Education charity leads the way with parental helpline

Lyndsay Bawden, Trust-wide Subject Lead for English at DRET.

The DRET staff have banded together with other educational bodies to launch the StarLine national helpline, a free telephone helpline which offers parents and carers personalised advice and support from a team of qualified teachers, education and parenting experts.

Parents and carers can phone the helpline for support on a specific topic, or for general advice on how to structure the day, deal with difficult behaviour or manage the learning of several children.

StarLine is open six days a week and covers all areas of the curriculum across all phases of education.

In addition to qualified teachers, callers can speak to experienced education and parenting experts who can provide support and advice on behaviour, wellbeing and help for pupils with special educational needs or disabilities.

Lyndsay Bawden, Trust-wide Subject Lead for English at DRET, said: “During lockdown I have experienced the difficulties of working from home at the same time as home-schooling my own two children who are in Year 1 and Year 5, and I wanted to offer support to other parents who might also be finding it hard to help their children at home.”

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