Click on the blue banners for full details
Monthly meetingJoin us on Saturday 11th September for our regular monthly get together at Lloyd Hall. Nothing specific planned, just a good opportunity for a cuppa and catch up.
All the fun of the (Fishers) Farm! - 4th July 2010A fabulous turn-out of fifty parents, children and a few grandparents and aunties and uncles enjoyed all the fun of the farm at our latest psds outing - our annual picnic at Fishers Farm which took place on Sunday 4th July. From the bumper boats to bug rides, pirate ships to pony rides, crazy golf to cute carousels, adorable animals to action-packed activities and lots more besides the children (and adults!) all had a great time. The weather stayed fine and it was lovely getting together for a picnic half way through the day, then it was off to the water play area for a soaking and lots of other fun activities. There's so much to do for children of all ages at Fishers Farm and it was really fantastic seeing how much the children have grown from last year. If you've not yet had a chance to visit Fishers Farm it is well worth a day out - click here
to check out all that's on offer at Fisher's Farm.
Fun in the sun
Unlike England's 2010 World Cup debut against America, PSDS managed to score a hat-trick at our Summer Fun Day the day after! For the third year running we basked in glorious sunshine at Nutfield Cricket Club. But we didn't just enjoy success with the weather, the Fun Day all round was a huge success with more guests than ever before enjoying our largest to-date number of stalls and activities - and we raised more money than the previous two year's too with a grand total profit of £3184.87, every penny of which will be used to help children with Down syndrome to reach their full, wonderful potential! From Beat The Goalie to pony rides, mini makeovers to welly wanging - there was lots for everyone to enjoy and some fabulous prizes made their way home with many lucky winners too.
The cake stall and Sausage Sizzle were both incredibly popular and we are very grateful to Shabden Park Farm, Chipstead, for supplying the wonderful sausages for our sizzle! Huge thanks also go to Reigate and Redhill Round Table for their sponsorship of the Fun Day and to Redhill Redstone Rotary for their kind donation too. We are also very pleased to thank all our fantastic volunteers who helped with setting up, clearing up and of course manning the stalls and activities throughout the afternoon - including helpers from Redhill Rotary and St Bede's School, Redhill. And of course all the individuals and companies who donated products to help ensure that we made as much profit as possible. (please click here for a list of thanks)
But the day would not have been the success that it was without the warm welcome and continued support of our hosts - Nutfield Cricket Club. Their glorious grounds make the perfect setting for the Fun Day and their help makes all the difference.
So to all of you who came along, we hope you had a wonderful time and thank you for your support. And to anyone who missed the event, we'll do our best to make it even better next year!!
Kate's half marathon
Kate (white psds t-shirt, front centre) 30 seconds in to the Brentwood Half Marathon. We wonder if Kate had the same smile on her face 2 hours, ten and a half minutes later!
The Great and the Good
Huge thanks to Louisa Dall and Stephanie Reid who ran the Bupa Great Edinburgh Run on Sunday 2nd May in aid of psds. Over 10,000 runners ran past some of Edinburgh’s most historic landmarks, including Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, the Scottish Parliament Building and Holyrood Palace - but no doubt the best site of all was the finishing line at the end!
Louisa and Steph have raised a fantastic total of over £1,900 for psds and enjoyed the experience so much that they are apparently thinking about doing it again next year! Well done to you both and thanks from us all at psds!
Strictly Fun Dancing - December 2009
Professional dancer and star of TV’s Strictly Come Dancing, Matthew Cutler, invited psds to join him for a party at his dance studio in Norbury on 15th December. 30 children attended the party and had a great time learning some dance moves from Matthew (a few parents were spotted on the dance floor strutting their stuff too!). In addition to the dancing, there was a super party tea, lots of balloons and a gift for each child to take home.
Our warmest thanks to Matthew and his friends at Club Semley Dance Academy for making us all so welcome and for giving our children (and us star-struck parents!) an afternoon to remember! Good luck on the Strictly tour Matthew, we hope it goes really well!
A visit from Santa - December 2009
It was our Christmas party on December 5th and we were very lucky to have a special visit from Santa himself! He arrived with two sacks of presents for all the children. Everyone was very excited to see him and had a lovely time at the party.
Winetasting - November 2009Over 60 guests gathered at the Reigate Manor Hotel on Thursday 12th November to join us for the third anniversary of psds at our annual winter winetasting.
