As 2019 draws to a close, it's a good time to reflect on all that DS Achieve has accomplished over the year.
Little Achievers
Our year started with the continuation of our Little Achievers’ pre-school teaching group and Stay & Play. The group runs every Thursday during term time and our teacher, Sandra Redman, saw great progress from the children. The Stay & Play session provided time for the parents to get advice from visiting professionals, enjoy some time to chat and play with their children in a relaxed environment, topped off with the ever-popular Sing & Sign sessions. In the Autumn we were delighted to appoint two part time employees to support the group.
Feedback from parents at the end of the first academic year included:
“This group is amazing.
The groups is very well organized and we love to ask some tips about signing…
We had a great input from the professionals visiting, which we can't get from outside.
Sandra is a star with our children … I'll stay with Sandra all day just to learn from her.
These ladies are our comfort blanket....
My child has gone from strength to strength and it's definitely the most supportive beneficial thing we attend.”
Training
2019 also saw the continuation of our high-quality training events beginning with expert advice from Helen Long, Specialist Advisory Teacher - firstly on supporting children in an education setting and then on encouraging positive behaviour and social interaction. Later in the year we held sessions on SEND Law, delivered by IPSEA, and Sensory Processing, led by Claire Ginty from Achieve OT. Feedback from professionals and parents attending these events has been overwhelmingly positive.
Party time and Young Achievers
In the Autumn term we celebrated the start of the academic year with an exclusive Soft Play party for the children to come and enjoy some play time while the adults caught up with each other after the summer. We also launched our monthly social skills and interaction programme, Young Achievers, for school-aged children. The children loved the first two activities getting arty with Creation Station and active at the Little Gym.
Making it happen
Our team of Trustees expanded by two over the course of the year to include Nicole Clarke and Rachel Angus (Treasurer), creating a team of five. We are grateful for the support of everyone who has volunteered and continues to volunteer alongside us to help the charity operate and to run our events. We are also hugely grateful to everyone who donated money to us and to those organisations that provided grant funding, without which none of our events would have happened.
Looking ahead
Our programme for 2020 sees the continuation of our Little Achievers group. Our Young Achievers will continue to meet monthly, with dates set through to the end of July, starting with pizza-making on 26th January. Our training programme also kicks off in January on the topic of Developing Number Sense on the 14th and 21st led by Anne Gullick, Specialist Advisory Teacher. Consequently, we are looking to appoint a Head of Operations to help us deliver all of this and more in 2020.
Information about our events will be posted on our website www.dsachieve.org and on our Facebook page @dsachieve so please do check regularly to keep up to date.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year.
Gillian, Michelle, Kelly, Nicole and Rachel