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2004 December

Barnsley Building Society 'Pride in Your Community' Award

+++++++++ Parents Meeting on 10th November 2004 ++++++++

++++ Guest Speaker Christine Parkes - Parents Meeting 10th Nov 2004 +++++

++++ Guest Speaker Howard Johnson - Parents Meeting 10th Nov 2004 ++++

Next Meeting - Wednesday 8th December, 6.30 to 8pm at Priory Campus Lundwood

Barnsley Building Society 'Pride in Your Community' Award

Our application has been successful! We have been awarded £300 by Barnsley BS. Many thanks to them. The purpose of the application was to provide funding to start a library of books. Hence ... Back to top

Asperger's Book Library

We now have a library. Well only three donated books so far but it's a start! Now we've received the Barnsley Building Society grant we can start to build this up. We have a few more books on order already, but if there's any particular book that you're interested in then please let June know (or via LibraryBAPG@aol.com). Or if you have any book on Asperger Syndrome that you've finished with and would like to donate, again please let June know or bring it to the next meeting.

We're hoping that this will be a useful resource to all parents, but it may be especially helpful to parents of newly diagnosed children who are trying to understand what Asperger Syndrome is and how it will affect their child. Back to top

New website!

We have a new website - www.bapg.ik.com - it's worth a look! It has much more content than before, in a more professional format and it's much easier to add things. The aim is that it can be a repository for what we learn as a group: local information, guest speaker notes, etc. Importantly, there's no cost to the group. The site hosting is free to voluntary bodies and is supported by ik.com Limited and BT.

There's a Guestbook on the site, so if you have any comment or would like to see something included then please leave a message, or if you prefer please send an email to InfoBAPG@aol.com. Back to top

+++++++++ Parents Meeting on 10th November 2004 ++++++++

The key points/decisions of the meeting were:
· The Steering Group now meets monthly in a separate meeting to minimise using valuable time in the Parents Meeting for admin. All parents are welcome to the Steering Group meeting. Minutes are produced and will be available at the Parents Meetings.
· A voluntary donation of 50p per book would be invited for each loan from our library. This should be purely voluntary as we don't want any parent to feel excluded. The receipts would be used to plough back into other books or other BAPG activities (we'll see how it goes).
· The group agreed that it would be good to organise a small competition for the kids to design a logo for BAPG. The logo itself would be useful to help represent the group on the website and correspondence etc. More importantly it seems a nice way to involve the kids. We're hoping for a parent to volunteer to help organise the competition. (If you think you could help or would like to discuss it, then please contact any of the Steering Group).
· We also agreed to arrange an activity (for parents, kids and siblings) for early in the New Year. This is likely to be an indoor adventure play area. More details later. Many thanks to Diane for offering to help organise this.
· Membership details - we need keep to properly keep track of new members, changed contact details etc. Many thanks to Jane for volunteering to help with this.
· Many thanks also to Andrea who offered to help with typing and to Nigel who offered to help with the website.

We had two Guest Speakers at this meeting. Notes on their talks follow. Back to top

++++ Guest Speaker Christine Parkes - Parents Meeting 10th Nov 2004 +++++

Christine Parkes is an Educational Psychologist with Barnsley Local Education Authority. The talk was an informal one based around points of interest we had previously sent to Christine. The following notes include some suggestions from parents and not just points made by Christine:

