News

HIDE AND SEEK REPORT

Hide-and-Seek-report_PDF.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.2 MB]

The Driver Youth Trust is a charity dedicated to improving the life chances of children and young people with a focus on those who struggle with literacy, particularly children with dyslexia. Their fourth report 'Hide and Seek' is an important piece of research and goes to the heart of why, despite some progress with literacy levels generally, for some, progress is not being made, and, as a society, we are seeing the consequences of this.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THE BDA!

Last week, the SDA heard that they had been successful in their application for funding from the BDA, which they were awarded at the highest level (£400).

The money is earmarked for increased availability of IT use in the Workshop so that tutors and students will be better able to work together remotely or together face to face. While we all hope that remote teaching will not be needed, we should not ignore the possibility that limited versions could return.

The TTRS (Touch Type Read and Spell) program for Workshop use is on our shopping list, as are computers on which to run it and other programs, as many are fabulous.

This award gives the Workshop a real boost and we hope that it will continue to provide even greater inspiration and support for our tremendous tutors and wonderful students. We will post more news when our purchases are in use.

Ros McCarthy

Shropshire Dyslexia Association

23/9/20

Channel 4 and Sandi Toksvig explore adult illiteracy in 'The Write Offs'

https://www.channel4.com/press/news/channel-4-and-sandi-toksvig-explore-adult-illiteracy-write-offs

A young person's guide to staying well during the Coronavirus outbreak

Coolminds_Staying-well-during-coronaviru[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [3.3 MB]

SDA links

The SDA were very happy to receive some funding from the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury four years ago, and set up a bursary fund to help out those who need assessments or lessons but have funding difficulty. We at the SDA try to keep it topped up and are happy that we have been able to help several people to access the help they have needed.

We also have links with CReSTeD; a charitable organisation that keeps a list of schools and teaching centres that deal with specific learning difficulties. Those organisations that want to be listed are visited every three years by CReSTeD consultants to ensure that their standards are upheld; there are three such schools in Shropshire. The CReSTeD website provides useful advice to parents and can be found at www.crested.org.uk

A useful and totally positive website I have recently noticed is ‘Made by Dyslexia’ on Facebook. It promotes the values of dyslexia and is quite inspirational.

Ros McCarthy (Rotarian/CReSTeD consultant/SDA member

Patoss Shropshire

Arrange workshops/speakers 3 or 4 times a year. These events are supported by PATOSS and CPD certificates are issued to all who attend. The fee for these courses is usually around £5

Events include:

Thursday 19th April 2018- Philippa Bodien - ' Dyslexia - the alphabetic principle and other stumbling blocks. Case histories that show us what might be going on in the background.’

Philippa is a dyslexia specialist and former Special Educational Needs Advisor for GEMS Education, United Arab Emirates. Her role involved delivering professional development to staff, leading the SEND Network, leading school projects for the raising of standards in literacy and numeracy across the ability range, supporting schools' bespoke development of SEND provision and being a team member in school reviews and support for inspections.

Previously Philippa was Head of Inclusion at GEMS Jumeirah Primary School (JPS), having joined the school in 1998 to set up and lead the Dyslexia Unit.Inclusion at JPS has been consistently recognised as outstanding in inspections and in 2012 was recognised by the Dubai Schools Inspectorate as leading the Emirate in excellent practice.

Philippa co-authored 'Dyslexia Guidance' (2007) with the late Martin Turner, Head of Psychology for the Dyslexia Institute, UK.

Prior to JPS, Philippa independently tutored children with dyslexia for 9 years on a one-to-one basis; finding from practice what worked best for them. Her UK experience includes primary and secondary school teaching and teaching English as a second language to adults.

Thursday 7th June 2018- Gareth D. Morewood

'Autism (part 2)'

Meetings are held at The Cricket Club, SY11 2AY in Oswestry at 7.30pm and last for approximately 90 mins.

The group is interested in adding more Shrewsbury contacts and new members are always welcome. You do not need to be a member to attend these talks.

If you would like your name to be added to the mailing list please email Janet Barlow janet.barlow@talk21.com

Drawing competition

Some of the fantastic contributions to our 'Design the SDA logo competition' A big thank you to all those who entered.

Free tandem hire

Charlottes Tandems

Charlottes tandems lend tandems to (and only to) people with disabilities or special needs for free, who are unable to ride a bike safely on their own, so that they can enjoy the wonders of cycling. Borrowers are both children and adults. Tandems are a fun and safe way to get out and about as friends, a couple, family or group. They are available for hire for a couple of a months at a time. If you are not disabled and you are after a hire tandem or one for a Charity Ride then please try the Tandem Club website instead.

If you would like to borrow one then please contact: Ray Hughes (Charlottes Tandem representative in Shropshire): 01746 785659.

The disabilities and special needs of borrowers have so far included: Severe Learning Difficulties, Autism, Aspergers, Blindness, Visual Impairment, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Stroke, Amputation, Hearing Loss, Dyspraxia, Fybromalgia, Parkinson's, MS, ME, CRPS, COPD, Hemiplasia, Tuberous Sclerosis, CHARGE & MPS III.