News
A HUGE thank you to our wonderful supporters - the families we work with, our grant funders, our social media followers, and MASSIVE thanks to our employee team, our trustees, our Advisory Teachers and our volunteers. We appreciate all of the support you have shown us in 2024.
Our 2024 Impact Report has now been published, please take a look at achievements over the past year here: https://dsachieve.org/2024-impact-report
Our bookings for next term’s Little Achievers are now open, and we’ve had so much fun this past Autumn term!
This term, we’ve been working on developing fine and gross motor skills through a variety of engaging activities. The children enjoyed sorting objects into bowls using large tweezers, colouring and mark making with crayons and paints, and using playdough to cut out shapes. We also practised pouring dry cereal into cups and bowls, linked to Sandra’s teaching of the verbs “filling” and “pouring”.
As the season changed, we embraced all things autumn! The children explored leaf printing and used magnifying glasses to examine leaves, conkers, and sticks up close.
In the last few weeks, we have turned our attention to Christmas arts and crafts with the making of our Christmas cards and Christmas pictures.
As well as all of these activities, our weekly Sing and Sign sessions have been a highlight, with everyone (both adults and children!) learning and practicing new Makaton signs each week. These sessions have been a wonderful way to enhance communication skills while having fun. Meanwhile, our visiting therapists have provided invaluable advice and support to parents throughout the term.
It’s been a fantastic and productive term at Little Achievers, filled with learning and creativity. We can’t wait to see what the Spring term brings!
Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1086818526469?
Bookings for the Spring term at Young Achievers are also now open.
This term, the Young Achievers have been exploring the theme of ‘being kind,’ and we’ve had an amazing time embracing kindness in so many fun ways!
A highlight was welcoming Sarah from Critical First Aid, who delivered a first aid course for our older group. The session taught everyone valuable skills, including what to do in an emergency, how to help someone who is hurt, and even how to perform CPR!
Themed weeks have also been a big hit this term. During Space Week, the children and young people shared facts about planets and enjoyed a themed movement session whilst exploring outer space. Halloween brought its own excitement, with everyone dressing up in costumes and making spooky potions.
Throughout the term, we’ve focused on practising kindness through activities like sharing and listening exercises, offering words of encouragement to build each other’s confidence, and celebrating our successes through show-and-tell sessions and talent shows. These moments have helped the children and young people discover new ways to make friends and express kindness within the group.
We’ve also continued to develop essential turn-taking and social skills with a variety of engaging games, including duck duck goose, scavenger hunts, and ball games.
We’re so proud of the Young Achievers and all they’ve accomplished this term!
Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1086848536229?
You will report to the Young Achievers Group Leader and be responsible for supporting the running of the programme, which will include assisting with planning and delivering the weekly activity sessions, managing the volunteer schedule, supporting communications with parents, liaising with external activity providers where needed, and helping to supervise the team.
Pay: £14.30 per hour
Benefits:
Employee Assistance Programme
Statutory holiday entitlement
Hours: 5 hours per week for 31 weeks per year (term time only):
4 hours to be worked 2pm - 6pm on Saturday afternoons at the YAs venue
1 hour to be worked during each week from home, ahead of the Saturday group sessions. The timing of this is flexible and should be agreed with the YAs Group Leader.
YAs location: Applecroft School, Applecroft Road, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6JZ
Contract: Fixed Term for 10 months (Oct 24 – Jul 25), with a view to renewing for the next academic year
Start date: October 2024
If you are interested in applying for the position and want to find out more, please read the role profile here and get in touch with your CV and the reasons why you’re interested in the role on info@dsachieve.org.
The application deadline is Wednesday 18th September. Please expect to receive a response to your application once the deadline has passed.
We hope everyone enjoyed a fantastic summer! As the school year begins, we wish all the best to those starting new schools or returning to school this week. Wishing everyone lots of luck!
A new term at school means a new term for DS Achieve activities and services, take a look below to see what we have coming up:
GROUPS for children:
Little Achievers starts back on Thursday 19th September: Little Achievers Autumn ‘24 Tickets
Young Achievers starts back on Saturday 5th October: Young Achievers - Yr R to Yr 6 Autumn '24 Tickets and Young Achievers - Yr 7 to Yr 12/13 Autumn '24 Tickets
TRAINING:
Our schools training starts on Monday 21st October with our three part course Supporting Pupils with Down Syndrome in Education for education professionals: More Information and Supporting Pupils with DS in Education Training Tickets
We also have five Hertfordshire Libraries volunteer placements (for young people aged 16-25 with Down Syndrome) currently underway, with more planned to take place this academic year.
And don’t forget our Resources into Schools and Resources into Homes services which are ongoing. Make your application at any time.
And remember, it’s not too late to take part in our 'Choose Your Challenge' family fundraiser!
Your support to help us raise essential funds will allow us to continue delivering our services, which enable children and young people with Down Syndrome to achieve their potential. Find Out More
If you would like any more information on any of the services DS Achieve offers, please get in touch! We would love to hear from you: info@dsachieve.org / 07824 467471.
Our bookings for next term’s Little Achievers are now open, and, once again, we’ve so much to share with you from this past Summer term.
This term at Little Achievers we have been focused on the topic of "Dear Zoo" during stay and play to reflect what the children have been exploring in their teaching classes. Over the weeks we have hidden various animals from the story in different sensory inputs such as shredded paper, big foam bubbles, in an icy world and inside different boxes. The children have also enjoyed playing with tactile resources including kinetic sand and rice.
We've had visits from our Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, and Speech and Language professionals, who have offered valuable advice and support. Most importantly, we've created weekly opportunities for families to come together and celebrate their wins or talk away their worries.
Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-achievers-autumn-24-tickets-934342151527
Bookings for the Autumn term at Young Achievers are also now open, there are two booking links: one for the younger age group and one for the older age group so please check carefully when making your booking.
At Young Achievers this term, the children and young people have been getting to know Emma, our new Group Leader, whilst also practicing their social skills, communication and increasing their self awareness.
The children and young people have had the opportunity to explore a wide variety of activities, including planting sunflower seeds, celebrating the International Day of Yoga with some very impressive flexibility, and holding a DS Achieve Olympics themed sports day and so much more!
We have also spent lots of time exploring ourselves, sharing our wants and likes, recognising what we are good at, and celebrating our achievements through talent shows, show and tell and choosing games. We have also continued to develop our turn taking and social skills with a wide variety of fun games like duck duck goose, tower stacking and ball games.
Booking link for the Younger Age Group: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/young-achievers-social-skills-group-yr-r-to-yr-6-autumn-24-tickets-934350346037
Booking link for the Older Age Group: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/young-achievers-social-skills-group-yr-7-to-yr-1213-autumn-24-tickets-934354207587
It's Volunteers Week! And we would like to say an enormous THANK YOU to all of the amazing people who donate their time and energy to support and help deliver our services and make a positive difference for families of a child or young person with Down Syndrome. We couldn't do it without you!
We have an incredible team of volunteers at DS Achieve, and they are:
- our Young Achievers volunteers: Abi, Alhaam, Andrew, Ariella, Brynn, Cynthia, Denise, Devarssa, Eva, George, Georgie, Helena, Jake, Kambiz, Megan, Paige, Polina, Sophie, and Sydney
- our Board Secretary, Lisa
- our printed T-shirts uniform provider, Olga
- and not forgetting our Trustees of course! Gillian, Selena, Huw, Vitina, Rob and Bhavika
Thank you for all you do!
We're excited to let you know that we are now a listed charity with the Welwyn Hatfield Community Lottery.
Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 a week, and 50p from every ticket sold will go to DS Achieve. For further information on how it all works, have a look here.
You don't have to live in Welwyn or Hatfield to take part, so sign up to buy your tickets and help raise valuable funds for DS Achieve: https://www.welhatcommunitylottery.co.uk/support/ds-achieve
We’re delighted to welcome Rob Angus as the newest Trustee to join our DS Achieve team.
To find out more about Rob and our other Trustees, check out our ‘About Us’ section on our website: https://dsachieve.org/our-trustees.
As we welcome Rob, we also sadly say goodbye to Rachel Angus. After nearly 5 years as a Trustee, including time spent as our Treasurer and volunteering with us prior to that, Rachel is stepping down from her role. We will miss her greatly, and we would like to extend a HUGE thank you for all of her hard work over the years, not least for pulling together our Annual Accounts and Report each year. We are delighted, however, that we will still have a member of the Angus family as part of our Trustee team.
Welcome to the trustee team, Rob and thank you, Rachel!
Our bookings for next term’s Little Achievers are now open and we’ve so much to share with you from this past spring term.
We have been investigating the textures of homemade snow, and floating ducks in a bubble bath as some of our messy play. We then enjoyed World Book Day together with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, who was made from green, cooked spaghetti for a sensory exploration. We celebrated World Down Syndrome Day by rocking our bright odd socks and coloured in pictures of odd socks using our beautiful colouring skills.
In addition to all of these activities, we’ve had visits from our wonderful private therapists throughout the term. Each week has been full of fun and shared experiences, with lots of new milestones reached!
Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-achievers-summer-24-tickets-859406476907
Bookings for the Spring term at Young Achievers are also now open, there are two booking links: one for the younger age group and one for the older age group so please check carefully when making your booking.
At Young Achievers we have enjoyed a creative Spring term, making positivity rainbows, positive affirmation mirrors and happiness jars. We have enjoyed a talent show, playing charades and lots of hula hoop fun.
The children and young people have been given the opportunity to celebrate their achievements and strengthen their friendships through team building games such as the sock scavenger hunt, circle time and show and tell. We have loved singing and dancing during karaoke and have let our imaginations run free during social time. We ended the term with a brilliant party to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day.
Booking link for the Younger Age Group: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/young-achievers-social-skills-group-yr-r-to-yr-6-summer-24-tickets-859409054617
Booking link for the Older Age Group: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/young-achievers-social-skills-group-yr-7-to-yr-1213-summer-24-tickets-859411692507
Each year on 21st March we mark World Down Syndrome Day. We celebrate Down Syndrome (DS) to raise awareness about what it means to have DS and the huge potential that people with DS have.
On this day, we create a single global voice advocating for the rights, inclusion and wellbeing of people with DS.
The 21st day of the third month was chosen to represent the three copies of the 21st chromosome which cause DS and World Down Syndrome Day is a great opportunity to get talking about DS, dispel myths, raise general awareness (and funds!) and celebrate.
A great way to do this is by taking part in the 'Lots Of Socks' campaign. The campaign was launched to get people talking, and is a celebration of everything that makes all of us different, and yet the same.
Wear some mismatched or colourful socks that are going to get noticed and then when people ask you about your socks you can say, “I’m wearing them to raise awareness about Down Syndrome”. And that’s your chance to share everything you want them to understand about DS.
For more information about WDSD 2024, here are some useful links:
Down Syndrome International: End the Stereotypes - World Down Syndrome Day
World Down Syndrome Day | United Nations
We are so grateful for all of the support that you give us. Funding applications are now more competitive than ever, and without sufficient funding we risk being unable to continue to deliver the high quality services that have such a positive impact on the lives of our families.
What better occasion than World Down Syndrome Day to show your support of DS Achieve through a donation? If we’ve made a difference to you, please consider making a contribution to us.
