St Joseph's School Extended Services Group

  St Joseph's School received £700.00 from the Community Plan Fund for creating a support group for parents who have children with special needs.  

 

Earlier in the year those involved with ‘Extended School Services’ attended a meeting to find out what it involved and also to meet some of the outside agencies and to see what they could offer.

As a result of this lots of ideas were generated.

A questionnaire was put together for parents and children to find out what activities or services they required.

After going through all the questionnaires and collecting the data, it was obvious that parents did have concerns or needed support with their children’s Special-Needs.

After some research it was decided to start a Support Group.

 

To support Parents by knowledge, empowerment, friendship and practical help.

To build up trust within the group so that all feelings can be shared openly.

Listen to each other without judgement, but with respect.

Treat everything discussed in the group with absolute confidentiality. 

Give valid up to date information on what help and services are available.

Share with each other the good and bad times.     

 

So far there have been four meetings, with an overall turn out of between five and seven parents.

Guest Speakers so far have been:

23.1.08—Mrs. Jo Steele from IDS (disability inclusion).

Jo spoke about Autism and the diagnosis procedure and then answered any questions. It was an informative evening.

27.3.08—Mrs Liz Pope the school nurse.

Mrs. Liz Pope, the school nurse, who very kindly stood in at the last moment, spoke about the role of the school nurse and what help and support they can offer families.

9.4.08—Patrice from the DORE institute, a brain training exercises tailored especially for the individual.

14.5.08—Mr. Stu Gealy from the Nuneaton and Bedworth Leisure Trust working closely with Nuneaton & Bedworth Council. Put on a fun sports session for the children, one session a week, after school, over a 10 week period.

 

The Brandon Marsh trip took place on the 28th May.

The first planned activity was the pond dipping, so armed with nets, bowls and bug identification sheet they set off. The children went into groups of 2 and took turns to dip in their nets, swirl it through the pond before checking to see what interesting things they had caught to put in their bowls.

Once they had filled their bowls with all kinds of weird looking things, they were able to use the sheet to identify what they had caught.  The children really enjoyed this and especially if what they had was  bigger and stranger looking than the others had.

Sadly the rain didn’t hold out and it threw it down for the rest of the afternoon, which put a stop to the bug-hunting.

They didn’t let the rain stop them though and went into the education block and made  animal masks, did  insect puzzles and were able to look at different bugs under the microscope. 

Robert said, “really good, I liked pond dipping, I never knew you could get water snails and beetles. Me and Adam had a great time.” Adam added, “really fun.”

 

The Support Group has been a huge success and parents have found it a huge benefit.

The sessions will commence again in the new School Year, information will follow.

 

If you would like any further information regarding the project please contact Emma Knight on 024 7638 3807 or email admin@3584.wgfl.net