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Celebrate World Down Syndrome Day 2021

On the 21st March each year we celebrate World Down Syndrome Day raising awareness and being thankful for having a person with Down Syndrome in our lives. This year to mark the event and raise some funds for DS Achieve to help us to continue to deliver our services we are holding an online Quiz Night on Saturday 20th March. Please join us and our fabulous quiz masters for an evening of fun. Just 4 weeks to go so book your place via Eventbrite (just click the picture below) - choose your donation amount (minimum £5 per household).

We are hiring - could you be one of our new Trustees?

DS Achieve is a small, dynamic charity with an ambition to enable the fulfilment of potential for children and young people with Down Syndrome by empowering their families. We do this through the provision of high quality information and training to our community and those that support them and by helping the children build skills through direct teaching and other activities. We focus our services on families living in and close to Hertfordshire.  

DS Achieve is expanding its Board of Trustees to enable us to grow and develop the next phase of our services. The Trustee role is unpaid, voluntary and non-executive with ultimate responsibility for directing the affairs of DS Achieve, ensuring it is solvent, well-run and it delivers its objectives, as detailed in the Constitution. The Board of Trustees meets monthly (excluding August) with regular communication in between meetings, as needed.

The day to day management of the charity is carried out by our Head of Operations and we have regular volunteers to assist with activities and events. 

We have two Board positions available and would particularly welcome someone with marketing or fundraising experience to complement the skill set of the existing Trustees. A parent or carer of a child or young person with Down Syndrome would also be welcome. We are committed to equality and diversity and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.  

To apply please send a relevant CV to info@dsachieve.org . For further information or to discuss any aspects of the role please contact Gillian Warwick-Thompson, Chair of Trustees either by email as above or by phone 07826 086511. Please note that  successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and reference checks prior to formal appointment as a Trustee.

Role profile - Overall Trustee responsibilities

  • Oversee the affairs of the organisation and ensure DS Achieve complies with:

    • its governing document

    • charity law

    • any other relevant legislation and regulations

  • Act in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries at all times. 

  • Ensure DS Achieve pursues its objects and applies its resources accordingly as set out in the Constitution. 

  • Ensure DS Achieve’s policies and practices are in keeping with its objects and vision.

  • Contribute actively to the Board giving strategic direction, setting policy and evaluating progress. 

  • Use specific experience, knowledge and skills to help the Board of Trustees reach sound decisions.

  • Demonstrate independent, effective decision making.  

  • Ensure the financial stability of the organisation.

  • Adhere to the Trustee Code of Conduct and pursue best practice.

  • Attend monthly Trustee meetings and undertake training as required to fulfil the Trustee role.

  • Attend and contribute to bi-annual Strategy meetings. 

Qualities

  • Commitment to DS Achieve, and a willingness to devote the necessary time and effort.  Previous trustee experience is useful but not essential, training will be provided as necessary. 

  • Commitment to Nolan’s seven principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

  • Strategic vision and sound judgment.

  • Excellent communicator, both written and orally.

  • Confident with the use of technology (google suite) or a willingness to learn. 

  • An understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship. 

  • Ability to work effectively as a member of a team.

  • Passion and/or interest in working with people with Down Syndrome and their families.

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We are recruiting for our Little Achievers programme!

If you are interested in working for DS Achieve, we are currently recruiting for a part time, term time only Support Worker for our wonderful Little Achievers preschool group!

The role involves 3.5 hours at the group each week (currently Thursday morning 9:15am - 12:45pm) , based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

To see the Little Achievers Support Worker role profile and find out more, click HERE.

If you would like to discuss the role further or apply, please get in touch on or send your CV to info@dsachieve.org.

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New Physio Information Sheets!

At our Little Achievers group, we work closely with a private Physiotherapist called Helena Palmer who visits each term to chat with parents about their children with Down Syndrome and to give guidance and advice.

After this term's appointments (online), we asked Helena to produce some information sheets on the areas she is asked about the most and that we felt would be most useful to the families we work with.

The two topics are:

1) Feet and Footwear for children with DS, and

2) Muscle Tone and Strength in children with DS.

We have uploaded both these information sheets in the 'files' section of our Community Chat group on Facebook. We hope they are helpful!

Click HERE to view the information sheets. (NB To join the DS Achieve Community Chat group, you must be a parent/carer of a child with Down Syndrome and live in Hertfordshire or the surrounding areas).

We are recruiting!

If you are interested in working for DS Achieve, we are currently recruiting for a part time, term time only manager for our wonderful Little Achievers preschool group.

