The Parents Show on Mix 92.6

On the Parents’s Show this week, Lydia will first be speaking to Dr Irene Daria about all things books and reading, and how we can encourage our young children to read from an early age. Irene talks about her new book, ‘I didn’t believe him’ where she explains how her son was struggling with the ... Read more

On this week’s Parents’ Show, Jen meets with Kat Scott of Katherine Scott Coaching to discuss career coaching and how it can help working parents with juggling their home/work balance. Kat shares her story with Jen and how as a new mum she found an alternative career. Then Lydia talks to Katherine Rayden from our ... Read more

In the first part of our show this week, Jen Cockburn catches up with Hannah Maxwell from Night Nannies about the services they offer and how they can help new parents get a better and refreshing night’s sleep and rest. Hannah will explain how the service works, what you can expect from a Night Nanny ... Read more

On this week’s Parents’ Show, Lydia meets with Elza and Chris from the Dogs and Birds Piano method to talk about how young children are learning to play the piano using animal references and puppets. They describe how using animal families alongside note letters makes learning easier and how puppets make the tasks easier. In the second part of the show, we’re joined by Charlotte Southworth, Legal Director at our sponsor Rayden Solicitors. Charlotte speaks to Lydia about how the company is embracing Neurodiversity both in its staffing and dealing with clients and the ways in which neurodiverse clients can best work alongside solicitors when dealing with family legal matters. The Parents’ Show is sponsored by Rayden Solicitors.

In this week’s episode of The Parents’ Show, Lydia meets Sarah Ziman, a local poet who specialises in children’s poetry. Sarah explains how her love of poetry came about and reads some examples of her work, which are both humorous and echoes of our own childhood. She talks about also writing about sensitive subjects such ... Read more

On this week’s Parents’ Show, Jen meets up with Kate Pattison and Lucy Sutton, producers of the AlphaBites podcast series. It’s a podcast that dives into conversations about what is out there for Generation Alpha, the generation of children born between 2010 and 2025 and so aged between zero and 14 at the moment. It’s ... Read more

In this episode, Jen is joined by Becky of Becky’s Little Yogis. Becky tells Jen about her Yoga and Mindfullness classes and workshops for children aged from 6 to 13, how they help instill self-confidence in children and how appreciative their parents are. Becky’s workshops are part of the after-school club roster in several local ... Read more

Matt Clark, Programme Manager for Air Quality at Hertfordshire County Council, explains how pupils in 31 schools in Hertfordshire will benefit from the installation of air purifiers and air quality monitors and how this will help raise awareness of the issues around air pollution and our understanding of air quality in schools. For more on ... Read more

This week we look at boxing for women and teenagers. Jen is joined by Nadia Finer and Isabel Kelly, founders of the new Queen Bee Boxing club in St Albans. Nadia and Isobel tell Jen how it started, and how mums and daughters can visit and train together or separately, giving them fitness, strength and ... Read more

This week, Jen talks to Joanna Hughes of Joanna Hughes Interiors about how she approaches helping families to design their home living areas, from the arrival of a new-born baby through all the growing stages of the family and how to manage the costs by considering upcycling furniture. In part two, Lydia is joined by ... Read more

This week, Jen speaks to Natalie and Amy, founders of the ‘I’m Fine’ shop in Fleetville, St Albans. While it’s a shop, Natalie and Amy say it’s more of a community hub and very much caring for the wellness of the community. In part two, Jodie Moore, an Associate Solicitor from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors, ... Read more

Jen and Lydia are joined this week by one of our former presenters Trevor Merriden along with his colleague Nick, who tell us what the ‘Men of Fields’ group from the Garden Fields Cricket Club are up to next, with their sponsored 100km+ walk to support local charity Youth Talk. They’re joined by Jim Lewis ... Read more

If you’ve heard of a Doula but have no idea what one is or what they do, tune in to this week’s Parents’ Show, when Jen will be speaking to Holly Clark, a local Doula, who explains the support that Doulas can give at both the ante and post-natal stages of pregnancy and childbirth. Incidentally, ... Read more

Coming up in the second part of the Parents’ Show this week, Mix Morning’s Steve Simpson is joined by David Jenkins from Brilliant Theatre Arts who tells us all about the opportunities for young people to get into the theatre and film industries. They deliver high-quality performing arts training through both their weekly Performing Arts ... Read more

This week, we’re delighted to welcome a new presenter to The Parents’ Show, Jen Cockburn. Jen tells us about growing up and now living in Harpenden and her choice to be a solo mum of a now 3-year old son with the aid of a sperm donor. Jen tells us about the facilities for children ... Read more

Charlotte Southworth of our sponsors Rayden Solicitors talks about your legal rights when couples co-habit.

