Latest training news - April 2008

2008 looks like being another record year for the charity's training services. In the first three months of the year, members of the charity's team of psychologists and speech therapists have provided training courses attended by over 750 parents and professionals across the UK and overseas. The charity's busy schedule of training looks set to continue for the rest of the year, with a full programme of training courses at The Sarah Duffen Centre and many more events worldwide.

A busy start - January to March 2008

Meeting the needs of babies and young children from birth to 5 years

We have enjoyed a busy first quarter for external training which started by travelling to Leicester on New Year's Day to provide training about meeting the needs of babies and young children from birth to three years at the National Space Centre in Leicester. During the first few months of 2008 we also provided this popular training day for professionals and parents on the Isle of Wight and in Barking and Dagenham. All of these events were organised by the respective Early Years Services and we thank them for arranging these for their staff and local parents.

The charity's involvement with Early Support training for 2008 started in March in Derby with an event organised by the National Portage Association. We have three other events organised by Early Years Services in Tower Hamlets (London), and Maidenhead in Berkshire during the rest of the year.

We also delivered training on meeting the needs of children aged three to five years with the Isle of Wight Early Years Service and bespoke training in Islington (London) and New Milton (Hampshire). The training in Islington was commissioned by local support group Downright Excellent, and in Hampshire by The New Milton Opportunity Group.

These events for meeting the needs of babies and young children with Down syndrome reached 375 parents and professionals during January, February and March.

MMeeting the needs of children in the primary and secondary age ranges

We provided training at two events on the needs children aged 5 to 11 years and children aged 11-16 years for parents and professionals in Norway, and one event for educational psychologists and speech and language therapists in Fleet, Hampshire, organised by Hampshire Local Authority.

We also delivered training for parents and professionals in Teddington (London), organised by local support group 21 and Co., with a focus on speech and language development in the primary age range.

These events for school age children reached 420 people, making a total of 795 parent and professional participants in training events during January, February and March.

Looking forward - April to December 2008

WWe commenced our series of hosted training workshops on key topics, issues in depth and skills in depth in March and these will continue through to December on Mondays at The Sarah Duffen Centre in Portsmouth. These affect our availability for training at other locations and so our external training from April to December 2008 will be reduced by comparison with our first quarter.

We continue from April with a busy schedule of training at The Sarah Duffen Centre and external training in Denbighshire (Wales), West Cork (Ireland), Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire), Worthing (West Sussex), Washington (USA), Caterham (Surrey) and in Moscow (Russia). We will also be participating in conferences in Bahrain and in Boston (USA) during May and July.

We have training arranged with local support groups in Ireland, London and Cornwall for early 2009.

Expanding our reach

We are currently reviewing our training for 2009 and beyond so as to make a difference for people with Down syndrome and their families in many social, educational and political environments and will share our plans with you through our Training News.

We look forward to hearing from you, so please continue to e-mail our training mail box.

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