Boost Club - Young Carers

At Cranfield Church of England Academy, we are committed to our young carers!

What is a young carer?

A young carer is a child, aged 5 -17 years old, who lives with a family member with a physical disability, learning disability, long-term illness, mental health illness or reliance on alcohol or drugs. This could be a parent, sibling or grandparent.

A young carer might carry out additional but necessary tasks to support the person with the illness or disability. These responsibilities could include:

• fetching, carrying and supporting mobility
• cooking, cleaning and other household tasks
• supervising siblings
• shopping
• attending medical appointments  
• offering emotional support

How do we support young carers?

At Cranfield Academy recognise young carers and the important role they have. We also recognise that because of these additional responsibilities young carers are more likely to feel anxious, stressed and miss school. We want to support our children and families to enable them to ‘live life in all its fullness’.

We have a named member of staff who supports the young carers in our school. This person is Miss Galvin.  We work with the local young carers service to make sure our families are getting support outside of school.  We also offer a young carers after-school club called Boost.

Boost Club

Boost gives young carers an opportunity to have fun, share common experiences and meet other young carers.

Boost runs on both our St Peter’s and St Paul’s site led by Miss Galvin supported by other teachers. This is offered to children in years two to four. We run each group fortnightly, on a Thursday, 3:20pm-4:20pm.

If you think your child is a young carer and would like to discuss them joining Boost please contact Miss Galvin through Classroom Dojo or alternatively speak to your child’s class teacher.

Useful Links and Information:

cs788 22 young carers lft v3 0.pdf

Young carers in Central Bedfordshire
Website: https://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/info/182/young_carers 
Email: youngcarers@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 300 6440 or 0300 300 4531

Carers in Beds: www.carersinbeds.org.uk/who-we-help/young-carers/

The Carers Trust
Website: www.carers.org and  www.youngcarers.net 
Telephone: 020 8498 7900

The Children’s Society
Website: www.youngcarer.com
Telephone: 01962 711511

Barnardo’s Support Hub: https://www.barnardos.org.uk/support-hub/young-carers