Newsletter Issue 8
It’s the eighth issue of our newsletter! Don’t forget to sign up for full free access and updated relevant to your project.
A quick note...
We’ve made some tough decisions around our resources. We now have a small price attached to the printable resources - but don’t worry, your access to the videos will remain free. You can read more about it in our blog, but in the meantime, have a quick read of all the fun stuff that’s been going on!
Community Day
Over the last few years, our summer holidays have been quiet. We get to spend time doing the tasks we normally don’t get time for, we all spend time with family and friends, and get ready for the upcoming academic year.
This summer was a bit different… continue reading to see what’s been keeping us busy!
We held our very first Community Cooking Day, working with Downright Excellent, Nic Ryan from the Bexley Kids School of Cookery, and Darren Passmore from the Compass Group. A wonderful group of young people came together to cook a wide spread for them, their parents, and their supporters.
This was an invaluable opportunity to see our young people in person and see them getting stuck in with preparing and cooking food. We also spent time catching up with each of them to get their opinions on the upcoming How To… Healthy Eating series - what they’d like to learn to cook, what their favourite foods are, and what skills they want to do more of.
Parents also had a session with Ciara Baxter, an OT, so that they could learn more about how to enable their young people to get more involved in the kitchen, including learning about aids that can assist them with difficult tasks like chopping.
A huge thank you goes out to the Tesco Cooking For All Grants Programme, delivered by Groundwork UK, who funded out Community Cooking Day.
Upcoming Learning for Life Content
(Left to right) Maya, Jo, and Jess wearing chefs hats and smiling at the camera at our How To… Healthy Eating filming.
In our last newsletter, we mentioned the Online Safety series, which is OUT NOW! Fully co-presented with members of the Down’s syndrome community, we are providing some much-needed support for parents and educators for being safe online.
And as we remain committed to co-presenting and co-producing content, the upcoming How To… Healthy Eating series does both! Alongside our conversations at the Community Cooking Day, we brought in six young people to present this series together and with our expert Nic from the Bexley Kids School of Cookery. Some of these young people you will recognise, but you’ll also see some brand new faces, including Jo’s daughter Bethan!
We will be launching the How To… Healthy Eating series soon, so keep your eyes peeled on your inbox and on our socials for the launch!
Dragon Boat Race 2025
WOW! What a wonderful third year of dragon boating!
More young people from our community got involved than ever before, and we were joined by some amazing corporate teams and, of course, Teacher Tommy T!
We raised a fantastic £4723 to go towards our Consent & Decision Making series in Learning for Life.
We are still looking for supporters to help this series happen! Teaching key skills around decision making and autonomy, this series will enable our community to take control of their lives! You can donate here.
Life Skills Unfiltered
Life Skills Unfiltered is all about bringing together experts, parents, specialists, and members of the SEND community to get real about the challenges the Down's syndrome and SEND community faces. Here, we go one step further, and discuss the changes that need to be made and the support which is available, accessible, and meaningful for real life skills.
It's about empowering others to be honest and raw about the hard stuff and lift each other up by sharing the knowledge on how to face it. We are helping you feel like you're not so alone.
We have now released all of Series 1! You can catch all of it on our YouTube and on our Spotify ahead of Series 2, coming soon...
LAST FEW LEFT!
Final boxes of Growing Up and Keeping Safe packs and Maths Before Numbers cards available to purchase!
Get them while you can - this is the last set of printed resources we will be selling for the foreseeable…
And these are better value than buying the digital downloads!
Find all the details and order today by visiting the shop!
Girl using the Learning for Life ‘Growing Up and Keeping Safe’ pack, holding up the Widgit symbol for ‘public’.
Get On Board!
What a day! We will be putting loads more photos and videos out from this wonderful day out in London, but in the meantime, here’s a quick snapshot! An enormous thank you goes out to Tootbus and to City Experiences for making this day possible.
