NDCS CHAT HELPLINE

The UK’s first Live Chat Helpline on childhood deafness, www.ndcs.co.uk/livechat, is a secure and confidential service, providing clear and balanced information and advice on matters including audiology, pre-school support, education, local services, welfare and technology. Over 90% of deaf children are from families with no first-hand experience of deafness and the free NDCS Live Chat has been designed to give families more opportunities to access the information and services they need to help their children throughout the milestones of their lives. Robert Johnson, NDCS Helpline Manager said: “NDCS has designed the Live Chat service to offer families and deaf young people a choice so that they can reach our Helpline in their preferred method of communication. “Over the years, the NDCS Helpline has been a lifeline to thousands of deaf children and their parents, earning the status of the UK’s leading source of information on childhood deafness. “The family is the most important influence on a deaf child’s ability to achieve. We are asking professionals working with deaf children and young people to recommend the new Live Chat service to the families they support.” Live Chat works like most online chat systems and provides an easy and efficient method of contacting the NDCS Helpline. After clicking on a live chat button, a parent is taken to a new window where they can send a question to a dedicated NDCS Helpline worker and start a private online chat. The NDCS Helpline was set up in 1997 through a grant from the National Lotteries Charities Board Big Lottery. In the last financial year the Helpline handled 12,636 enquiries– a 19% increase on the previous year, offering a telephone service in over 150 languages. For information on childhood deafness parents professionals working with deaf children can contact the NDCS Live Chat on www.ndcs.co.uk/livechat or call the Freephone Helpline on 0808 800 8880 (voice and text), or email helpline@ndcs.org.uk, Monday to Friday, 9.30am-5pm.

Donaldson’s New Transition Project

Fantastic new Transition Projects have just been announced! If you’re deaf or have communication difficulties and are aged 16-24 then take a look. With fitness bootcamps, film making, driving theory and much more on offer demand for places is expected to be high – apply now!
Transition Project Now Recruiting, Donaldson’s – Linlithgow
Contact Billy Docherty at Donaldson’s
wdocherty@donaldsons.org.uk
01506 841900
www.donaldsons.org.uk

NATED meeting Friday 20th May

Do you have good BSL skills and work in educational settings?
Would you like to have an introduction to voiceover training?

Deaf students consistently say that they want their signing voiced over accurately so that they feel a member of their class. CSWs often find voiceover difficult. Come along to this free NATED Scotland event to find new ways to build your BSL to English interpreting skills

This event will be held on Friday 20th May at City of Glasgow College at 1:30pm where Jill Newlands will be leading a voice-over workshop.

As we need to have an idea of numbers could you please click on the link below & register for the training. Thanks

http://natedscotland20thmay.eventbrite.com

Look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

Update on SSC

Thanks to all the campaigning work from NATED members and others, the funding for the Scottish Sensory Centre has been saved for a further year. The centre is reviewing its work with the university to try to improve its services to teachers, support staff and parents. If you have any views or ideas about the SSC’s work, please contact them.

http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/aboutSSC/about.html

Scotland’s Colleges Project

Scotland’s Colleges has a project going at the moment which is about students with profound and complex needs.
Here is a link:

http://www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/sub-net/subject-networks/supported-programmes-transition-resources.html

Scottish Sensory Centre faces closure

The Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) is facing closure after the Scottish Government announced that it was pulling the plug on its funding.

Hosted by the University of Edinburgh, the SSC has played a significant role in the education of deaf, deafblind and blind pupils all over Scotland for many years. It has carried out crucial long term projects, including the Deaf Achievement Scotland Study, the BSL Glossary of Curriculum terms and V.I.Scotland.

Let’s try and stop this closure.

Here’s what you can do.

Write a letter expressing your concern and protest at the decision to close the centre and send it to:

1. Your MSP

2. David Thompson
Senior Policy Advisor
Scottish Government
Learning, Directorate, Equalities & Inclusion
Support for Learning Division
Area 2-C (South)
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ

3. Professor Cara Aitchison
Head of Moray House School of Education
The University of Edinburgh
Old Moray House
Holyrood Road
Edinburgh
EH8 8AQ

NATED AGM

NATED Conference 2011
Saturday 14th May

This year our NATED Conference will be held at New College Durham, Framwellgate Moor Campus, Durham, DH1 5ES. We will be posting information on keynote speakers, workshops and delegate booking forms very soon. Please put this date in your diary and keep checking our website.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Richard Carter, BSL storyteller from Bristol, will give an EdSign lecture about his work. Wednesday February 23^rd  2011, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, 6.30 – 8.30 pm. 
• BATOD Scotland conference, Saturday 26^th February 2011, Ramada Hotel, Perth. 
• Spring NATED meeting Friday 18^th March 2011.  Friday 20th May 2011 City of Glasgow College. Voiceover training 
• NATED UK annual conference, Saturday 14^th or 21^st May, 2011, Durham College.
• Summer NATED meeting Friday 10^th June 2011, Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh.  (Possible SDYA and deaf students to share their experience/views of college life)

NATED MEETING

Due to the terrible weather that has hit Scotland this week the committee has decided to postpone the NATED meeting this Friday (3rd Dec)

The new date is Friday 21st January at Forth Valley College at 1:30pm

At the meeting we will discuss the NATED  CSW Code of Practice.  This document can also be downloaded from the NATED UK website under publications. The Code of Practice has been developed over many years as CSWs, interpreters and notetakers work with deaf students in colleges and universities.

 This free afternoon workshop will explore the dilemmas which support staff often face when working with deaf students. For example, what should the CSW do if the student is late? How can the CSW improve their interpreting skills so that everything the deaf student signs is voiced in class? How should deaf awareness be introduced in the classroom, and can deaf students take the lead? How can deaf students give feedback about their CSW to the college? What does the CSW do in exam situations? How can a CSW / notetaker team be consistent about the way they work with a deaf student? What does professionalism mean for a CSW / notetaker?

There will also be some time for any other business & networking

Look forward to seeing you on the 21st

Voiceover Workshop for CSWs. Saturday 20th November Glasgow

Due to demand deafmatters have added another date for Voiceover for Communication Support Workers and this time it will be held in Glasgow.
This is a hot topic for CSWs, who are expected to voice-over without having received any formal training. This workshop is distilled from a series of well-received one-day training events and will present theories and practical methods for better and more confident voice-over. Essential for CSWs.

20th November 2010
9.30am – 4.00pm at Holiday Inn Riverside, Glasgow.

The cost is £85 including lunch and refreshments.

For more information and a booking form please contact Jill on deafmatters@googlemail.com or 07791610572.

http://www.deafmatters.org.uk/index.php/courses/3-voiceover-for-communication-support-workers-1