Lydia and Seema talk to Jessica Smith, a solicitor at our sponsors Rayden Solicitors, about the new routes to a career in law introduced last year and how you may not need to do a law degree to join the legal profession.

Lydia and Neil speak to Charlotte Southworth from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors about an upcoming event “Excelling with Neurodiversity” at Homewood Church Hall on Friday Sept 29th 2023. Charlotte herself is Dyslexic, and talks about her personal experiences as well as helping clients who are neurodiverse with their legal matters. The Parents’ Show is sponsored ... Read more

We start another season of the Parents’ Show with a look at the process of applying for a University place, but seen through the eyes of a local mum, Marie Baker-Madec, who has plenty of advice and tips for families about to embark on the search for a university and the things you have to ... Read more

In this podcast, Bhini Phagura from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors talks about taking a career break to become a new mum, and her subsequent return to work.

Lydia joins Jodie Moore from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors to discuss Parental Alienation – what is it, how does it manifest itself and what can be done within families to manage it?

Jessica Smith from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors tells us about the ‘no fault divorce’ legislation that came into force last April.

Lydia talks to Rebekah Norman from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors about choosing a school for a child when parents are separated, and how to navigate some of the barriers that may arise. Rayden Solicitors.

Following last week’s show on real journalism and identifying fake news, Lydia meets Matt Adams, Editor and owner of St Albans Times, an online magazine for St Albans. Matt explains the Write Now project they have just launched, which aims to show the importance of allowing the young generation to have a voice by creating ... Read more

This week, The Parents’ Show is focussing on the issue of news and how we can help our young people navigate through fake news to discover real journalism in action. First, Lydia speaks to Dr Aralynn McMane, founding Executive Director at Global Youth & News Media, about how our children can be guided to source ... Read more

This week on The Parents’ Show on Mix 92.6, Andreea meets Richard Sved, who is one of the team behind the St Albans Parkrun and finds out who it’s for, how young can you be to take part and how you can volunteer to help. Then, Lydia caught up with some Spanish students who are over in ... Read more

This Sunday at 8pm, Lydia caught up with Olivier Cauberghs from Textgain about the recent Safer Internet Day. Based in Belgium, Textgain use AI to find and flag problems with all sorts of internet issues such as fake news, hate speech and general harmful content. Olivier guides Lydia through some of the things parents can do to ... Read more

This week’s Parents’ Show gives a round up of medical matters in Herts with Lydia and Dr Alison Cowan. Alison covers a range of subjects including eating disorders, mental health and advice on what to do in the current Measles scenario. In part two, Neil talks to Nicola MacKinnon from Herts Young Homeless about how ... Read more

This week, we were delighted to speak to Declan Linnane, Head Teacher at Nicholas Breakspear School about how innovation is embraced, the importance of nurturing schools and their recent Ofsted inspection which rightly awarded an Outstanding status. Congratulations!! We also had the pleasure of speaking to Ben Shapiro from St Albans Community Pantry about the ... Read more

First tonight, Tim Pelerin is a Project Manager with Rocket Graphics in Watford – but Tim’s real focus is his 2-year-old daughter River, who has Cystic Fibrosis. Rocket Graphics and others at the Croxley Business Park supported Tim and the CF Trust with a special event held at the Park today, Thursday 8th February. Mix ... Read more

On the Parents’ Show this week, Lydia is joined by Alexandra Collingbourne, who runs Sleep by Alexandra and is a Baby sleep consultant for infants, toddlers and young children. Alexandra talks about why we need sleep, how to gauge our children’s sleep patterns and how to encourage a bedtime and sleep routine. She talks about ... Read more

This week, we’re joined in the studio by Sian Wilson, a Paediatric Occupational Therapist based in St Albans at Milestones OT, who tells Lydia and Neil what she does and how it helps children, specialising in helping children and young people aged 4-18 with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, Developmental Co-ordination Disorder with sensory integration, cognitive therapy, handwriting and life ... Read more

