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This week we are joined by Hannah Viet from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors who talks to Lydia about the interconnected topics of education and divorce – who is responsible for schooling options when parents split up? Debbie Roberts gives Lydia and Seema an update on the amazing work being done by the OLLIE Foundation, and talks about a new initiative around depression medication, while Steve talks to local childcare providers Fizzbug about their new plan to get IT help and laptop donations for home learning during the pandemic. https://theolliefoundation.org/ www.facebook.com/fizzbugshare2learn The Parents’ Show is sponsored by Rayden Solicitors.

Yes, that’s right, it’s Father Christmas! Right here on 92.6FM Radio Verulam. We have 4 local children quizzing and testing FC; Erica, Ollie, Conor and Mia are ready to chat to St Alban’s favourite gift giver. Spoiler alert: you might just learn something new about Christmas! In the second part , we are speaking to the wonderful Helen Whittington from DJ’s Play Jungle about what has been a crippling year for a valued local business.

This month is our 10th anniversary on 92.6FM Radio Verulam! We are really delighted to welcome our guests who have been and are a great support to our local community. Katherine Rayden joins usfrom Rayden Solicitors, a specialist family law firm in St Albans and also the new sponsor of the Parents’ Show. Suzy Moody Home-Start Hertfordshire speaks about their wonderful work – despite Covid. To round up the show, we’re joined by our most regular contributor over our 10 years on air, Claire Healy Raring2go St Albans and Harpenden

This episode of The Parents’ Show sees Lydia and Seema talking to Jessica Swainston from Cogenis, who are developing Apps for helping children’s mental health using Artificial Intelligence, and specifically the new WING app which helps parents work with their children on social media. https://cogenis.com/ In part 2, Steve meets Liana Wall, a local author who has published a children’s novel, ‘The Wishing Well – seek and you shall find’, which includes her coping mechanisms for dealing with grief, loneliness and isolation in its themes. https://www.facebook.com/thewishingwellcollection/

It’s part 2 of Lockdown Dads this week, and they continue their quest to keep fit and healthy during lockdown with the help of Ben Chibnall. Join Steve, Andrew, Tristan, Toby, Sammy and Monir, you may get some useful tips!

The Lockdown Dads are back! This week, they tackle the hefty subjects of diet and fitness, and are joined this week by Ben Chibnall, a personal trainer from Hertfordshire. They spoke for so long we had to break the show into two parts! So tune in again next week to hear more from the Lockdown Dads.

Many of us are still finding our way with Home Learning. How has it been? What’s the future if September does not allow us all to return to a little normality as we hope? Hannah Morris, Educational Psychologist in our local area spoke to us about the pressure schools are under, what parents should prioritise now and over the summer and provide some great advice for parents of children with SEN. Over to the students themselves, Izzy and Jake attend a local private and state school. We spoke to them about the challenges of home learning and the silver linings, too. Finally, a local young man, Samuel told us about his experience of lock down.

This week, we were really pleased to have great guests sharing their knowledge and adventures with us. Debi Roberts from the The OLLIE Foundation talked about how valuable GOALS are in stopping us from becoming overwhelmed. We heard about how to set them and what to do. Mike and Peter who are going to do a marathon in London to support families of bus drviers affected by Covid 19 #RUNFORABUS a great cause and you can donate here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund…/showROFundraiserPage… Finally we spoke to Rosanna Rafel-Rix from the @AntisemitismPolicyTrust, who toldl us how our Jewish Community has been coping with Covid 19.

This week, The Parents’ Show’s Kathy Weston spoke with Susan Smith, a careers advisor about how exam results are being calculated during lockdown, applying to University and other further education options. http://www.allthingscareers.co.uk Steve Simpson was joined by Bex Perry, team leader at YCHertfordshire who talked about support services for young people in the county.

Steve Simpson talks to a few fathers about what they’ve had to do in lockdown, and what they’re looking forward to.

This week’s Parents’ Show looked at how Muslim families in St Albans are celebrating Ramadan this year in light of the lock down. We spoke to Monir Ali, Hamna Khiani and Rushna Miah about their individual adaptations to breaking fast and keeping up the community feeling. We will also spoke to Claire Healy from Raring2go about how the magazine is adapting to the lock down.

