susi's page

page one introduction

By Susi Oddball

The Greenhouse

Hi its Susi here nice of you to log in!

The switched on clubs are small scale activity groups aged between 8-18.
All the children who attend have special needs, some are statemented, some have learning difficulties ,such as autism and ADHS or whom are 'at risk' due to family or other difficulties.
Parents of these groups need respite and the local special school does not have an after school club in order for this to happen. There are several children & teenagers plus there are 10 adult volunteers (some are parents) who are helping the special needs teenagers to complete specific tasks  such as web design, healthy eating project, literacy, music and art projects.
I am a parent of a learning difficulty statemented teenager who decided there was not enough networking between parents, outside bodies and others so I decided to set this up with healthy eating as part of the project as some of the children are obese and hyperactive and need to learn life skills. The clubs make a valuable contribution to the council's priorities concerning 'nurture' to ensure that our children and young people have the best possible start in life.  I discussed this with other parents who thought it would be a good opportunity to network and for the children to socialize outside of school to stop the isolation that both the children and parents feel within the community.

At the moment we are completing a healthy eating project where the teenagers have grown lots of vegetables and have to take them back to the community centre, plan a recipe and cook it with Gill our community cafe manager.  Our books & project details are available for sale to help with our funding.