The evening, held once again in association with Reigate’s leading independent wine retailer, the Vineking, was a great success raising over £2,800 to help children with Down syndrome to reach their full, wonderful potential.
A major part of the evening’s fundraising success was the raffle – with prizes including a holiday in Mallorca, tickets to see England play at Wembley, spa treats and luxury goodies, tickets for the filming of Top Gear and lots more up for grabs.
We’d like to thank everyone for helping to make the winetasting such a success – here’s to another corking night next year!!
Below are the names of the lucky winners
- Spanish holiday – Michael Kelly, Reigate
- Top Gear tickets – Julie Cowley, Sanderstead
- Instyle gift box and magazine subscription – Lin Matthews, Horley
- England International football tickets – Chris Brady, Reigate
- Luxury gift set including Swarovski necklace – Paul Prior, Alton
- Private winetasting at Vineking – Jo Wright, Oxted
- Sports collection including round of golf – Mrs A Healy, Epsom
- Meal for two at Albermarle Restaurant, Mayfair – Ann Vatcher, Tatsfield
- Cowshed Spa goody bag – Becky Dawson, Warlingham
- Fullers brewery tour – Mike Swinn, Reigate
- Boden voucher – Steve Cheung, Bletchingley
- Round of golf and signed rugby book – Dave Spurgin, Caterham
- Food hamper – Rosaline Shiers, Dorking
- Family treat pack – Lucy and Simon Baker, Norwich
- Pedlars gift voucher – Geraldine Small, South Norwood
- Silver pendant and chain – Dave Spurgin, Caterham
Congratulations to our lucky winners – and thank you to all our raffle sponsors for the wonderful selection of prizes!
National Media coverage for psds - November 2009A double page spread about psds and how it first began appeared recently in Womans Own magazine (26 Oct cover date). The magazine had been looking for an inspirational story and was really interested in the background behind psds as well as highlighting the services it offers today. Vicky, Helen and Sarah, founding trustees of psds, appeared in the article along with their children, Sam, Thea and Emily – you can see the great photos here (courtesy of Tony Ward and Woman's Own)
.
This level of coverage is incredible and really helps to raise awareness of psds and the services and help we provide in order to help children with Down syndrome to reach their full, wonderful potential. The fee paid for this article has been donated to psds.
Look out for Take A Break magazine in January too – as this will feature an article about Jenny Ward who runs digbies and works so tirelessly to help our children (Jenny has also donated her fee to psds).
Education Day - October 2009
Our education day (which took place on Saturday 17th October at the offices of Thomas Eggar solicitors in Crawley) was attended by 55 parents and professionals involved in our children’s care – including Portage tutors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, SENCo’s and teaching assistants, and community paediatricians. The topics covered were:Developing speech, language and communication skills
Evidence-based effective education
Supporting social development and managing behaviour
Teaching literacy skills
Teaching number and developing memory skills
Keys to successful inclusion at Primary school
Many thanks to Becky Baxter of Downsed International for a great presentation
Summer fun day - June 2009Our summer fun day took place at Nutfield Cricket Club on Sunday 14th June - marking the end of Down Syndrome Awareness week. We were again blessed with another glorious day and everyone had a fantastic time. We raised over £2,200 for psds; money which will go a long way to support psds and digbies.
Heart of the Community - June 2009
We were delighted to be given the top award from Heart of the Community 2009. The awards were organised by East Surrey and Sussex newspapers and sponsored by Barclays Bank to reward the volunteers working in the community to better the lives of other.
Summer Fun Day - June 2008
Our first ever psds summer fun day took place on Sunday 8th June (during Down Syndrome Awareness Week) at Nutfield Cricket Club, near Redhill and what a glorious day it was! We had summer sun, people had fun and we raised a fantastic total of over £1,500. A great result all round!
Our grateful thanks go to all who helped to make the event such a resounding success – from providing tombola prizes to helping to man stalls and organising games such as welly wanging, splat the rat and fancy dress relays in the blazing sun shine – not to mention the following companies and individuals without whose support the fun day would not have raised such a great sum:
Waitrose Caterham (sponsorship of the bouncy castle)
Sainsbury’s Dorking (sponsorship of the sausage sizzle)
Thackray Williams LLP (sponsorship of the face painting)
Richard Jordan (sponsorship of the magician)
Nutfield Cricket Club (venue and support)
Our education day (which took place on Saturday 11th October at the wonderful offices of Thomas Eggar solicitors in Crawley) was attended by 40 parents and professionals involved in our children’s care – including Portage tutors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, SENCo’s and teaching assistants, and community paediatricians. The topics covered were:Supporting social and emotional development and managing behaviour
- What do we know about the behaviour of children of Down syndrome?