The role involves 3.5 hours at the group each week (currently Thursday morning 9:15am - 12:45pm) plus 15 hours of planning time per term.

To see the Little Achievers Manager role profile and find out more, click HERE.

If you would like to discuss the role further or apply, please get in touch on or send your CV to info@dsachieve.org.

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Fundraising - some big thank yous!

In amongst the difficulties our current lockdown situation brings, we thought we would share some lovely news about the fundraising support we have had from both our DS and wider community recently, and we would like to say a HUGE thank you!

  • Surjit Bansal, at L-Lynch Plant Hire and Haulage, organised a Fun Day including activities and a cake sale which was fantastically supported by the rest of the company.  They raised a whopping £1,250!! Merril (who is the Operations Director at the company) and Amanda Lynch’s son, Luke, is one of our Little Achievers.  A huge THANK YOU!

  • Phoebe Lindo, big sister of Rosetta who is another of our Little Achievers, organised fundraising activities at the company she works for and raised a fantastic £500! THANK YOU, Phoebe!

  • Amisha Jogia, aunt of one of our Young Achievers, Kush Soni, nominated DS Achieve for a fundraiser at her place of work, Wells Fargo, and raised a brilliant £369.56!  THANK YOU, Amisha!

  • Michelle Bolton, our Head of Operations, recently celebrated a big birthday and set up an online fundraiser with JustGiving.  A HUGE thank you to Michelle’s friends and family who contributed - altogether they raised a wonderful £375!  THANK YOU!

  • Emma Vaughan, whose son Jackson is our newest Little Achiever, donated £30 - THANK YOU, Emma!

Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support, whether it is raising funds, liking and sharing our Facebook posts and articles, or helping us/each other to support other members of the DS community at this time.  It means a lot.

Everyone at DS Achieve xx


People Changes

Hi everyone,

We appreciate it is a very strange and unsettling time at the moment and we hope you are at home, staying safe and hopefully staying well. 

We recently shared information with you about our services and what’s happening at the moment with our groups and training (anyone who missed it, please click HERE to read).  We are also sharing lots of information on our DS Achieve Facebook page and Community Chat group about DS-related health advice, online activity sessions for children with additional needs, and education resources.  It’s a bit overwhelming out there with all the information being shared though, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us directly on info@dsachieve.org or by phone (Gillian on 07826 086511 or Michelle on 07979 926495) if we can help with something.

Separate from all the COVID-19 news though, we thought we would offer an interesting distraction and share some news about people changes within our charity...

There have been three recent changes we would like to update you on:

Kelly Harris, one of our founders, has decided to retire as a Trustee and continue as a volunteer.  Kelly says “Due to a need to focus on increased work and family commitments, sadly I need to retire as a Trustee but am very much looking forward to continuing to give the charity my full support. It has been a real privilege to work with such a brilliant, dedicated team and I’m proud to have been able to contribute to DS Achieve creating such a positive educational and training offering & community for our families over the last three years.  There are really exciting plans in the pipeline as DS Achieve continues to grow from strength to strength, and our family will look forward to seeing you at future events.’

We’d like to thank Kelly for all her hard work and, while we are sad she is retiring from the Board, we’re pleased we will retain her huge wealth of experience, knowledge and advice as a volunteer.

Although we lose one Trustee, we are now delighted to confirm the addition of a new Trustee to our Board.  Andrew Luck is the Head of IT and Systems Development at Oaklands College and, after recently deciding to do more to support local communities, he found DS Achieve.  Andrew came along to a Young Achievers session recently, as well as a Trustees meeting, and was so encouraged by the obvious difference that DS Achieve makes to families, he felt he had to get involved! We are thrilled to have Andrew join Gillian, Rachel and Nicole, particularly as he brings new and complementary skills to our existing team.

Finally, we’re really excited to announce that another of our founders, Michelle Bolton, has successfully applied for the newly created role of Head of Operations, managing the day-to-day operations of our activities and programmes for DS Achieve.  

This means Michelle will also need to step down as a Trustee, but will instead take the lead in delivering the strategy set by the Trustees and managing the charity operationally going forward. This appointment begins a new phase in our development and strengthens our ability to deliver more services for families.  Michelle brings excellent senior managerial expertise to this role which, when coupled with her considerable contribution to date (particularly to creating and running Little Achievers, Young Achievers and our training events) and her invaluable experience as a parent, makes her the perfect person to lead the charity operationally as we move forward.  

We hope you keep well and stay safe, and we look forward to seeing everyone when things return to normality!