In an expanded interview that takes up the whole show this week, Lydia speaks to Lyndsey Hayes, a Pyschology Tutor from Justin Craig Education about preparing for those all-important exams and how it’s a marathon not a sprint when it comes to preparing and revision. Lyndsey shares some valuable tips and advice on revision, when to start, ... Read more

This weeks Parents’ Show features Antonia from Books on the Hill in St Albans talking to Lydia about what’s happening at the shop, what books are popular at the moment, how they are preparing for Christmas and finally Antonia reveals her favourite Christmas book. Then following on from last week’s chat with Beaumont School’s Ella Dixon on ... Read more

This week on the Parents’ Show, Lydia is joined by Martin Maylin from the Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary. Martin tells Lydia how the sanctuary came about, his plans to make it more of a wildlife area and how to help our spiny friends this autumn with shelter, food and water. Martin goes on to explain how ... Read more

This episode features an in-depth interview with Serena Baker, who works in children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the NHS. Lydia and Serena discuss ADHD diagnosis, at what age, and where to start looking for help. She relates the experiences she had with her own son and how they have adapted their parenting ... Read more

It’s all about languages this week on the Parents’ show as we discuss the importance and benefits of learning different languages for both children and adults and raising children in households that speak 2 or more languages. Firstly, Lydia hears from Rachel Bailey about of the Bailey Language Academy about how she teaches French, English ... Read more

Following on from last week’s talk with Jane Opie from Dyslexia Herts for Dyslexia Awareness Week, Lydia meets Eban, a local 14-year old schoolboy who has dyslexia, ADHD and Autism, who, along with his mother Helen, talks about how Eban copes both at school and at home. Then still on the subject of Neurodiveristy, Pippa ... Read more

This week, Andreea meets Jon Salinger from London Colney Youth Football Club, who talks about not only the benefits of exercise for our young people, but the team-building skills and new friendships they will acquire through football. Parents may also benefit from meeting new people. @londoncolneyyouthfc Next, Lydia joins Karen Hannan to hear about the ... Read more

In this week’s show, Neil meets Michelle Bolton, one of the founders of DS Achieve, a charity formed to help empower families and professionals to enable children and young people with Down Syndrome to fulfil their potential. Michelle’s son Tom was born with DS, and she speaks openly about how Tom’s diagnosis has changed them ... Read more

This weeks Parents’ Show features an interview between Andreea and Regina Toop of St Albans Nutrition about helping our children prepare for exam-time with food choices. Neil meets Andy Kilvington and Kelly Watson from The Pioneer Club in St Albans, who tell Neil about its history, the rise of its skateboarding park and the latest events and ... Read more

Carole Salter from Talking Minds Counselling explains the various aspects surrounding young people and anxiety in this edition of our Mental Wellbeing series.

In this episode, we speak to Rachel Simkin from Youth Talk which has been providing a much-needed service for our local young people aged 13-25 years in St Albans and the surrounding areas for over 25 years. It is a place for young people to get one-on-one counselling support for a wide range of areas of concern including, for ... Read more

Enjoying play and movement are important for children and adults, so this week Lydia speaks to Nicola Wyeth from Playing Out St Albans, a branch of Sustainable St Albans, who help local people organise traffic-free street play for you and your neighbours. She’ll be telling us how you can apply for street closures (did you ... Read more

This week’s Parents’ Show features a moving interview from Andreea with Rob Johnstone about the challenges, ups and downs of caring for his son Callum who has special needs and how a support network is vital. Lydia catches up with Lehna Gardiner for our regular chat with Rayden Solicitors. This week, Lehna focusses on Domestic ... Read more

In this episode, Lydia speaks to Helen Brown from St Albans Menopause Wellness, a menopause wellness practitioner in St Albans about the latest research and practical steps to help women. Then, Lydia asks Josie Rosen of Yoga with Josie about the benefits of Yoga that the whole family can enjoy. Finally, Neil meets UK Network Scout Rosie Aldridge, ... Read more

Continuing our theme of ‘New Year, New You’, we are looking at ways in which we as parents can be good role models for our children by taking care of ourselves and finding some ‘me-time’ with hobbies and activities. First, Lydia we speak to Barrie from Greatin8, a St Albans-based fitness trainer who tells us ... Read more

On the first Parents Show of 2023, we mark World Braille Day on Jan 4th with an interview with Lydia and Charlotte Mellor and Luke Wakefield from VICTA, a national charity whose aim is to provide support to visually impaired children and young adults and their parents. After that, Neil speaks to Chris Gregory from LEAP about a ... Read more

In this podcast, Bhini Phagura from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors talks about taking a career break to become a new mum, and her subsequent return to work.

