Free Parenting Courses at School 

Dear parents/carers,

Nottinghamshire County Council have started to work with primary schools across the county to offer EPEC courses (Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities). 'Being a Parent' is a free, volunteer-led, evidence-based parenting programme delivered by trained, volunteer Parent Group Leaders (PGLs), for parents and carers of children aged under twelve who may have been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic resulting in mental health concerns such as anxiety or behaviour issues.

We are hoping to be able to deliver the 'Being a Parent' (BaP) course in school, however, it can be delivered online via MS Teams if necessary. In the future, we plan to introduce an ASD specific Being a Parent course.

The course helps parents to learn practical communications skills, explore listening, play and interaction skills, managing parent and family stress and attachment and parent-child relationships. It comprises of two-hour sessions, once per week for nine weeks. (Term time only) Course content includes:

Welcome Week: Introductions, exploring parenthood and course content outline

Week 1: Being a Parent - Goal setting for parent and child, good enough parent, self-care

Week 2: Feelings - Denying, acknowledging and expressing feelings, ‘I’ statements

Week 3: Play – Non-directive Play / special time

Week 4: Valuing my child - Avoiding labels, describing behaviour and descriptive praise

Week 5: Understanding Children’s Behaviour - Needs behind behaviour, discipline

Week 6: Discipline Strategies - Boundaries, saying no, time out and household rules

Week 7: Listening - Communication styles, open questioning, reflective listening

Week 8: Review and Celebration- Dealing with stress and anger, reviewing course, finding further support and celebrating achievements.

I have scheduled a meeting with the facilitators to discuss this course further and to answer any questions you and I may have. They will then look at availability of volunteers or whether some of our own parents would like to be trained to deliver the courses.

Please see the flyer attached and if you would like to know more about this or would be interested in delivering the course, please let me know. It would be fabulous to be able to offer this in school.