C.E. Jottings

Damning report on Post-16 advice for young people & their families

Are we stuck with hand-me-down institutions? A report published earlier this week sets out 'damning' conclusions about the quality of information and guidance (IAG) available to young people and their families when choosing further education. The report, "How young peoplewith special educational needs and disabilities find out about their post-16 options" published by Natspec, the association for specialist colleges, was based in part on a survey of parents of young children aged 15-25. "The findings were worse than we imagined".... Read more →

The death of a teenager at a Priory hospital is tragically just one example of a national crisis

"Britain’s cruel care system shames us all" by Ian Birrell in "The Times" today. "The details are shocking. A troubled girl just 14 years old, sent for the first time into a place of supposed sanctuary for her psychiatric problems. She was subjected to the terror of physical restraint by four adults on her second day, then many more times over subsequent weeks. She was forcibly injected with drugs. She was bullied. And then she killed herself, despite warnings about... Read more →

A Fitbit for orthofunction and healthy lifestyle? Maybe. #CondEd

A Fitbit. For someone who doesn’t walk or take the stairs. Is there any point? Discuss, please. So asked Glenda Watson-Hyatt on Facebook a few days ago. Glenda’s interest was in how much, as an electric wheelchair user, she actually moves. If you’d like to read the whole fascinating series of comments and discussion that followed, you can find it here. Some of the comments focused factually on what a FitBit can actually do: from the maybe well-known such as... Read more →

"Air, Food and Experience" ... and Conductive Education

A moment ago, I was on Gill Maguire's Conductive Education Information website searching for something, and was reminded of this posting "Air, Food & Experience" by Judit Szathmary. If you've not read it, you should. If you did read it when Judit published it November, then I urge you to read it again, as I have just done. "There is a significantly different experience between mainstream special education combined with therapy and conductive movement pedagogy. Conductive movement pedagogy is about... Read more →

Where's the Bowling Alley? Thoughts on the design for Paces Sheffield's new CE facility.

A week ago last Wednesday, I spent a very pleasurable and interesting 30 minutes at the presentation by Masters' students from Sheffield University Architecture Department, of a design for a new facility for Paces Sheffield "to create one of the leading purpose-built conductive education centres in the country." (Andrew Sutton's Facebook post "Something of wider significance at Paces Sheffield" has some useful links.) The students had clearly put a lot of work into their proposed design and presentation. The 3-D... Read more →

Designing companionable spaces for adult continuing conductive education

Four unrelated events have recently come my way : One: I've recently been working to recover the website for the Sheffield Symposium on adult and continuing conductive education that was thought to have been 'terminated' (I'll let you know when it's back online); Two: The report of the year long EU Erasmus Project on adults and conductive education is imminent. I'm looking forward to reading it; Three: Paces Sheffield, working with architecture Masters' students from Sheffield University is undertaking a... Read more →

Transition to adult services - and so it goes on, unending, unchanging. No? Tell me different, then!

Searching for something else, I came across this earlier today. Written when our daughter Sarah was 18 (so about 2000), for a purpose long since forgotten, possibly publication, its subject is the transition from children' services to adults' services, from childhood to adulthood. It's a bleak picture as bleak as the Joseph Rowntree Report that it refers to "Hurtling Into A Void?" Would that someone could tell me how much better transition is for young people and their families today,... Read more →

Designing spaces for adult and continuing conductive education

I'll keep this brief: Have you or anyone you know ever had the opportunity to design dedicated spaces specifically for adult and continuing conductive education services? If so, I'd love to hear from you at [email protected] Many thanks. Read more →

A new wheelchair? As the man says, Mission Impossible.

Sarah needs a new wheelchair. There are two criteria (i) that she maintains her mobility, moving herself around independently and (ii) some form of support to help her sit up straighter. Shouldn't be difficult, should it, you'd think. Well, I'll not go into the details but have a read of someone else's experience. Read Chris Whittaker's account of what his wife Fran faced. Getting a wheelchair that is fit for purpose: Mission Impossible? "Fran’s wheelchair is quite literally the centre... Read more →

Justice for Laughing Boy - A book Review

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Tears of grief at the loss of a beautiful, vulnerable 18 year old young man, tears of love for his amazing mother, family and friends, and tears of rage about a system that didn’t just let him die through neglect, but consistently refused to take responsibility for his death and for far too long failed to give him and his family justice." So begins Stephen Unwin's review of "Justice for Laughing... Read more →