Rawmarsh graduation

At 5 pm on Wednesday, November 24, the families, who all have children at St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Rawmarsh, will become graduates of the Families And Schools Together programme.
 
The celebration will be attended by the Mayor of Rotherham, Cllr Rose McNeely. She will be welcomed to the school by Vanessa Naylor, the FAST Co ordinator, who will explain how the eight week programme aims to build relationships and social networks within both the school and the wider community by engaging families in a fun and safe way within the school.
 
Prior to the event the families will enjoy a specially-prepared meal made by themselves with the children involved also making special graduation hats and the parents and carers decorating celebratory banners.
 
Also attending the ceremony will be Father Kieran from St. Joseph's RC Church, and Joyce Thacker, Strategic Director of Rotherham Borough Council's Children and Young Peoples Service; and Cath Ratcliffe, Leader of Attendance and Parenting for the authority.
 
The FAST programme was founded by Dr Lynn McDonald and was launched in America in 1988. It has produced significant results and has become an internationally recognised system for supporting parents.
 
Dr McDonald was a family therapist, child therapist and community worker and has developed and evaluated a range of family-based approaches to children's mental health and well-being.

Among her academic work, she is currently a Senior Lecturer at Brunel University and is working with Middlesex University on the FAST programme nationally.