contact -
Gill McDonald - 01892 834577
Debbie Salt - 01959 533292Newsletter - April 2009
Coffee Mornings
Our Space
HAHA Show
Tidy up of mailing list
Unit and Designation Review
DANDA
Future of West Kent Afasic
And Finally
Firstly I would like to thank Sarah for hosting the last coffee morning.
The next coffee morning will be from 10am to 12 midday on Wednesday 22nd April 2009 at Caroline’s House in Tonbridge. The phone number for Caroline is 01732 364396. Our speaker will be Peter Winston from the Department for Work and Pensions. Peter will talk about various benefits including Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Carers Allowance
The June coffee morning will be on Wednesday 10th June 2009 at Debbie’s House in Knockholt. The phone number for Debbie is – 01959 533292
I have booked Our Space at High Brooms for a private West Kent Afasic ‘party’ on Tuesday 26th May 2009 from 6.15pm to 8.15pm. We will have sole use of the venue and there will be no admission charge.
Because we will be the only users there will be no upper age or height limit for our children, although the older children will need to respect the smaller children. There were no problems with the age mix on the bouncy castle at the 40th Party last summer so I do not envisage any problems this time. There will be staff from Our Space in attendance and The Flying Saucer (snack bar) will be open for drinks and snacks (but no hot food).
I have visited Our Space today and it is huge so please pass on details of the event to other parents otherwise we may feel that we are rattling about in there!.
Parents must remain on the premises and are responsible for their children at all times.
Thank you to everyone who has already given me toys for our toy stall at the HAHA Show in September 2009, the pile in my spare room is gradually growing, 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.
Tidy up of mailing list back to top
My mailing lists – both postal and electronic – keep on growing but I am beginning to wonder how ‘current’ they are; consequently I am going to have a big tidy up.
I suspect many of the email addresses I send to are non active. Before I remove any email addresses I will email you individually to ask you if you want to remain on the mailing list – please reply to me! If I get no response from you I will delete your email addresses
Postage costs money. We are busy raising funds at the HAHA Show and at the same time a major expenditure is postage. I do not want to spend our hard earned cash posting newsletters if they go straight in the bin. I am going to start removing non members from the postal mailing list. If you are not a member and would like to remain on the list please let me know. Remember email is free and I will gladly email anyone regardless of if you are a member or not.
If you still want to remain on the West Kent Afasic mailing lists and you think you have been removed then please contact me. The next newsletter will be at the end of May 2009.
Unit and Designation Review back to top
The Unit and Designation Review continues! And the proposed implementation date for the West Kent clusters is September 2010.
There is still no definitive answer to primary aged unit speech and language provision in the Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Paddock Wood & Cranbrook clusters. Southborough Primary School is in discussions with KCC about the September 2009 entry cohort (and hopefully about finding the September 2008 and September 2007 entry cohort) but as I write this the only provision for these children will be when the St Matthews High Brooms HUB opens in September 2010. It is all very very sad for these children who have been denied the appropriate education to which they are entitled and that was available for earlier (and hopefully later) cohorts of children.
I will keep you informed as soon as I have any news!
Saeed has found the following links on the KCC website which are relevant to the Unit and Designation Review -
www.kent.gov.uk/publications/education-and-learning/lead-school-funding-arrangements.htm
www.kent.gov.uk/publications/education-and-learning/key-planning-guidance.htm
Thank you Saeed for spending your time searching the KCC website. I am not aware that KCC have made any attempts to inform parents of the existence of these documents. If you have any comments on these documents I would be very pleased to hear them.
I recently found a link to DANDA on the Afasic website. DANDA is the Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association has been set up for people with Dyspraxia, Asperger’s Syndrome, AD(H)D and other related conditions such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. Their services are aimed at adults but many of our children are now approaching adulthood –
Future of West Kent Afasic back to top
After 8 years as Secretary of West Kent Afasic I have decided it is time to move on and I want to stand down as secretary. Debbie is happy to remain as Treasurer.
The next coffee morning, in April, is at Caroline’s and we have a speaker. The following coffee morning, in June, is at Debbie’s and I would like to use this coffee morning to elect a new secretary and a committee.
If you would like any information about what is involved please contact Debbie or me. We will be able to talk briefly about what is involved at Caroline’s coffee morning after the speaker.
Anybody who is an Afasic member can be secretary or a committee member – if you are unsure if you are a current member I can obtain a current membership list.
Please give some consideration to becoming more involved in West Kent Afasic so it can continue to be a well respected parent voice in Kent.
Any articles for the newsletter, speakers, coffee morning hostesses, email addresses (and nominations for secretary and committee members) gratefully received
Gill McDonald
01892 834577
Gill-2009@west-kent-afasic.fsnet.co.uk