On tonight’s show we looked at how #Covid19 is affecting families. It is complicated for separated or divorced parents to negotiate shared parenting at the best of times, but Covid 19 is complicating it even further. Beth Woodward @Neves.Solicitors helped us navigate this subject with very practical advice. We asked her what happens when parents have different interpretations of risk! Dr Polly Waite at Oxford University @OxExpPsy and Reading University– told us how parents should approach the subject of anxiety with their children. Anita Devi, a specialist in SEN talked about how parents and SENCOs are coping in the current crisis and mentions support options for both.

Pregnancy is a time of great happiness, joy and excitement but there is always concern about whether everything will go smoothly. Given that it can be a time of concern for some, how is the Coronavirus affecting pregnant women and those working to support the safe and healthy birth of babies across the country. We spoke to local Mum of 3 who is 27 weeks pregnant with her 4th child, Becca. She is also a member of the Parents’ Show team! We talked about how different this pregnancy to her other pregnancies and how the Coronavirus is affecting her birth plan. We also chatted to Louise, an Antenatal teacher about how much her world and industry has changed. How is she navigating these tricky times? We then spoke to Julia Flynn, a Doula with ‘Your Virtual Village’ a group of Doula’s providing support to pregnant women in St Albans and the surrounding areas. Later in the show we talked with Charlie Lumsdon from Finishing Touch Sports. They provides after school sports classes locally and has developed a fantastic well-being pack for children and parents to use. We want to tell you all about it.

In this episode, we are speaking to Claire Healy from Raring2Go about how local activities and camps have adapted and moved online to keep our children stimulated. Claire also will speak about how local businesses are challenged by Coronavirus lock down.Kathy chats to local mum Lauren and her two children, Ben and James, about the experience of home schooling and plans for the Easter weekend. Sophie Bourne, a pupil at Beechwood Park School, has shown how anyone can help our key workers if they put their mind to it. She has raised the funds, bought the equipment and taken orders to manufacture over 2,000 plastic face masks with 3D printers. Listen as she talks to Steve about how she did it.

On the The Parents’ Show this week it was – yes, about the Covid-19 crisis, but here St Albans’ own Daisy Cooper MP spokes to Lydia Elkhouri about all the initiatives for St Albans Residents and how people are helping, while Head of Onslow St Audrey’s School in Hatfield, David Bullock talked to Kathy Weston about a day in the life of a Head Teacher and his school in these unprecedented times.

Tune in to hear Kathy Weston interview headteacher Dave Bullock of Onslow St Audrey’s in Hatfield. He describes the day in the life of a headteacher during an unprecedented crisis.  He talks about managing the school, protecting pupils, staff and families, and how schools are pulling together to make it work.  David also shared with us some top tips for successful home learning at this time, which you can download here.

In the current climate, there is only one topic to discuss on the show – Covid 19. We had a selection of guests to address the many concerns and worries of parents in the light of the biggest health crisis in modern history. Verity Hill, Virologist will be helping us understand exactly what we are up against in Covid 19. Angela is one of the founders of St Albans Corona Virus Volunteers, she will be telling us about this wonderful and heart warming initiative and also telling us how we can pitch in! With schools closing, we consider what options there are for children to continue their learning with no return date on the horizon. Kate Meeks. Founder and CEO of Your Teacher will be joining us to tell us about this incredible resource. Finally, Dr Kerstin Thirlwall from Reading University has shared some wise words for how to talk to your children about their fears around the Corona Virus. We shared her thoughts.

Kathy Weston and Steve Simpson talk to children and authors about children’s poetry. They were joined in the studio by pupils Neve, Daisy, Layla and Bea and Sebi, They also spoke to Chris McCabe from the National Poetry Library plus Niamh Rowland-Sims and pupil Caris from Saracens High school.

Lydia El-Khouri and Amanda Yorwerth talk to their guests about books. In the studio, they were joined by Zara, Nora and Callum from Fleetville Junior School and Matthew from St Peter’s School to talk about their favourite books. Ed Vere, author and illustrator, joined the show by Skype and the team also spoke with Gemma Malley from the Book Trust.

Tonight we talked about how technology has actually made family life easier or better, with the help of Toby Cross and Kate Bevan from Which Magazine, who chatted with Kathy Weston and Steve Simpson.