We were delighted to present two Gloucestershire schools their plaque and certificate to mark their achievement of the GHLL Young Carers Accreditation, an award for schools demonstrating best practice in identifying and supporting young carers.

Both schools were presented with their award before the end of the summer term, the first being Chosen Hill School in Churchdown. Schools have to demonstrate the following to apply for the award – young carer school lead(s) (pastoral and senior leadership team), whole school awareness-raising (ie. assemblies and noticeboard ), staff training ( staff completed our bespoke eLearning package for education professionals), a young carers policy, a designated governor trained on young carers, and also that there is some kind of specialist provision for them within school (such a weekly group or termly drop-in).

Ms. Stoneman, Deputy Head at Chosen Hill, had worked hard to ensure that the policies, processes, and provision at the school met these criteria.  It was great to meet her and her colleague Miss Hill and some of the young carers at the school to have a small celebration for the school to commemorate the presentation of the award.

Chesterton Primary School in Cirencester is another school that has done all it can to prove that it is worthy of the award.  Ms. Hannis, Pastoral Lead, has done an amazing job making sure that the whole school is young carer aware.   This time, the entire school was gathered to celebrate this achievement and had a drone ready to capture the moment on the school field!   Ms. Hannis is a real champion for young carers in Gloucestershire – a professional who once worked for GYC so knows the needs of young carers first-hand.  She has ensured all the schools she has worked in since then have done what they needed to do to gain this award!

We thank both schools for their commitment to young carers and hope they can be beacons of best practice and inspire other schools to achieve this award.

If you would like to find out more about Young Carer Accreditation, we would love to hear from you.

Contact Education Development Officer Clover Lake clover@glosyoungcarers.org.uk or 01452733060 for more information.

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