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NAS Basingstoke May Newsletter
Hi,
We hope you had a good Easter. Please find below the information from our branch along with other
information we hope you find useful.
Upcoming events
Adult Social Group meeting – Thursday 30th April, Viables community centre
Our new adult social group starts this Thursday 10am – 12 noon. Please come along if you can. If you know
anyone this may help then please pass the message on.
NAS Swim – Saturday 2nd May, The sports centre
Our monthly swim will be held on the 2nd May (a week later than usual). We will be using the Waterwalkerz
again. The session will be held from 5-6pm and costs £2.50 per person, payment can be taken on the door
or you can pay on our website via PayPal.
AGM & Q&A with Dr Julie Maxwell – 7th May, Everest community Academy
Our AGM will be held on the 7th May. We will look at what we have done over the last year and outline what
we are planning for the next year. The AGM will commence from 6:30pm and will probably run until around
7:15pm.
This will be followed by our regular Q&A sessions with the community paediatricians from G floor. They will
be joined by the speech and language therapist and hopefully the clinical psychologist.
London Zoo Trip – 16th May
We have had a huge demand for this trip and are currently operating a waiting list should any tickets
become available. If you would like to add your name to the list please email [email protected]
and tell us how many adults’, children and carer tickets you will require.
Ten Pin Bowling – Potentially 28th May
We are planning a trip to the Bowling Alley for Half-term, we will drop a separate email out with further
details when this is confirmed.
Other Local events
Dyslexia Information day – Thursday 15th May, Chineham Library
Dyslexia action’s Winchester Learning Centre will be available at Chineham library from 1- 5pm to provide
information and advice along with answering any questions or concerns you may have. For more details,
email [email protected] or call 01962 856195. Click here to visit the website.
Maple Ridge fair – Saturday 16th May, Maple Ridge school
Visit Maple Ridge’s fair between 11:30am – 1:30pm. With Go-Karts, a bouncy castle, ponies, BBQ, football,
Elsa, music, stalls a raffle and more it looks to be a fantastic day.
Makaton training – starting 27th May, The Wellington Centre, Andover
Andover & District Mencap are hosting a Makaton Training programme at The Wellington Centre. It will take
place over four consecutive Wednesday evenings from 5-8.30pm starting on 27th May and finishing on 17th
June. The cost of the course is £150 per person (20% discount for volunteers). A certificate will be issued
upon completing the course. For more information or to book, please contact Sarah Lyles by emailing
[email protected] or telephoning 01264 321840. Places are limited so book early to avoid
disappointment.
RCS family activity mornings, from 2nd May, The Longmeadow centre, Andover
RCS Ltd have been given some funding for some family activity mornings for school age children who are
on the Autistic Spectrum and their parents, siblings and carers. These will be held on Saturdays 2nd, 16th
and 30th May; 13th and 27th June; 11th and 25th July at Longmeadow Centre, drop in anytime between
9.45am-12.15pm. They will provide a range of activities for all ages and you are welcome to take your own
games and gadgets to play alongside others. They have a large hall with toys for younger children, a central
social/canteen area and a teenage ‘chill out’ room, so they can cater for all ages. The cost is £2 per child
(up to a maximum £5 per family), which will include a drink, biscuit and the activities. Their Staff Team will
be on hand to welcome you to the centre and show you where everything is in the kitchen so you can make
your drinks and they will facilitate the activities. However, please note, that parents/carers are solely
responsible for all their children. If you would like to go along or need more information, email
[email protected] or telephone 01264 359223.
Go! Club, Basingstoke
Basingstoke GO! Club (ages 8 to 18 years) and GO! Club Minis (ages 3 to 8 years), welcomes children and
young people with a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities, and their siblings, living in the
Basingstoke area to enjoy GO! Club and join them for lots of fun. The clubs are held at Everest Community
Academy from 2-4pm. This is a short break so parents can leave their children with the trained and friendly
staff and volunteers. The cost is £5 per person. Dates are: 25th April – arts, crafts parachute games &
theatre games (main hall); 9th May – trampolining; 23rd May – basketball; 6th June – table tennis; 20th June –
football/dodgeball; 4th July – badminton; 18th July – art and craft. Booking is essential – call 01256 636288 or
email [email protected]. To visit their website, click here.
