contact -
Gill McDonald - 01892 834577
Debbie Salt - 01959 533292Newsletter - January 2009
Coffee Mornings
Fund Raising
Christmas cards
Unit and Designation Review
Halls Green
And Finally
Firstly I would like to thank Louise for hosting the last coffee morning. Due to a mix-up over dates Nick (from Transport) did not make it to the coffee morning. I apologise to everyone who was looking forward to hearing Nick’s talk, and you will be pleased to hear that he has been re-booked for the next coffee morning.
The next coffee morning will be from 10am to 12 midday on Wednesday 14th January 2009 at Debbie’s House in Knockholt. The phone number for Debbie is 01959 533292. As previously written, Nick Smyth from KCC Transport will be our speaker. Nick will discuss general policy issues and the operation of special needs transport but he is unable to discuss individual cases. I think this will be very interesting, because although I have been a ‘user’ of 'KCC Special Needs Transport’ for many years nobody has ever given me any information about what my expectations of the service should be!
Thank you to everyone who has already given me toys for our toy stall at the HAHA Show in September 2009, but we still need more – lots more!
We need toys, books, videos, board games, computer games i.e. anything we can sell on a toy stall. Girls’ toys are particularly welcome! We always have a shortage of girls’ toys because most of our members are parents of boys because it is boys who tend to have speech and language needs
I will collect your ‘old toys’ any time and store them in my spare room until September.
Thank you to everyone who supported West Kent Afasic and Afasic by buying Afasic Christmas cards. The sale of these cards raises money for Afasic funds and also raises awareness of speech and language difficulties and Afasic.
Unit and Designation Review back to top
There is (finally) some new information on the KCC website about the Unit and Designation Review –
www.kent.gov.uk/publications/education-and-learning/unit-review-newsletter-nov-08.htmI do not think that a paper copy (or even an electronic notification) of this newsletter has yet been distributed to parents although it is dated November 2008 – you may remember that a comment made by parents over a year ago was that KCC do not appear to have a reliable distribution list of parents who need to be informed about the Unit and Designation Review.
The only ‘new’ information in the newsletter is that the implementation of Phase 2 (which affects us in Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells etc) has slipped from September 2009 to September 2010.
Last year West Kent Afasic wrote to various KCC councillors expressing concerns about the Review but received only ‘standard replies’. Saeed, one of our local members, has met with his MP (Greg Clark) to discuss the Review and has a further meeting planned with a KCC councillor in February. Thanks Saeed.
Other parents can support us by lobbying their MPs also
Over the last 12 months or so, members have suggested that we arrange an ‘activity’ session/ half day/full day for the West Kent Afasic children at Halls Green Activity Centre near Sevenoaks. Because of the activities on offer at Halls Green the full cost is probably more than most parents would be willing to pay for a ‘day out’. We have also discovered that Waitrose have a fund to support local community projects. We need to investigate Waitrose funding further but if we were to obtain (partial) funding would anyone be interested in an activity session or day at Halls Green? Before we progress with this any further we need to establish how many children would be interested (over 8s only I think) and when would suit most people (summer holiday? Easter? October ½ term?) and how much parents would be willing to contribute for each child.
I sent out a tentative email regarding this before Christmas but only received 4 replies. If this is to progress any further we need at least 10 firm commitments.
If we are to apply for (partial) funding, does anyone have experience of this?
Perhaps arranging a trip to Halls Green is a bit too adventurous for us – maybe a bowling trip is in more in our league!
More details of Halls Green –
www.barnabas.org.uk/info/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=3&MMN_position=3:3Please email me your views, suggestions etc
Any articles for newsletter gratefully received
Any speaker gratefully accepted
Any new coffee morning hostesses (even more) gratefully received.
And don’t forget any email addresses even more gratefully accepted!
Gill McDonald
01892 834577
Gill-2009@west-kent-afasic.fsnet.co.uk
