Published on: March 31, 2020
Compass BUZZ stands united with all schools in North Yorkshire during the Coronavirus outbreak and we will continue to offer support throughout the duration of pandemic. The diverse skill set of the Compass BUZZ team has been maximised; our resilience and determination lighting the way when moments of uncertainty obscured the view.
Our Wellbeing Workers have reached out to all schools in North Yorkshire, offering responsive support, practical guidance and creative resources which have been developed in record time. Worksheets and information sheets on topics such as; the virus itself, how to focus on wellbeing, while staying at home and how to come to terms with the cancellation of exams, as well as practical ways to cope, were all designed to focus on the mental health and wellbeing needs of children and young people. School staff, parents and carers can all use these tools. In addition, we are also sending out our resource packs to our colleagues in North Yorkshire schools every week, to help their children and young people navigate the current situation through exploration, communication and understanding.
Our latest edition of The BUZZ newsletter was family focused and aimed to give that all important boost of positivity.
We are delighted to report that we are pro-actively looking into alternatives to our face-to-face school mental health and wellbeing training and wellbeing champions workshops and we hope to be able to offer a suitable solution very soon.
Our ‘Request for Support’ consultation service is operating as normal. This service provides advice and resources to school staff in North Yorkshire to enable them to support their pupil’s and student’s emotional wellbeing needs. To access this service, school staff can contact us on our temporary phone number: 07860 438 486.
BUZZ US, our text messaging service for young people aged 11-18 (up to age 25 with special educational needs or disabilities) across North Yorkshire also remains open as normal and young people continue to benefit from this support.
I, for one, could not be prouder of our response and although we don’t know when life will return to normal, what we do know is that while this crisis endures Compass BUZZ will continue to be there for all of our amazing school colleagues during this challenging time.
Truly unprecedented times such as these mean that our understanding of routines, structure and ‘normality’ are thrown high in the air. They make an attempt to ground themselves wherever they can, blowing around lightly and apprehensively amidst the quiet streets and painted rainbow pictures, landing eventually with many questions but with an unmistakable sense of hope for the future.
