If you are a cared for child, it’s important to keep the rest of your life as steady as possible. You’ll probably keep going to the same school but, if you do change school, you’ll get lots of help settling in.
Your school will have what’s called a ‘designated teacher’ – a teacher who knows about being in care and what it means. They understand that you might feel confused and unsettled, so they’re not just there to make sure you do as well as you can with your work and activities. You can also talk to them if being in care is making school hard for you.
Your own teacher and the headteacher will know you’re in care, but we won’t tell anybody else unless they need to know so they can help you.
If you’re not sure what to tell people at school about being in care, your social worker and the designated teacher can help you work out what to say if you like.
All cared for children get a personal education plan – a PEP for short. PEPs are special plans to help you do well in your school work and fit in with other people. Your designated teacher will work out with you what should go in your PEP and arrange a meeting to talk about it.
Your social worker, carer or parent will be invited to the meeting too, but the most important person there will be you. You’ll help to decide what you want to achieve in each school year, so you’ll have a PEP meeting after the summer holidays. Later in the year, there’ll be another meeting to see how the PEP is working for you.