2005 July

BAPG Logo

Constitution

Parent Supporters

BAPG Flyer

Parents Meeting held on June 2005 - Guest Speaker from Barnsley Parent Partnership Service

Future Meetings and Events

BAPG Logo

We're very proud to be able to start using our new logo! You may remember that Aidan won our logo design competition earlier in the year. Since then Aidan's picture has been on display at Priory Campus along with the runner-up winners. Now we can use the logo to brighten up our newsletters, website and information sheets. Thank you, Aidan! Back to top

Constitution

We are applying for some grants. To be successful we need to satisfy various conditions. For several awarding organisations, one important condition is that we need a "constitution". This is basically an agreement amongst the BAPG members about what BAPG is for and how it should be run. We aim to put forward a constitution for a vote of agreement at the next Parents Meeting. Please find attached a draft recommended by the Steering Group. Constitutions for voluntary groups can become very complicated, but we've tried to keep it as concise as we can for the current needs of the group.
If you have any particular suggestions or comments please don't hesitate to raise them at the meeting. Also, it would be helpful if could you let the Steering Group know about your suggestions in advance. In this way we can group similar comments, consider any re-wording necessary and so make best use of time at the meeting. Back to top

Parent Supporters

The group is sometimes asked to provide individual support to parents who are facing difficult situations such as school meetings, challenging behaviour at home etc. Whilst BAPG doesn't have the specialist skills, we are a support group and do want to be able to help each other. So we would like to arrange some training to help us do this. The objectives would be to help us:
· provide occasional (telephone) support to parents for particular issues;
· to support parents in educational meetings;
· to be able to give short presentations to school staff on AS.
The intention is for Voluntary Action Barnsley (VAB) to provide training for the presentation and/or support aspects and for VAB to fund Luke Beardon (who was one of our guest speakers earlier this year) to provide training for the AS and/or support aspects. We anticipate that the training would be in two half day sessions. If you are interested in helping other parents in this way, and would like to take part in the training, then please contact any member of the Steering Group. Back to top

BAPG Flyer

Look out for a new flyer we've produced about BAPG. It's a single page description of what the group is trying to do. We've started to send it out to those who are interested. We hope to send out a copy to each BAPG parent soon. Please feel free to copy it to anyone you think might be interested. If you'd like to get some more copies please just ask any member of the Steering Group. Back to top

Parents Meeting held on June 2005 - Guest Speaker from Barnsley Parent Partnership Service

We were pleased to welcome Chris Metcalf of Parents Partners, a Barnsley service that ?works in co-operation with those with parental responsibility, educational settings, school, voluntary agencies, the local educational authority, voluntary agencies and others to ensure appropriate provision is made for children and young people with SEN". They are run independently but are funded by Barnsley MBC (as a statutory obligation). Barnsley Parent Partners form part of a network of similar services who communicate locally, regionally and nationally.

Their core activities are:
· working with parents
· information and publicity
· training advice and support
· networking and collaboration
· helping to inform and influence local SEN policy
and they work broadly on three levels to provide:
· telephone support
· access to Independent parental Supporters (IPS) as a 'case'
· and where appropriate access to SEN Mediation channel;
They have a small paid team and also Independent Parental Supporters (IPS) who are trained volunteers carry out much of the work with parents. IPS have to a complete an accredited course run by Sheffield University. The course has 3 levels with topics including the Special Education Needs, the SEN system and child protection. All IPS are CRB checked. Unfortunately there is a long waiting list for IPS.

Parent Partners work with kids who are on school action plus, not just those who have a statement of SEN. They have successfully worked with parents at tribunals. The service is evaluated externally.

It was noted that most teachers have a half day training in SEN which is not much! They need frequent and gentle reminders of ways in which they can help AS children.

There was discussion about home-school communication. Often a dedicated home-school book is used and can be appropriate but its use can single-out a child and itself cause difficulties. Suggested alternatives included: writing messages in the reading record book (which all children will have), homework diary or using email to contact the teacher or SENCO.

The service has a voice at an LEA-run forum through which it consults on various procedures etc, and in turn the service has its own forum to seek views from parents.

A new ?Autism Information Pack? has been produced by the West Midlands Regional Parent Partnership (with central funding) which is being tailored for, and will soon be published in this region. Interested parents were able to give their details to receive a copy during the meeting. (Ed. BAPG will work with Parent Partners to try to ensure that all parents receive a copy).

Comment from the note-taker ?these notes are just a snap-shot of the talk. They don?t really do justice to the group discussion and experiences that were shared. To get the most, you had to be there! But they are (hopefully) better than nothing! Back to top

Future Meetings and Events

Parents Meeting Wednesday 20th July, 6:30 to 8:00pm.Discussions led by Andrew Charters and Ruth Coppard on teaching AS adolescents about personal hygiene and sex education.Children and young adults with AS often have problems with these topics. Whilst many are desperately keen to fit in, behave like their peer group and show interest in the opposite sex, the rules of appropriate behaviour are particularly difficult for them to grasp and are fraught with dangers if they get it wrong. This is a difficult area for parents. How can we best help them to learn? Depending on the mix of parents who come along, this will be a round table discussion, maybe split into child age groups, to talk about problems encountered or feared, and the approaches that have worked for some people. There maybe no clear or easy answers, but it will be interesting to get different ideas. Library - Don't forget our library of books on Aspergers. You make like to come along a few minutes earlier to get a chance to browse.
Kids Computer Club Wednesday 20th July, 6:15 to 8:15pm.Run by BAPG parents, the club is open to all children of BAPG parents. Initial planned activities include building a BAPG Kids website and playing multi-player computer games (within the club).It's free to use. BAPG is paying for the hire of the room and computers.The club is proving very popular, and at present we're limited to 6 places, so if you'd like to book a place for your child(ren) then please contact James (see below).
Steering Group Meeting Friday, 22nd July, 9:30 to 11:00am.Any BAPG parent is welcome to come along! If you'd like to raise an issue please feel free to contact any of the Steering Group first otherwise see you there!
Funworld Saturday, 30th July 4:00 to 5:30pm.It's open to all the children of BAPG parents and their friends. The cost is only £2.50 per child. The normal height restrictions don't apply for this private event. Please note that parents remain responsible for the children they bring.
Parents Meeting Wednesday 17th August, 6:15 to 8:15pm.Guest Speaker ? to be decided.
Kids Computer Club There won't be a Kids Computer Club in August as Nigel is holiday.
Steering Group Meeting Tuesday, 13th September, 9:30 to 11:00am.
Parents Meeting and Kids Computer Clubs Future meetings are planned for every third Wednesday of the month, i.e. 21st September (Guest Speakers from Welfare Rights Service), 19th October, 16th November, and 7th December 2005.
NB. All meetings are held at Priory Campus, Lundwood unless otherwise stated. Back to top