Play Therapy

03/12/2025

It’s that time of year when kids start asking for phones for Christmas—and plenty of parents feel torn between keeping them happy and losing control. Both my kids know they’re not getting smartphones til they are at least 16- my daughter thought maybe she could get around us by appealing directly to the big lad at the North Pole in a letter we *ahem* accidentally intercepted- nice try, kid!
After everything we’ve read and seen, the harm social media and constant connectivity are doing to kids is undeniable. Smartphones pull children out of the real world, kill outside time, warp their behaviour, speed them into problems they’re not ready for, and expose them to risks they don’t need. So many parents feel this, but we need to keep saying it out loud.
I recently became an ambassador for the UK’s , alongside and , because-although the tide is turning—we need to normalize the conversation about rethinking the role of phones in our kids’ lives.
The best parts of childhood don’t glow, vibrate, or need charging. And the more families who join the smartphone-free bubble, the stronger it gets.
Click the link in my bio to learn more about Smartphone Free Childhood, the damage they cause, alternative suggestions, and how to help your kids grow up slower, safer, and healthier.
This Christmas, let’s protect what’s left of childhood.

16/11/2025

And we’re in the Sunday Mirror - full page exclusive…

With thanks to the wonderful Brian Cox OBE who joined our growing list of supporters including the wonderful Anna Maxwell Martin, Richard Hope, Peter Stefanovic, Michael Spicer Rachel Parris

We will never give up. Not until the government reverse the cuts, conduct an independent and robust consultation with the sector and families, and make the ASGSF a permanent, ring-fenced fund.

We love our children. And they deserve so much better from this government. The evidence is there, they do not need to wait. Government rhetoric is not the reality.

Sign our open letter here:

https://asgsfprotest.com/add-your-signature-an-open-letter-to-josh-macalister-mp-minister-for-children-and-families/

29/06/2025

Harris Rosen, a self-made millionaire, transformed Orlando’s Tangelo Park by offering free preschool and full college scholarships to local students. Since the 1990s, his investment in education helped raise graduation rates from 25% to nearly 100% and cut crime in half. His model proves that when you invest in people, entire communities thrive. 🎓🏡

11/06/2025

11/06/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/19CDDKqzaZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

08/06/2025

**SPACES AVAILABLE**
Life Story Workshop for adoptive parents

This workshop is designed to help adoptive parents feel more confident in talking to their child/ren about their life story and why they are adopted. It will also provide parents with a forum to discuss their concerns and challenges. At the workshop, tools and resources that may be helpful to try at home will be shared, alongside routes to seek advice and support in the future.

This workshop is open to adoptive parents with children aged eight years and under. The workshop will be held in person in South Gloucestershire. Parents only to attend (no children, sorry!)

Visit www.adoptionwest.co.uk/events to register your interest.

05/06/2025

“If you need to hit your child to make them listen, you’ve already lost control.”

Physical discipline isn’t parenting—it’s an admission of defeat.

Spanking doesn’t teach respect. It teaches fear.

It doesn’t build trust. It breaks it.

And yet, so many still defend it. Passionately.
Why? Because maybe we’re not really defending the method—we’re defending the memory.

To admit our parents got it wrong means confronting some painful truths about our own past.

We hear, “It never did me any harm.”
But what if it did—just in ways you weren’t allowed to feel?

Research from the American Psychological Association and UNICEF shows that:

🔹 Spanking increases aggression in children
🔹 It raises the risk of anxiety, depression, and poor self-esteem
🔹 It damages parent-child relationships
🔹 And it’s ineffective long-term at changing behaviour

Globally, over 60 countries have now banned corporal punishment—including Scotland and Wales—recognising that children have the same right to protection from violence as adults.

Meanwhile, in some circles, choosing not to hit your child is now mocked as “woke” or “liberal.”

If compassion is “woke,” then let’s wear it with pride.

So I’ll ask again:
What’s your take?
Let’s talk honestly. Let’s break the cycle.

29/05/2025

👏🏼 Well done Alison Bennett for Mid Sussex for standing up for the most vulnerable children in our society.

I hope Brian Mathew will do the same in Wiltshire, where over 100 children have been adopted or placed under Special Guardianship Orders in the past 5 years.

Many families are now at breaking point. Some children are re-entering care due to lack of support—and with a foster carer shortage, they're being failed again.

💔 These children don’t need more disruption. They need therapy, support, and stability to heal from trauma—not abandonment.

🧠 Adoption support is not optional. It’s vital.

23/05/2025

Highly recommended training for adoptive parents. Special discount of £20

22/05/2025

06/05/2025

🎮 ROBLOX 🎮 Parents/Guardians

Let's talk about Roblox...

Roblox is a gaming platform where players can create and publish their own games. The platform can be a great educational tool to help teach children new skills like coding. However, there are also some risks like any online game.

We've supported so many local kids in Crewe that have been in tricky situations because of games like this, so it's a pretty important topic to be in the know about!

Let's continue...

Roblox allows players to build and publish their own games. This means that other users could build games that contain adult or inappropriate themes that your child might see, this is a perspective that you may not have thought of before.

Anyone can send you a friend request on Roblox. Anyone could be sitting behind that screen pretending to be a child. (Find out below how to change the friend request settings!)

Players can use the communication features of Roblox to talk to one other while they are playing. This means that there is a risk of cyberbullying or unwanted contact.

Cyberbullying is a tricky situation to escape from for children, as messages can remain on devices, and these messages and images can be sent around out of their control. This can be very upsetting and scary for a child who's too young to process this situation.

We always teach the kids at schools in Crewe three rules for Cyberbullying -

🚩 Flag it (Raise it to the attention of an adult to help you.)
🤐 Zip it (Don't tell anyone your personal information including passwords, your school name, home address or real name etc.)
👋 Block it (If someone is causing you upset or giving you any unwanted contact, block them.)

So after all of that, you're probably wondering what you can do to make the game safer for your loved one! ⤵️

🎮 Sign up with the correct age
Make sure your child creates an account using the correct age. On Roblox, certain safety settings and parental controls are enabled by default for children under 13. However, you should still review the settings to ensure they’ve been set up correctly.

🎮 Build a list of age-appropriate games.
Not all games on Roblox will be appropriate for your child. The platform has a setting that lets parents and carers limit what their child can play by allowing them to build lists of age-appropriate games. You can also switch off in-app spending or set them monthly limits.

🎮 Explore communication settings.
You can manage who your child can speak to by disabling chat completely or limiting it to friends only. You can also switch off their inbox to stop them receiving direct messages.

🎮 Explore the platform together.

🗣️ Ask your child to give you a demonstration of the platform to help you understand how they use it and explore some of the parental controls together. You could even consider setting up your own account and playing the games yourself.

💬 Have regular conversations about gaming.
Continue to have regular conversations with them about what they are doing online. Ask your child open questions like ‘What games have you been playing on Roblox recently?’ or ‘What platforms have you been using to play games?’.

For more tips on keeping your child safe online feel free to have a Sunday morning read - https://orlo.uk/pbVoL

Finally, as I finish every online safety session at schools, "the internet can be an amazing and inspiring place to visit, as long as we know how to use it safely."

Stay safe,

PCSO Lizzie Jolley 22582