Spring Meeting 2010

1) Inclusive PE a talk by Steve Greatorex Able2 Club Wakefield
Steve gave us an overview of how disability sports are funded and the politics behind it, from Sports Ability to 'Playground to Podium'. He discussed regional centre status (Wakefield has this for wheelchair Basketball) and the work of the Disability Officer across the regions. Steve circulated information on BEAM, The Federation of Disability Sports and a flyer detailing sports activities available in the Wakefield area. He pointed out that young people from Middlesborough and Bedale travel down to the club on a weekly basis as the opportunities for disability sports are not equal across the country.
Steve has promised to send information for circulation but said that we should all be aware of CAAD (County Athletic Assessment Days) and local Partnerships. Primary link teachers get 15 days cover a year but many schools are choosing to employ non teachers to cover this time such as sports coaches. He then gave us a wealth of information on the sporting calendar for athletics, football, bocca and swimming. Adapted bikes are available to try from the South Leeds Centre and in Steve's opinion the wheelchair training available from 'Go Kids Go' based in Beverley East Yorkshire is by far the best for encouraging independence. The Northern Go Kids Go team are prepared to travel to train but Steve had secured funding through 'Aim Higher'. An interesting side discussion took place on how easy 'Aim Higher' money was to secure and what it was awarded to in the different local areas.

2) The final version of 'Fit to Learn' has been professionally published and was shared with the group. This is aimed at DCD pupils and training is available through Tracey Locking at Wakefield Learning Support Service. A flyer was circulated, the folders are available for sale at £30 for Wakefield Schools and a slightly higher amount for other LAs to cover costs.

3) 'The A-Z of Catching' was shared. This is a series of 26 activities geared to developing pre catching skills for those children with poor gross motor skills. Each page details the outcomes of the activity and what skill is being targeted. CDs will be available at the next meeting. The activities cost about £70 from new but most schools will be able to assemble a full kit from their PE cupboards. The work was a collaboration between OTs, Physios, Advisory Teachers and Advisory ESAs in Wakefield.

4) Wakefield's school swimming risk assessment was shared and circulated. This was generated as a response to late and inappropriate requests from schools. The aim is to get schools confident to do their own risk assessments and to point them towards professional help when it is needed. It is a tick list; if things are in place and there are no difficulties identified, there will be no need for additional help. If SENSS or OT do become involved the relevant information will already have been documented. Communication skills have been included for the first time. An interesting discussion on including children with epilepsy in swimming lessons then took place.

5) Details of the On-line training courses were distributed for VI, ASD, DCD and Hearing Impairment.

6) The Leeds Physio Service 'LPS' moving and handling training for trainers was shared by North Yorkshire. North Yorks have recently trained 6 trainers at a cost of £650 per delegate. This is for 6 days training over a number of weeks. An annual days training to refresh skills costs £100 but trainers will travel to your venue. North Yorkshire have employed a trainer to work across settings including Social Care on a 52 week basis. The National Pay and Regrading exercise has thrown up some interesting results, trainers employed as ESAs in Wakefield have been awarded Grade 6 considerably higher than those ESAs involved in moving and handling in classrooms.

7) York presented there final document on the symbol project, a piece of work to standardise the use of symbols across the York area. York consulted widely with schools, social services, educationalists and parents to produce the consultation document. The whole system is to encourage progression and has been very successful. Each school that attended training was given a free copy of 'Communicate in Print' and got resources as well as guidance. The whole project has been very successful and has now resulted in commercially made signage (details to follow) and ASD resources available to parents through local libraries.

8) The Pupil Views project was also run through York. Mary will be working on this for the year ahead and it seems to be a much better thought out and manageable system than others locally. York have produced four 'Listen to Me' booklets which comply with the standardised symbol use across their LA. Mary will work on getting pupil views embedded in to broad decision making for children and young people and we will be very interested in following her progress. She has now started sending a feedback letter to pupils following their review and this is going down very well.

9) The 'Epilepsy Policy for School' publication available as a download from Epilepsy Action was shared by Barnsley. They have the services of a specialist epilepsy nurse and had found the Health care Plans in the back of the publication particularly useful.

10) Barnsley also shared the 'Hypermobility Booklet' and the 'Hybermobile Child' publication, both available from www.hypermobility.org. North Yorkshire send some of their more complex health care plans to their insurance department to ensure that schools and staff are covered for insurance purposes.

Next Years dates will be 05.11.10. 18.03.10 and 17.06.10

The next meeting is on 18.06.10 at Heath view. On the agenda will be

MOVE - North Yorks
ICT assessments - North Yorks, Bradford, Wakefield
CALL Project a year on - Wakefield
An ICT focused speaker
Involvement criteria - York and the Wakefield Matrix