Autism friendly cinema screenings
Autism friendly cinema screenings will be on the following dates. At these screenings the lights will be on
low, the volume will be turned down, there are no trailers, you can take your own food and drink and can
move around the cinema if you like.
Odeon – Cinderella, 17th May at 11:30am
Vue – The lion King relaxed performance – 30th August, Lyceum Theatre
Following sold-out performances in 2013 and 2014, this summer Disney’s award–winning musical will
present its third dedicated Autism-Friendly Performance, the only West End Show to hold annual
performances of this kind, at the Lyceum Theatre, 21 Wellington Street, London WC2E 7RQ. The
performance will be held on Sunday 30th August at 1.30pm. Priority booking now open. Ticket prices for
this very special performance are £40, £36 and £26. To book, go to the website or call 0844 871 7615,
Access 0844 871 7677 or Groups 0844 871 7644, Web: www.atgtickets.com/venues/london
NAS surrey branch conference – 3rd October, University of Surrey
This popular event is being held on Saturday 3rd October at the University of Surrey in Guildford. The
theme is: Anxiety and Anger in Autism – causes, consequences and how to reduce them. The keynote
speaker is Dr Wenn Lawson (formerly Wendy Lawson) who will speak about the topic as a whole.
They also have smaller seminars run by local professionals looking specifically at:
• anxiety and anger in the classroom
• anxiety and anger in adults
• medication
• strategies for sensory issues
They suggest donations of £30 for parents/carers/people with ASD, and £60 for professionals, reduced by
£5 for those booking before 31 May. Full details and booking forms are available at
http://www.mugsy.org/2015conference
Portsmouth conference
Autistic Intelligence’s Portsmouth Conference, is on May 8th 2015 at The Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea St. Helens Parade, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO4 0RN. The theme of the conference is what works in autism
and both Tony Attwood and Dr. Wenn Lawson will be presenting. For more information please click the link
below. http://autisticintelligence.org/page/conference-3/
Radio 4 programmes
There have recently been two broadcasts on Radio 4’s ‘One to One’ on an Autism theme, with John Harris
talking to Prof Simon Baron-Cohen (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052j0tr) and John Harris talking to Penny
Andrews (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0537492). There have been several other broadcasts with an
autism theme in the past few months, they are well worth listening too.
Mencap voting guides
Mencap have produced a number of easy read voting guides to help encourage young people with a
learning disability to vote. Find out more here https://www.mencap.org.uk/allaboutvoting
Our resource library
We have a number of books available to borrow. Our books are held in Chineham Library and are available
to borrow using a normal library card. It is free to join the library and gateway card holders can also get free
DVD rentals.
Volunteering
We are looking at expanding our team and the services we provide. We have a number of volunteer
positions available and we welcome all the help we can get. If any of the below roles are of interest please
drop an email to Mike Blackman to [email protected]. Alternatively if you feel you have some
free time to give but none of the below cover your areas of interest again please drop Mike an email and let
us know your ideas and how you’d like to help the branch.
Family Support/Activity Leader
We are looking to add to our existing team of family support/activity leaders. The premise of these positions
is two-fold; one half is to identify gaps in the community in terms of activities provided within Basingstoke as
well as managing events on the day. The 2nd part of the role includes supporting families where requested
with signposting & advice. The roles can be shared should you only wish to work on one of the elements.
Events Coordinator
The role of Events Coordinator is to support and coordinate the activities the activity leaders put in place.
The main focus of the role is to arrange venue bookings, ticket purchases and to ensure the activity leaders
have everything they need for their activities.
Social Media Coordinator
We are looking for someone with a little free time to advertise our events, other local events & any useful
information gathered by other volunteers on our branch Facebook page & twitter feed. If you spend a fair
amount of time online, do you have a couple of hours you could offer the branch?
Fundraisers
We are looking to have a bank of fundraisers within the branch. The main requirement within the role is
simply to meet monthly (or whatever works best) with the rest of the fundraising team to drink coffee and
come up with inventive, fun & novel ways in which we can raise vital funds for the branch.