the fun things our Young Carers do.....

 2018-2019

Thursday 28th November 2019

To thank our Young Carers and Wellbeing warriors we held a joint movie night where we watched the new Dumbo film. There was popcorn, crisps, sausage rolls, cakes and sweets that we all enjoyed. Everyone had lots of fun and we all helped tidy up at the end. 

June 27th 2019

What a beautiful day for a pic nic!

Last week we made a shopping list of everyone's favourite foods and after a trip to the shops we had everything we needed for our Young Carers pic nic. We all helped to make the sandwiches, cut up the sausage rolls and carry all of the rest of the goodies up onto our field. The sun shone, we ate a lot and then we looked at flowers, had races and cartwheel competitions. Unfortunately 3 of our Young Carers were unable to attend but we saved them some chocolate biscuits.

June 2019

Cuddling and relaxing with our new Mental Health Mascot 'Positive Polly' who was named by Chanelle Carter in Y1C.

May/ June 2019

Craft sessions, a chance to make a mess!! What fun 

Making pom poms, a new Young Carers box, get well cards for one of our YC's sister and generally being creative.

Thursday 3rd April 2019

Our Young Carers enjoyed a very exciting and competitive Easter egg hunt. 

Mini eggs and cream eggs were prizes but there were enough to go around so everyone was a winner!!

Thursday 29th November 2018

To say thank you for all of their hard work, the Wellbeing Warriors and Young Carers shared a movie night. They decided to watch the Emoji movie whilst they munched on popcorn, crisps and cake.

Thursday 22nd November 2018

Our Young Carers colouring in....what fun!!!

Presentation of our new Young Carers Accreditation Certificate

On the 12th October 2018 we were presented with our new Accreditation Certificate, which means that we can, as a school, carry on supporting our Young Carers for another 2 years.

It was presented by Philippa May who is the Community Engagement Practitioner for Family Action who initiated and monitors all Young Carer provisions in County Durham.

We were very proud to receive the certificate in Collective Worship and to have our photos taken with Phillipa.

Trampolining at Ultimate Bounce 15th March 2018

'We all had really good fun at Ultimate Bounce, I liked doing front flips the best. We had competitions to see who could bounce the highest, it wasn't Lynn!'

'I loved running around and around and then having juice and chocolate'

'Its great to have some time for us, I really wanted to jump off the high tower onto the mat but I didn't as I was scared'

Krazy Kingdom 12th July 2018

'Krazy Kingdom was great, there's loads to do and you get very tired'

'We all had fun at Krazy Kingdom and we all ran off and played. Then we pushed each other on the go carts'

'Charlotte and I went down the slide then we played hide and seek, then I realised I was no good at hide and seek'

Young Carers Policy

Young Carers Charter