News and events

October support group update

Who’s Who at Carmelita House

Although this group fell during the Half Term holiday, we decided to use this as a “drop in” session so people could meet us and also pick up information about the professionals at Carmelita House. The information we were able to provide is as follows:

• Ealing Service for Children with Additional Needs (ESCAN)
• Children’s Services Keyworkers – for families who have a disabled child aged 0-5 years
• Children’s Services – short breaks for children with disabilities
• Short breaks – for children and young people with disabilities 2011-2012
• Speech and Language Therapy – Early Years Service
• Speech and Language Therapy – Early Years Service – information for parents and carers on stammering
• Speech and Language Therapy – Early Years Service – Speech Groups
• Speech and Language Therapy – Early Years Service – Language Groups
• Speech and Language Therapy – Early Years Service – Parent Child Interaction Groups
• Speech and Language Therapy – Special Schools Service – information for parents/carers
• Speech and Language Therapy Service for Ealing Schools – Training for Schools – Autumn Term Programme 2011 (includes courses for parents/carers)
• Children with Disabilities Team – Allocation and Eligibility Criteria – September 2011
• Children’s Services – Educational Psychology Service – a guide for parents/carers on the work of educational psychologists
• Child and Family Clinical Psychology – information for families
• Occupational Therapy for Children – information for parents
• ESCAN – Information on the Ealing Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service.

We again had a successful meeting with Halloween colouring for the children who came along.  This kept them amused whilst their parents had a cup of coffee and chatted with each other about various issues.

If you would like us to provide you with one of the above leaflets please call our help line on 020 8280 2251.

September support group update

Transitions

The session started off with a conversation generally about how it has been for the children returning to school after the summer holidays.

Most of the parents/carers who attended this session now have children in Year 6 so they were  also chatting about the process they are currently involved in with regards to high school. The parents/carers were sharing views on some of the high schools they have visited as part of the process. 

Our speaker was Gabriel Jones from Ealing Mencap who came along to speak about transitions for older children. Initially some of the parents thought the session was about transitions for younger children but they did agree at the end that they found it useful. Some felt that the information was useful now so they can be aware when their children reach that stage (always remembering that there could be changes to the process at any time).

Gabriel also provided details of Transition Information Sessions for Parents/Carers held once a month on a Wednesday. For more information on this or any of ContinYou’s Support Group Meetings please call us on 020 8280 2251.

Summer support group update

In June we had Ms Earle as a speaker. She is a SENCO at a local school with about 30 years Special Educational Needs experience. She talked us through the way the school works to address the needs of the child. This included the role of the parent, school action/school action + and also briefly touched on some interventions that a school can put in place as solutions. We also heard personal experiences from parents who attended the meeting which we were advised were very useful to some of the attendees who are new to the SEN process.
 
In July we had John Millar, Principal Educational Psychologist from the London Borough of Ealing as our speaker. This was again a very lively session and the room was filled to capacity! John started his talk by informing attendees about the role of the Educational Psychologist in the child's life. John also spoke about the SEN panel, how this is made up, and what the panel looks at. John was happy to take questions, which included:

• Can schools buy in extra Educational Psychologist sessions once they have used up all their fixed sessions?
• Can the Educational Psychologist Dept educate schools?
• What happens at panel if a parent requests an out of school Borough.
• Has anyone thought about harnassing parent volunteers to go into school and educate them?
• How qualified is an Educational Psychologist to assess a child?
• Should the Educational Psychologist understand autism?
• Would there be scope for parent feedback to be included in training/1:1?
• Should the parent be interviewed?
• Does the child's view have to be taken into account?

Once again attendees shared their own personal experiences which others found very useful.

Launch event

On Wednesday 27 May 2009, we held our launch event at the Quaker Meeting House in Ealing - a Fun Day for Ealing’s families of children with special educational needs. Despite the rain we had a lovely afternoon, with over 100 people dropping in to grab a bite to eat and learn more about the service. The children loved the balloon-modelling and Louise’s face-painting was a hit!

Parents enjoyed speaking with Barbara Yerolemou, the new mayor of Ealing, as well as several senior members of Ealing Council. The Mayor kindly posed for photographs with families and the team, which will appear in the Ealing Gazette.

We’re so pleased that, as well as coming to talk to us, parents got talking to each other. We hope that the connections parents made at our Fun Day will encourage them to attend a host of more informal meet-up events which we’ll be organising over the next few months, along with other organisations in the area.

Special thanks to Caireen Piper and Alan and Susan Webber for all their help on the day.