News

Newham head teacher and CEO of the Tapscott Learning Trust, Paul Harris, has been hailed for his hard work, talent and commitment by the Prime Minister and Education Secretary.

Paul was one of only one hundred UK teachers invited to a Downing Street reception aimed at championing visionary educational leaders and celebrating their commitment to giving every child an excellent education.

Teachers from schools across the country were invited to the evening reception, which was hosted by the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education. Both paid tribute to the hard work and dedication of the profession.

Following the success of The William Merritt Centre’s AccessAbility Exhibition in 2017, it is excited to announce its plans to make 2018 bigger and better by the addition of Get Going Live covering all your vehicle mobility needs.

It will take place on 18th October 2018 at the Centenary Pavilion, Leeds United Football Club between 10.00am and 3.00pm, showcasing new and innovative assistive technology and equipment, providing information and advice to enable greater independence for disabled children and adults or those with additional needs.

Only 6% of people with learning disabilities has a job whereas around 60% actually want to go out and work.  

The Grange Charity in Bookham has been working with the specialist learning disability publisher, Beyond Words Books, to highlight the serious issue of disability and work.

Grange resident, Katie Coen, and Work Experience Co ordinator, Mel Sheehan, were present at the launch of the books at the House of Lords last week. 

Beyond Words Books was created by Baroness Sheila Hollins of Wimbledon (a Bookham resident), who had the idea of using wordless illustrated books to help people with learning disabilities tackle everyday issues of life.

Having a child with special needs enables parents to understand and appreciate the important things in life, says actress and writer Sally Phillips. The well-known British comic was speaking at FestABLE, a festival celebrating specialist learning staged at National Star College in Cheltenham. 

It is the first time a festival dedicated to specialist learning has been staged in the UK.

“We are sitting on a treasure chest in the SEN (Special Educational Needs) world. Not only do we have freedom from some of the standards that the world operates with which are completely bogus but there’s a lot of living in the moment,” said Sally, who has a son with Down’s Syndrome. 

If you get a personal budget you could employ your own personal assistants (PAs) to support your health and social care needs. 

This can help you live independently and in a way that you choose – your PAs work for you so you decide what you want them to do and when you want them to work. 

This also means that you become an employer, which can be daunting at first as there are lots of things to think about. However there is lots of advice and guidance out there to help and you can do training to help you become a better employer. 

Christina Candey employs a team of PAs and says: 

The ‘memory tree' initiative to promote awareness of dementia, organised by Ashford and Canterbury Dementia Action Alliance (ACDAA), Ashford Borough Council and the One You shop continues into June.

The hand crafted memory tree can be found within the One You shop in Ashford town centre, which is near to the tank memorial and visitors are invited to write special memories onto printed leaves before attaching them to the tree.

In one of her first engagements as the newly-elected Mayor of Ashford, Cllr Mrs Jessamy Blanford visited the One You shop on Wednesday 23 May to include her special memory.

The Mayor said: 

Long Lane Equestrian Centre, based in Derby has signed up to a national scheme, Accessibility Mark, to encourage more disabled riders to take up horse riding.

Following an appeal by the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) for more centres to apply for the Accessibility Mark accreditation to help meet demand in the North Midlands area, the centre decided to jump on board. A study by the RDA found that this region has the highest level of unmet demand amongst disabled riders than anywhere else in the UK.

The RDA, in partnership with the British Equestrian Federation (BEF), launched the revolutionary Accessibility Mark scheme to work with commercial riding centres with the aim of getting more disabled people to participate in riding.

Aergo is a smarter postural support system for wheelchair users, empowering people to be more independent in their daily lives. The system has a network of air cells that detects pressure changes and adjusts automatically to provide continuous support as the user moves. It is the first device of its kind to give users more control over their own posture with a remote-control and expandable frame that can be tailored to fit a range of body shapes.

Aergo is the brainchild of CEO, Sheana Yu, a London-based design engineer. Having suffered with scoliosis throughout her life, Sheana is on a mission to create inclusive products that empower people with postural needs to be more independent.

An innovative new app has been launched which aims to raise washroom standards in businesses and public places across the UK. The Cleen App is free to download and enables customers and visitors to rate the washrooms in any type of venue from restaurants and shopping centres to sports stadia and airports.

With the Cleen App, users can either compliment accessible and clean washrooms or post complaints and issues they have faced such as dirty basins, no soap or toilet paper, access problems for people with disabilities and lack of baby changing facilities.

The reviews are fun and easy to post by clicking different icons and users can even upload photographs to support their review.