Arts Award Weekend 5-6 March

This is an opportunity to undertake almost all the activities necessary for a Bronze Award in one weekend.  The NAGC Arts Award Adviser will be spending the weekend with us and we will be holding events at venues around Milton Keynes on both days, run by professional artists and members of the Youth agency who are doing their Gold Awards.
There will be textile workshops, digital art workshops and a visit to the MK art gallary. The weekend will include tutorial time with Carol Leach, the Arts Award Advisor.

Please note that these weekend workshops are aimed at children aged 10+ interested in the arts award.  Some workshop activities will cater for ages 6+ allowing siblings and other interested explorers to book into spare spaces.  We are not running drop-in sessions.  Booking is mandatory.

£30  per MK and Northants Explorer family for the   weekend (to include registration for one child for Bronze).  Families who do not require registration for Bronze £15.  Non-member families £45.

click here for booking form

December meeting cancelled.

In view of the recent weather we have decided that organising an out and about visit for next weekend is perhaps a bit too risky. Unfortunately we can’t use the hall this month, therefore we are cancelling our December meeting. Sorry.

If you are looking for ideas for that weekend, things we considered are:

Sunday December 12th

1) Olney Dickens of a market, Olney

2) Tudor Christmas at Sulgrave Manor, Banbury

3) Christmas Cracker concert by the Northampton Symphony Orchestra, Northampton.

Saturday December 11th

Santa Special on the Marston Vale Line (Bletchley to Bedford)

The first meeting of 2011 will be Sunday January 9th. See you then.

Have a Christmas full of blessings.

Milton Keynes Autistic Spectrum Parent Support Group

At Explorers we have noted that a high percentage of our members have a learning difficulty as well as a gift or talent.  Aspergers seems to be one of the more common diagnoses.  We therefore thought that members may be interested in information on the local parents support group.

Milton Keynes Autistic Spectrum Parent Support Group meeting dates

Thursday 22nd July @ 730pm – 9pm
Thursday 16th September @ 730pm – 9pm
Thursday 21st October @ 730pm – 9pm
Thursday 25th November @ 730pm – 9pm
Thursday 16th December @ 730pm – 9pm

Meetings are held at the Walnuts school and the group can be contacted on mkasps@googlemail.com

Understanding the Transition Process for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Primary to Secondary School Transition

One of our members found this research project on the Great Ormond St website and as we have a high number of members with ASD he thought it might be of interest…….

“Many of the parents that we meet through the Social Communication Disorders Clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital raise concerns that they have about how well their child is going to cope with moving from primary to secondary school.

The research team here at Great Ormond Street Hospital are aware that this can be a difficult time for young people, especially when they have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Up until now there has been little research carried out on this subject. Consequently, there are few formal support structures in place. Many schools have to work on a ‘trial and error’ basis if they decide to put transition packages into place

Explorers Camp – July 9th-11th

Camp time has come again.  As usual we will be using the superb facilities of the George Amey center in Simpson MK.  We have a huge range of exciting activities planned for all ages so come along and join us.  Click the links below to download the full details.

camp schedule 2010

Booking Form2010

There is limited accomodation and some activities have restricted numbers so please ensure you complete the booking form and return it with payment ASAP!

Inspire, Challenge and Excel

ICE – Inspire, Challenge and Excel – is the new volunteering programme for young people launched by The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) during its annual Awards Ceremony at Trinity House in London on Monday 29^th March 2010.     ICE will encourage NAGC’s young members to get involved with volunteering and use their gifts and talents for the benefit of others.  The programme provides opportunities to improve leadership skills and display citizenship whilst giving them the skills to support gifted children through NAGC’s network of Explorer Clubs and other volunteering opportunities.

The Awards Ceremony marks the contribution of volunteers of all ages to NAGC’s work and the achievements of its young members and this year also included the recipients of an award for teachers who gained distinctions in a new distance learning programme developed by NAGC.  Awards in a wide range of categories were presented by the charity’s Patron, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester and the event was generously supported by Randstad Education, the leading UK educational staffing specialist.