Gillian

Chair of Trustees

DS Achieve


Covid-19 Update - 23 March 2020

Further to Government announcements, asking us all to stay at home and to avoid all unnecessary contact with others, and with schools closing as of today, 23rd March, we would like to provide the following update on our services. The health of our service users, employees, volunteers and trustees is paramount and so we are sure you will agree that the decisions we have made are sensible in the current climate.

LITTLE ACHIEVERS
As the families involved in our classes are aware, unfortunately the Little Achievers classes and Stay and Play are suspended for the time-being. Since we made this decision, Hatfield Council have also announced the temporary closure of Howe Dell Hall, the Little Achievers venue.

All those who have booked classes during the remainder of this term have been offered an alternative online or telephone 1:1 service by our specialist teacher, Sandra Redman, alongside some resources prepared by Sandra. Depending on each child’s preference and ability, this is either direct work with the child or a session with their parent(s) to go through the resources and understand how to use them. Anyone who would like to opt for a refund instead should please contact us on info@dsachieve.org and we will process this asap.

For those who have booked a place for the summer term, we will keep this under review and contact you to give further advice on whether this will proceed in advance of the start date.

YOUNG ACHIEVERS
Our next Young Achievers event was scheduled to be at The Little Gym, Harpenden, on Sunday 29th March. Unfortunately we have postponed this event due to COVID-19 announcements and we are hoping to rearrange the session for later in the year. In the meantime, we have refunded all tickets and we will keep you updated when a new date is agreed so that you are able to rebook. You do not need to contact us to arrange a refund - we have processed this and you will see the money return via the original method of payment shortly.

For our future events, we are carefully monitoring all new developments regarding the COVID-19 virus and will update you all in advance of future dates. As a reminder, the remaining dates for this academic year are: 17th May, 14th June and 19th July.

Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) Group
We have also needed to cancel the Creative Arts Therapy Group planned for the Summer term. We are aiming to run this in the Autumn term instead. All those who have booked a place will receive a refund shortly (you do not need to contact us to arrange this) and we will communicate updated information on a new set of dates as soon as we can.

TRAINING
With regret, we have needed to cancel our training day with Symbol on 1st April 2020. We are looking to rebook a date with Symbol for later this year and will confirm the new date as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we have refunded all tickets purchased for 1st April and, due to high demand for this training course, we will notify those people with a place currently booked FIRST of a new training date so they have priority booking. You do not need to contact us to arrange a refund - we have processed this and you will see the money return via the original method of payment shortly.

We apologise for any inconvenience this causes, but we look forward to welcoming you to the training session later in the year.

EMPOWERMENT GROUP
Our next event, a Spa Experience, is scheduled to take place on 21st May 2020. With this in mind, we will continue to carefully monitor developments with the COVID-19 virus and any updates from the Government, so that we are able to make an informed decision about this event nearer the time.

We apologise for any inconvenience these changes cause and we appreciate your understanding during this difficult time.

If you have any concerns or questions about any of the services detailed above, please contact DS Achieve:
Email: info@dsachieve.org
Tel: 07979 926495

Please take care of yourselves and your families, and we will look forward to seeing you at an event at some point (hopefully) soon

Best wishes,
The team at DS Achieve xx
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For the latest information please see:
https://www.gov.uk/…/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-res…

For DS specific up-to-date information and further resources/reading, please visit the Down’s Syndrome Association page:
https://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/…

CAT Group - Summer Term 2020

As part of our Young Achievers programme we are pleased to be partnering with NESSie (https://nessieined.com/) to run a pilot group, weekly in the summer term for 11 to 16 year olds with Down Syndrome. NESSie provides arts therapies and counselling to support the positive mental health and emotional well-being of children and young people. The CAT (Creative Arts Therapy) Group will be run by an experienced Music Therapist and an Integrated Arts Counsellor. They will work with the children to develop a tailored group providing them with the opportunity to to express themselves creatively, build social skills and emotional self-regulation. We hope that the children will also have fun in the process!

Further details are below and booking is via Eventbrite.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nessie-creative-arts-therapy-cat-group-tickets-99190273779

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DS Achieve 2020 - our year so far...

We’re only nine weeks into the new year and it has been BUSY!  Here is a roundup for you of everything that has been going on.