This week, we focus on the great work of all the homeless charities and the big St Albans Sleepout which is taking place in November. Lydia was joined by Rebecca, the Events Officer for Herts Young Homeless, Matthew Baxter, a trustee with Herts Young Homeless, Melanie O’Neil from Centre 33 and Lucy Gaygusuz from Open Door. They tell Lydia about ... Read more

Do you know how to learn? Have your children learned how to learn? With so much pressure on children to perform academically, it is important to reflect on whether they are actually using their time in the most efficient way. Do they need to learn by heart anymore? Has tech changed how children learn? Are ... Read more

Do you know how to learn? Have your children learned how to learn? With so much pressure on children to perform academically, it is important to reflect on whether they are actually using their time in the most efficient way. Do they need to learn by heart anymore? Has tech changed how children learn? Are ... Read more

With it being Cystic Fibrosis week from 13-19 June, it's very timely that this week we speak to Laura Barrett, the mother of Bailey who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.

In this episode, we speak to Nicola Mc Kinnon, Community Fundraiser at Herts Young Homeless, a wonderful local charity that puts huge time and energy into preventing homelessness among young people in our county. She speaks about upcoming opportunities to support their work through various Fundraising initiatives in the coming weeks. We also speak to ... Read more

It’s part 4 of the #ADHD special on the Thursday’s Parents’ Show. Lydia speaks to James Wenger about being diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, and how that is helping him relate his experiences growing up to his own son who also has ADHD, after recapping everything the show has covered about over the last few ... Read more

On this week’s parents show, we bring you part 3 of our February focus on #ADHD. We speak to Rachel Grant Waters from Abingdon House School and College. Rachel is an SEN teaching assistant and also has #ADHD so we’re really looking forward to learning from her professional and personal insights. We are also very ... Read more

As we continue with our February Focus on ADHD, we are really pleased to have the opportunity to interview Mel Peeke, ADHD and Autism Lead at ADD-vance – ADHD & Autism Trust. Mel will be answering questions on topics from the isolation young people and parents experience to medication and gender dysphoria, to the vital ... Read more

We have invited experts from around the UK to support us, provide best practice and help us promote greater understanding.

This week on the Parents’ Show we catch up with Claire Healey from Raring2go St Albans and Harpenden about some exciting upcoming developments. Keep an eye on those book bags for more! On a more serious note, we speak to Debi Roberts, CEO of The OLLIE Foundation about how some media have got it wrong covering recent suicides in ... Read more

Is reading more books on your list of New Year’s Resolutions? Well, our show this week is for you. Listen to our informative line up of guests speaking about how important it is to read to and with your child even in secondary school!

This week’s show is buzzing with wonderful local guests. We will be speaking to Ms. Jacquiline Bamfo and Ms Neela Mukhopadhaya from the Luton and Dunstable Hospital who will be giving us incredibly valuable advice and tips to pregnant women. In the second half, we will speak to Mark Jackson Hancock and Sarah Coles from St Francis Hospice who will be giving us some excellent and worthwhile Christmas gifts, as will Danielle Jefferson from Jefferson Crafts, who are taking unused material and making them into wonderful gifts.

This week’s Parents’ Show continues the theme of last week’s show on Covid vaccination for 12-15 year-olds, as we speak to local GP Dr Alison Cowan about the myths currently circulating. We also speak to Jessica Smith from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors about how to progress a career in the Legal profession and recent changes ... Read more

This week, we’re talking about the covid vaccination.Vaccinations have opened up to 12–15-year-olds in the UK. How do our young people feel about that?Are they being sucked into anti-vaccination disinformation?  We speak to Finn, Tara and Sarah from Verulam School, Beaumont School – St Albans and St George’s School respectively. They talk us through their ... Read more

It’s the last Parents’ Show this Thursday before we all spend the summer holidays with our children. In this episode we speak to Chris Gomez From TryTime Rugby St Albans about rugby for kids and Heather Birt from Baby College Mid-Herts about some of the key baby development insights they cover with parents at the Baby College, ... Read more

We spoke to David Bevan from Best Theatre Arts about how the past 18 months have been and their exciting plans for the summer #BestFest and #Olympiaganza. Then in the second part we spoke to Lehna Gardiner from Rayden Solicitors here in #StAlbans about Collaborative Law – a positive and constructive approach to divorce. Sponsored ... Read more

We dedicated this week's show to SustFest21. We handed over the microphone to St Albans student Lilly Golding to explore the topics around the Climate crisis.

