'Autumn is always busy - latest column from NSPCC Hampshire

We’ve got lots of events and campaigns for people with, or working with, children to get involved in, including our Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport awareness raising week, which is taking place between October 7 and 11.

Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport is a year-round campaign run by our fantastic Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), and it calls on sports and activity groups across Hampshire and the rest of the UK to participate and prioritise the safeguarding of children and young people.

Everyone has a role to play in keeping children safe in sport. And this campaign aims to support parents and carers to feel confident about playing their part. This year we’re focusing on building safer sporting communities for children.

We’re asking teams and clubs in Hampshire to bring their sporting community together by hosting a Team Huddle — fun and informal gatherings that bring together everyone involved in the sporting community to raise awareness and create meaningful discussions around safeguarding. This can take place in the lead up to the main week, or on the week itself - whenever suits you most.

A Team Huddle can be part of an existing event, such as a club meeting, or it can be its own standalone event designed to bring everyone together.

Free Team Huddle Event Packs are available from thecpsu.org.uk which include a variety of resources to help spark conversations about safeguarding.

We’re providing a fun quiz in our Team Huddle activity pack, but clubs can also choose their own activity. Perhaps your club might prefer to invite parents to have a go at their child’s sport, or a scavenger hunt, a table tennis competition, sports day or even hire a bouncy castle to take over the sports hall. It’s up to you.

Our aim for 2024 is to bring your sporting community together. We want to help you create an open and inclusive culture, where parents feel able to speak up, ask questions and raise concerns.

Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Week excitingly will kick off with a star-studded launch event held at the British Cycling headquarters in Manchester!

We are really looking forward to seeing what clubs and activity groups in Hampshire get up to for Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Week. You can also post about your Team Huddles on social media using the hashtag #SafeinSport.

Meanwhile we’re making the most of the children being back at school with our annual Kindness Challenge, a week of creating kindness in school communities while raising money for the NSPCC service Childline.

One of the best things about the Kindness Challenge is that it’s so easy to take part. Pupils will pick up to nine kind acts using the worksheet we provide and complete these acts on the first week of October (or another time which suits your school).

Cultivating kindness is incredibly important – you can kickstart kindness in your school this October, and watch it spread throughout the year!

The NSPCC has partnered with Fonetti, the award-winning read-aloud app and school portal for the Kindness Challenge. When a school takes part in The Kindness Challenge, it will be able to submit pupils' kindness act worksheets for the chance to win a Fonetti school subscription – and have their story published in the NSPCC Kindness Challenge book on Fonetti's read-aloud app.

However you don’t necessarily have to be part of a school community to take part in your own Kindness Challenge. Why not set yourself your own kind acts during the first week of October, and watch it spread throughout the year!

You can find out more information on the NSPCC website at www.nspcc.org.uk/kindness-challenge/.

Unfortunately we can’t always rely on the kindness of others however, and sometimes children will face bullying from their peers. If this is the case, our Childline website has lots of advice for children and young people, and they can also get support from their peers on the moderated Childline message boards, or by speaking to one of our trained counsellors directly on 0800 11 11.