TRAINING

On 14th and 21st January, we held our two-day training course Developing Number Sense for Children with Down Syndrome, delivered by Anne Gullick (Education Advisor for children with Down Syndrome) for parents/carers and professionals.  The poll we ran last year identified that numeracy training was in high demand and we were delighted to see high numbers in attendance - both on day one, which focused on infant school level numeracy, and day two, which focused on junior school level numeracy.  Feedback from the training was excellent, with most wishing they had longer with Anne to learn even more!  On that basis, we hope to run the course again.

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LITTLE ACHIEVERS

After a few weeks away over Christmas and New Year, we were very excited to see our Little Achievers back at class this term on 16th January!  I wondered how the children would feel coming back into the setting and how quickly they would want to get involved, and we were very pleasantly surprised as they got stuck straight in.

We have had a ‘full house’ of 12 children and their parents enrolled last term and this term for the teaching groups.  We’ve also been thrilled to have a couple of new joiners to the Stay and Play group in January.  Such lovely additions to the ‘Little Achievers family’. 

The teaching classes with Sandra Redman have been going well with notable progress being seen across the groups.  Sandra sets new individual targets for each child each term, which are reviewed over the weeks and updated if needed.  We can always tell if a child has done something particularly amazing or surprising during a class as Sandra’s smile becomes similar to that of a Cheshire cat!  I think across the parent group (myself included), we all wish we could adopt Sandra and have her at our own homes!

The theme for the first half of the term in the Stay and Play session has been ‘I like…’ with activities, Sing & Sign and crafts loosely based on the fantastic book ‘I Like It When…’ by Mary Murphy starring a little penguin.

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We had our sensory den turn into a penguin’s igloo with polar bears and ‘snow’, we shared things from home that each of the children like, there were little penguins frozen in ice for the children to see melting and to touch for a sensory experience, and we counted fish as we fed them to a penguin.  Then in the last couple of sessions of the half term we realised a lot of us actually like things that are warm rather than cold, so we focused on songs about sandcastles and jungles, we painted spring pictures, and we took our small world people to see the farm animals 😊 A lovely, fun half term to kick off the year.

Next term will look at springtime and Easter-themed activities, so lots to do and lots of fun to be had!

 

YOUNG ACHIEVERS

Our first social development activity of the year with our Young Achievers took place on Sunday 26th January at Pizza Express in WGC, with children ranging between 5 and 13 years old making their own pizzas and then getting to eat them too!

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With 21 children at the session (including siblings), it was a fantastic atmosphere with lots of chat and laughter.  It was great to see the children get stuck in with the dough and different topping choices, and to see the parents have a chance for a hot drink and some socialising too. 

We have had fantastic feedback about the day, which makes us even more excited about our next Young Achievers events.

YOUNG ACHIEVERS DATES:

  • 1st March (today!) in Hitchin with our creative dance session being run by Imagination Arts

  • 29th March at Little Gym for physical movement and gym based activities (this will open for booking shortly). This event will be funded by a grant from Localgiving and Postcode  Community Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. 

And the following dates for your diary…  activities to be confirmed:

  • 17th May

  • 14th June

  • 19th July


EMPOWERMENT GROUP

This is our brand new offering for parents and carers.  You know what they say about putting your own oxygen mask on first…  Well DS Achieve believes that if we as parents and carers feel better in and about ourselves, the better we will deal with the challenges life can throw at us. 

We can find it difficult to have time for and focus on ourselves, so we wanted to create opportunities to step outside of our usual routines and think of ourselves as something other than ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ and have some fun, relax, and focus on our wellbeing. 

Our first Empowerment Group get-together took place on Tuesday 11th February, when nine women took over Pots of Art in St Albans for an evening…  and had a wonderful time!  There was wine, chat, lots of painting and oodles of creativity.  Who knew we had it in us?!  A wonderful (and pretty therapeutic) way to spend an evening, and we got to create some beautiful things to boot. 

Here are some pictures of the fabulous artwork we created, and the ladies who took part.  

We plan to organise one event every half term.

The next one is on Friday 13th March, 11am-1pm, and will be a Mindfulness Session delivered by Jodie Smart of Sunny Kids Shine. Book your place here if you’d like to join us!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ds-achieve-empowerment-group-mindfulness-session-tickets-97096015797

The third Empowerment Group session will be an evening event on 21st May with a wonderful Spa Experience with Temple Spa. Booking is already open, so book your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/empowerment-group-spa-experience-tickets-97161517715

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY!

So many things are happening at the moment, so make sure to book a place or keep the date free if you would like to join us:

Don’t forget to check our website and follow us on Facebook to make sure you are the first to know about our new events, and hopefully we will see you at one soon!

Michelle xx

DS Achieve