This week we’re talking openly & honestly about #suicideprevention with Debi Roberts from The OLLIE Foundation& Alice Hendy, Founder of Ripple Suicide Prevention. We also chat to Suzy Moody from Home-Start Hertfordshire about how they are planning the coming months and returning to ‘normal’.Painful but essential listening for #parents Proudly sponsored by Rayden Solicitors

This week’s Parents’ Show looks at the many effects of sugar on obesity in children, when Steve Simpson talks to June O’Sullivan MBE of the London Early Years Foundation. Also in the show, solicitor Helen Lafferty from our sponsors Rayden Solicitors joins Lydia El-Khouri and Seema Barker to talk about domestic violence. The Parents’ Show ... Read more

Our show this week touches base with our community about lockdown and the strangeness of the past year. We speak to local mum Charlotte Story and mum-to-be Victoria Grey about their lockdown challenges and silver linings. Our wonderful Parents’ Show contributor Claire Healy from Raring2go St Albans and Harpenden keeps our fingers on the pulse ... Read more

How did our St Albans schools fare with 3 month’s home learning? We spoke to Head Teachers Margaret Chapman & Paul Ramsay from St Albans Girls’ School & Verulam School, plus students Lilly, Lucas, Lauren & Nabrissa from Beaumont, Verulam, Sandringham and St Albans Girls Schools on exams & mental health.  Sponsored by Rayden Solicitors

In this episode of The Parents Show, the panel of less than average dads from around St Albans, examine and discuss the value of music to parenting and the family unit. From the inevitable assertion that kids today know nothing about music, whether the drums constitute a real instrument, through to the many benefits of ... Read more

With lock-down and home-schooling making life stressful and more complicated, sleep is more important than ever before to reinvigorate us. Dr Faith Orchard, University of Sussex, speaks about good sleep habits, the importance of getting back into a routine, especially with a return to school on the horizon. What promotes good sleep and what does ... Read more

This week on the The Parents’ Show on 92.6FM Radio Verulam. we are  bringing  you a mixed bag of features. June O’Sullivan MBE, the outspoken CEO of London Early Years Foundation, joins us to talk frankly about the links between poverty and the success of parenting.  We are also joined by Dr Linda Greenwall, a ... Read more

This week’s show looks at how we can talk to children about racism. We are joined by Sue Schofield from ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, the UK’s largest anti-racism educational charity, which  was established in January 1996 thanks in part to a donation by then Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. https://www.theredcard.org/education She talks about the work ... Read more

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 ... Read more

This week on The Parents’ Show we were joined by June O’Sullivan MBE. June is the CEO of London Early Years Foundation (LEYF)  the largest childcare charitable social enterprise in the UK which operates 39 nurseries in and around London. June also advises the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s foundation on their early years project, ... Read more

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 ... Read more

This week on the Parents Show, the Lockdown Dads bring you a lighthearted and irreverent investigation into the role of Cinema and Movies as part of parenting and family life.  The panel of less than ordinary dads bring their opinions and observations, unencumbered by facts, evidence or qualifications to discuss everything from  the cinema experience as ... Read more

As the newly appointed Head of a prestigious independent school,  Kathryn Gorman found herself facing the biggest educational challenge in her career within weeks of her appointment. She and her team  found themselves deploying a generation’s worth of change to it’s technology and established curriculum in an incredibly short period of time,  in order  to ... Read more

On The Parents’ Show this week, Steve Simpson explores the role of Dads in the annual family holiday, with the help of the Lockdown Dads panel.This lighthearted and irreverent romp through the pitfalls of the holiday process from planning to unpacking, puts the burning issues in front of this clueless collection of dads, with typically ... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 ... Read more

The pupils from the St Albans Girls School (STAGS) Radio and Podcast Club have written and produced a podcast celebrating the school’s centenary. Listen to exclusive interviews with the wonderful Mr Blades and ex-student and now teacher Ms Bowman.