Meet your Parent Champion

 

Mum-of-three Rachel Sellman lives in Westwood Green in Cookham and has become a 'Parent Champion' for the Royal Borough. I asked her to tell us what that means...

 

Tell me about you and your family

I'm a married mum of three children, aged five, seven and nearly nine. With
two girls and a boy, I have a great mixture of ballet and football every weekend. 
I grew up in Maidenhead and moved to Cookham just before having children. I'm very fond of the area and feel especially lucky living in Westwood Green.

 

What's your new role in the community all about?

I've recently become a 'Parent Champion' for the borough. It's a volunteer role with the aim of promoting the many Children's Centres and their services in the area. I'm really pleased to tell local parents with pre-school children about these facilities. They range from newborn 'Nurture' groups to Rhyme-time and Messy-play, as well as the ever popular 'Stay and Play' sessions. Many parents may have visited one of these Children's Centres at their baby's weekly weigh-in sessions and might not have realised the other exciting events that are also available.

   I've had the pleasure of visiting several Stay and Plays in Cookham and I can see that there's so much for parents here locally...but I'm still really happy to remind them about the Children's Centres.

   I'm also able to speak with parents about the borough's available Parenting Services. If you need extra support and a few strategies, then you could join one of the many informal meetings, groups and seminars that are on offer.

   Nursery funding for two-year-olds is also something you can talk to me about. If you think your child maybe eligible, I can point you in the right direction as to what to do next.

 

Have you always been interested in doing this? 

When my youngest started school in September, I realised I had more free time and didn't want to spend it doing housework – I wanted to be out-and-about, spreading the word. I received an email about the role and thought I'd kick myself if I didn't get involved. I always hoped to do some volunteering and actually thought it would probably be at one of the many clubs the children go to. I really like taking time out to chat to parents and little ones in this role.

 

What did you do before you had children?

I lived in Maidenhead where my parents are, and worked in IT at a local toothpaste factory, where I met my husband. After working at head office for several years, I took redundancy, and was glad to stop doing the daily M4 drive.

I then did several contract roles between having children.

 

Did you have to do any business courses or training for your new role?

I joined in the training with the other Parent Champion volunteers for the borough over several weeks, which included safeguarding training and training from the Family and Childcare Trust. We also had discussions with the teams that provide the other services in the borough which I mentioned earlier.

 

Any other info?

The new Children's Childcare Centres Guide for January to March 2015 will be printed soon, and will be available in the centres and via the borough webpages later in December.

 

 

For more info, call Rachel on 07779 771209 (volunteer no.)

Or visit