- How can we change behaviour, promote full social inclusion and support friendships?
Meeting the educational needs of children with down syndrome
- Evidence based practice
- Whole school issues for inclusion
- Guidance for accessing the curriculum
- Preparation for school
- What do we know about children’s understanding of numbers and how can we help them?
We are already planning our next education day for autumn 2009 – please email committee@psds.info if you are interested in attending or if there are topics you would like to suggest for consideration.
Short-listed for Mercury FM Charity of the yearPSDS was proud to be shortlisted for Charity of the Year - an accolade won deservingly by The Children’s Trust, Tadworth - at the event last Thursday (26th March). But it was the presentation of the event’s premier award, Local Hero, to Jenny Ward - who supports PSDS by devoting much of her time to running weekly development groups for children with Down syndrome – that really made PSDS’s night!
“We are thrilled that Jenny has been recognised as a Local Hero,” says Helen Shiers from Dorking, co-founder and trustee of PSDS. “To all the families involved in PSDS, Jenny is certainly seen as a hero for her tireless and selfless work running DIGBIES (our weekly development groups). The services that PSDS provides, in which Jenny plays such an important part, are really helping to make a difference to the lives of our youngsters with Down syndrome – their future looks very bright and we are excited about all that they might achieve. So much of that is down to Jenny!”
Winter Winetasting - November 2008
PSDS second anniversary celebration -
Winter Winetasting at The Vineking!Thursday 6th November
Our Winter Winetasting on Thursday 6th November marks the 2nd anniversary of psds.
Our host was again Erik Laan of Reigate’s and Weybridge’s VineKing (shortlisted for Decanter Magazine’s Independent Wine Retailer of the Year). We are delighted that we beat last year's target of £2,500 with a fanatastic total of over £2,600.
The Event
The evening started with a glass of fizz, some nibbles and a brief welcome, followed by tasting a range of delicious wines from The Vineking, shortlisted for Decanter Magazine’s Independent Wine Retailer of the Year.10% Donation from The Vineking
The Vineking generously gave PSDS 10% of the value of all sales placed on the night.Raffle
There was also be a raffle with some super prizes up for grabs – the following lucky people won the various prizes:- Treatment voucher from Reigate Manor Hotel beautician – Deborah Main, Limpsfield
- £20 John Lewis Vouchers – Ian Elliott, Dorking
- Massage voucher from The Spa, Reigate – Dave Spiller, Weybridge
- Bag of goodies from Starbucks Reigate – Venita King, Caterham
- Luxury Galler Chocolates – Jenny Pratt, Ashtead
- Dinner for two at Pizza Express Dorking – Louisa Cheung, Bletchingley
- Gourmet Chef “hamper” (including Gordon Ramsay Taste of Christmas tickets) – Ian McKnight, East Grinstead
- VineKing tasting voucher – John and Penny Jones, Dorking
- In-Style Box of Goodies – David McCardie, London
- A one night leisure break for two at the Nutfield Priory – Carol Knock, Chesterfield
- Rugby League Challenge Cup Final tickets – Lee Blackett, Reigate
- De Vere hotel break – Jane Aldous, Caterham
- Eurostar Tickets – Nick Penny, Redhill
Thank you for everyone who supported us
Downsyndrome OK Conference Day - 28th FebruarydsOK recently held their full day conference for 2009 which covered speech and language, reading and handwriting skills. Speakers were DSA Training Officer, Cecilie MacKinnon; Helen Long, an independent advisory teacher to Bedfordshire Education Authority; and occupational therapist, Anna Roberts, who works for Central Surrey Health PCT. They held practical sessions on reading, handwriting and speeah and language skills at the event which took place at Overton Grange School, Stanley Road, Sutton, SM2 6TQ on Saturday 28th February 2009. Visit downsyndromeok.org.uk
Family Day Out at Fishers Farm - June 2008
Fishers Farm Park was again the venue for our psds summer outing on 22nd June and what a super venue it is! There’s so much to do for family members of all ages how can you fail to have fun there? Once again, we were basking in sunshine which made the day even more special – particularly the Alpine Adventure section with its “snow slopes” and “ice skating” rink! Watch this space for news of next year’s summer excursion!
psds is a registered charity
Charity number: 1123079
Donate now at Just Giving