· In Barnsley, Margaret Padley is the LEA officer responsible for administering Statements of Special Educational Need (SEN). She has a lot of detailed knowledge in this area and might possibly be available to visit the group at a future meeting;
· It is common for kids with Asperger Syndrome (AS) to have no Statement;
· Historically, Barnsley has been a high statementing authority;
· There is a huge shift now to (1) early years statements, and (2) statements for kids with social / communication interaction difficulties;
· Parents (as well as schools and medics) can request an assessment for a Statement;
· From 16yo onwards, whilst children may still have a Statement, it will be funded by a different body (i.e. not the LEA);
· There is an increasing trend for schools to manage their own budget, and a decreasing number of LEA-based Statements (they haven't disappeared but they will reduce);
· An Statement of SEN gives clear recommendations;
· With regard to parents communicating with schools: parents should request a meeting with the SENCO and Headteacher whether or not the child has a statement. (The SENCO is the SEN coordinator within the school). The school has a responsibility to try and meet the needs of the child. If there is a cause for concern then 'School Action' is used, a tool to document the issues and plan how to tackle them. Schools can then involve the Communication Interaction Team, Educational Psychologists and others to get further help;
· An assessment for a Statement of SEN, even if declined can result in a note recommending a series of actions that the school should take.
· A Statement can carry over the transition from primary to secondary school, as can an Individual Educational Plan (IEP).
· A Statement shouldn't be seen as permanent, indefintely pinned to the child. The aim should be to get the child to the point that they don't need it any more.
· Having a Statement risks attracting adverse comment from other kids in secondary school. It can be that the disadvantages of this can outweigh the benefits of the statement.
· Children with AS often cope better at secondary school than in primary, e.g. the regular, predictable, unchanging timetable can be relied on. They can often thrive in the new setting.
· School planners really help AS kids at secondary school, and all kids have them not just AS ones (so they don't stand out).
· To help the AS child cope with transition, do more than the 'normal' preparation, e.g. do a number of practice visits or drive-bys of the school, look into bus/train timetables together, involve kids in the planning - this will help them prepare.
· Secondary schools have a more pastoral team approach (i.e. not just relying on the class teacher).
· Even if the AS child doesn't have friends in primary school, don't underestimate the support of the social circle from primary school when moving to secondary.
· Transport costs - as a general rule - if the LEA decides to send your child to a particular school then they pay, if parents decide to choose another schoold they they pay. Sue Hague from Barnsley LEA specialises.
· The biggest success factor for including kids with SEN in mainstream education is the attitudes for inclusion within the schools, this can vary a lot between schools, and stems from the headteacher.
· Educational Psychologists have no power. They can recommend and provide support, but ultimately the schools make decisions.
· Each year / term, the Educational Psychologists offer a consultation meeting with the school. This is an opportunity for the school to bring particular kids to attention. They can talk about any child, then beyond that the Educational Psychologists offer to come to the next review of School Action with the teacher/parents.
· Educational Psychologists can offer training to schools.
· Advice to parents on how to help the schools: as the child gets older, we need to respect that s/he needs space to make mistakes; parents should be open to taking risks, e.g. taking part in educational visits (these often go well, few go badly); need to build trust; parents know the kids best (clearly) but teachers know the child well in a different context. As kids can learn to behave differently in different contexts.
· Hoyland Springwood Primary and Royston Secondary are appropriate for autistic spectrum children who are capable of accessing mainstream education but need some specialist teacher input. (Consider the Robert Odgen NAS school which uses the SPELL framework for teaching, for those kids who can't access mainstream).
· There is no strategic coordination for AS across organisations in the Barnsley area. However, it's a small place so in practice there is a lot of contact on the individual level.
· Idea - in school staff room of having photos of the kids with problem issues, and how to deal with them - this can really help support staff / supply teachers.
· It's always good for parents to inform school of when there's an issue - if significant then book an appointment. Back to top

++++ Guest Speaker Howard Johnson - Parents Meeting 10th Nov 2004 ++++

Howard Johnson is a trainee Clinical Psychologist who conducted an anonymous survey of the group some months ago of what parents were looking for from BAPG. He presented a set of slides of findings to the group (available to anyone who is interested).

At risk of oversimplyfing Howard's analysis, the group is largely providing what parents were looking for from it: content of meetings, location, timing, frequency, etc. In particular, he stressed, the importance that parents attached to the social contact the group provideds, i.e. the opportunity to share experiences with parents in a similar position.

There was some very interesting discussion about making contact with other local parents not currently on the mailing list, and trying to find out from parents on the mailing list but who don't attend the meetings what they'd like BAPG to offer. All comments welcome! Back to top

Next Meeting - Wednesday 8th December, 6.30 to 8pm at Priory Campus Lundwood

The guest speaker will be Phil Sadler, a Family Support Worker from Thorne House, a local organisation that provides help to Autistic Spectrum people and their families. The aim of the talk is to provide Parents with:
· an overview of the services available to kids and parents in South Yorkshire,
· people we should be in contact with
· thinking ahead for future, how to avoid pitfalls e.g. with siblings etc.
· education, health and home - his perspective on what parents have found to be helpful (e.g. interventions at school, helping school understand AS etc). Back to top