The Jigsaw Families® Programme
Stepping forward togetherWhat is Jigsaw Families?
Jigsaw Families is an innovative programme supporting children and their care-givers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to develop healthy, strong, lasting and loving relationships.
Jigsaw Families sessions provide an informal, friendly and safe environment to explore the challenges of being a parent and offers strategies to help meet families' needs and build a richer engagement with the facilitating school/setting.
How does the Jigsaw Families Programme work?
The Jigsaw Families Programme is a series of six adult/child sessions led by trained and Accredited Facilitators from existing school or 'setting' staff delivered to Family Pairs (one parent/carer bringing one child).
Each of the sessions focuses on a key theme such as communication, managing change, belonging, positive behaviour etc. The issues to be discussed are raised through original child-friendly stories and short video clips. These are available for Family Pairs to revisit at home, allowing other family members to participate too.
Up to 10 Family Pairs can attend the six-week programme at a time, and a setting may run as many programmes in a calendar year as they wish.
Click the Videoscribe above to play
Family Pairs participate in mindfulness practice (Calm Me Time) in the Facilitator-led sessions and also at home, which they learn through the Jigsaw Friends, Jonty and Jonty Junior. Jonty is a central character in all of the stories. The Setting gives every family their own 'Jonty Junior' Friend to take home and keep, allowing the learning in the sessions to be continued into the home environment.
Learning materials, literature and multi-media files (PowerPoints, images, audio and video) are currently supplied in UK English language only.
The Programme comes with two parallel sets of learning materials to suit families with children in Early Years as well as those with Primary aged children, so that Settings have the flexibility to run programmes appropriate for either age group, even simultaneously in different rooms.
Although sessions begin and end with both parties together in the same space, Settings will need to provide two separate spaces (supervised by different Facilitators) for the part of each session that requires the Child and the Parent/Carer to perform different learning activities without disturbing one another. Hence, three Facilitators provides sufficient cover and enables best practice.
Other consumables used in running the sessions (e.g., Art Materials for the children etc.) are not included. It is expected the Setting will already maintain their own stock of these items.
Benefits of the Jigsaw Families Programme
The difference it makes...for children:
- Children feel safe, secure and valued
- Better equipped to manage their own emotions
- Better communication and engagement with their parents & carers
- Improved relationships between parents/carers
- Increased self-worth and resilience
- Enhanced learning capacity
"My family is a team and we all work together"
for parents & carers:
- Informal, friendly and safe space to explore the challenges of parenting
- Adds to parenting knowledge and skills
- Builds a stronger relationship with their child
- Strengthens understanding, co-operation and trust
- Friendly support with other parents in the same group
"The group was so supportive. We learned a lot from each other and from the stories too. I found it easier to join in than I first thought!"
for schools/settings:
- Enables better parental engagement
- Richer relationships between parents and children, and between parents and staff
- Open and maintain effective communication between home and the school/setting
- Support children to feel secure, manage emotions and be better equipped to access learning
- Reduces barriers to learning
- Enables children to positively transition through change
"We are very passionate about supporting parents and children. Jigsaw Families enables us to engage with parents on a different level, reinforcing the work done within our school."
The Jigsaw Families® Starter Kit
Required for all Settings to operate the ProgrammeTo begin, you will need The Jigsaw Families Starter Kit consisting of:
- Training for 3 proposed members of staff to be accredited as Jigsaw Families Facilitators (accreditation lasts for one calendar year)
- 3 Facilitator Manuals (1 for each Facilitator)
- Access to the Jigsaw Families website for latest session resources (for the first year. Your annual renewal extends this access for subsequent years.)
- 1x Jigsaw Jonty (for the Setting)
- Initial set of 10 Jonty Juniors (to give to your first 10 Family Pairs to take home and keep. You will therefore need additional Jonty Juniors available separately for the Family Pairs that follow.)
- 1x Jigsaw Chime (for the Setting)
- Continuous Mentor Support (valid for every 12 months of accreditation)
Jigsaw Families® Pricing
How much does it cost for schools/settings?Jigsaw Families Starter Kit
£ 1800
£1500 to schools using Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE
- Training for 3 Facilitators
- 3 Manuals, 1 Jonty, 1 Chime
- Jonty Juniors for first 10 families
- First 12 Months Mentoring
- Includes Accreditation process
- (general consumables not included)
Annual Re-accreditation
£ 100
per Facilitator for 1 Year
- Required to operate the Jigsaw Families Programme for a subsequent year
- Inc. continued mentoring
- Inc. continued website access
- Training & Accreditation Fee for a new Facilitator £175
* Extra Jonty Juniors
£ 80
for your next set of families
- Set of 10 new Jonty Juniors
- for the next 10 family pairs to take home
Additional Manual
£ 75
each
- for an additional Facilitator
- or as a replacement manual
All prices are shown exclusive of UK VAT and P&P. The final price to pay will be calculated during the order process and before you make your purchase.
Becoming a Jigsaw Families® School/Setting
Buy the Jigsaw Families® Starter Kit and become Accredited to deliver this programmeThe Jigsaw Families Starter Kit includes training for the first three members of staff to become accredited as Jigsaw Families Facilitators. Settings must have three Facilitators to qualify to operate the Programme.
Accreditation lasts for a whole calendar year and Facilitators are required to renew this annually for quality assurance purposes.
Initial Facilitator training is a one-day course and the annual reaccreditation will usually take the form of a phone call (with your Jigsaw Families Mentor) toward the end of the year and will require checking the Facilitator and Setting information we hold is correct and up-to-date, plus a short return of basic statistical information, e.g. how many Programmes you ran and how many families attended overall.
Is there funding for the Jigsaw Families® Programme?
There might be via the Awards for All (Big Lottery) SchemePotential funding to run the Jigsaw Families Programme via the Awards For All (Big Lottery) Scheme
The UK National Lottery Awards For All (AWA) Scheme offers schools and other educational settings the opportunity to apply for a grant of £300-£10,000 in England and Scotland, or £300-£5000 in Wales.
Awards For All grants can be used to develop and support community-based projects which meet the AWA criteria to:
- bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities
- improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
- enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage
Schools/settings may wish to consider an AWA application to purchase the Jigsaw Families Programme and to cover ongoing costs. To support schools with their application we offer you some additional information and sample paragraphs as a starter for your application. To find out more, click the button below.
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