In presenting the 2009 Volunteer Awards for Governance and Guidance, Essential Support, Longevity, Diversity and Youth the charity acknowledged the dedication of its volunteers and their understanding of the needs of the countless gifted and talented children and their families that they help to support.

NAGC’s Chief Executive, Denise Yates, comments: “The awards are a wonderful opportunity to recognise the positive contribution our volunteers make to our organisation and how young people can use their gifts and talents to increase their confidence and develop their skills through volunteering.  The launch of the ICE programme will provide them with a path to help develop their potential.   We are also marking our continuing partnership with Randstad Education through the presentation of these awards to  their teachers.”

Several of the MK and Northants committee had been shortlisted for awards.  Geraldine Glover for governance and guidance, Petrina Robinson for creative input, Sally Kelley for essential support and Natasha Parsler for the young volunteers award.  We were all delighted when Sally won the section for Essential Support, a much deserved recognition of all the effort she has put in as our chief cook and bottle washer over the last two years.  Nikki Parsler was also recognised with the Randstad Teachers Award.

Diana Johnson, Schools Minister, said: “I welcome the work that NAGC does with parents and young people and these awards recognise the really important role that their volunteers play. We are committed to ensuring our gifted and talented programme gives better support to teachers and that’s why we are giving schools the funding they need to identify, develop and support their gifted and talented pupils. NAGCs work will help with this and their new ICE initiative is an excellent way to encourage gifted and talented children to put their skills to good use – I look forward to seeing what they achieve in the future.”

Workshops for parents of Gifted Children

NAGC Head Office are running a series of talks for “new” parents of gifted children who might find it of use to work out how to help their child.

Click here for more details – Flyer March April May 2010

If you yourself would benefit from these talks or know anyone who you feel would be interested, please could you contact Julia Cloke, Membership, Marketing & Events Coordinator  at headquarters, contact details:

juliacloke@nagcbritain.org.ukTel 0845 450 0295 or 01908 646433 Fax 0870 770 3219

January News from HQ

Millennium Youth Camp

There is an international science camp for young people aged 16-19 years taking place in Helsinki, Finland, from 6^th to 13^th June 2010.  It is free of charge – it says including travel, accommodation and food.  More information is on our website http://www.nagcbritain.org.uk/news.php?id=39&article=279

Hot Topic

There is an ongoing debate in the media about ‘pushy parents’.  Go to our home page on www.nagcbritain.org.uk to read more about it and send any comments to amazingchildren@nagcbritain.org.uk

Sunday Telegraph

A journalist from the Sunday Telegraph would be keen to talk to a parent whose child has accessed some of the Excellence Hub / Regional Partnership events over the last couple of years and their thoughts on losing these opportunities after March.  Alternatively, it may be that the parent has views on the fact that their local Excellence Hub hasn’t put on any suitable events.  If you are willing to talk to the journalist about this please contact julietaplin@nagcbritain.org.uk as a matter of urgency.

Awards Ceremony

Thanks to all those who have nominated volunteers and young people for the various awards.  We hope to hold the awards over lunchtime on Monday 29^th March 2010 at Trinity House in London www.trinityhouse.co.uk.  Invitations to short listed nominees should be sent out in early February.

BIG Family Weekend

We hope to hold two events this year, possibly a classroom based activity and an adventure activity, hopefully one further north and one further south.  If you have any suggestions for venues please email julietaplin@nagcbritain.org.uk

YA trip cancelled due to weather

I am very sorry to report that our image consultant is currently snowed in and we have therefore taken the decision to cancel tomorrow evenings outing.  We will be aiming to rebook it at a later date but I think we will wait until we are certain the snow has gone for good!

Apologies to everyone who was looking forward to this trip.

December’s letter from the Chief Executive

Dear Member,

As we approach the end of the year, I would just like to send a personal thank you to each of you for your comments, suggestions, ideas and enthusiasm in 2009 which have really helped to shape and support NAGC’s work. We are all involved because of our belief in the need to support ‘gifted and talented’ children and young people and our commitment to making it happen.  As we move into 2010, we do not know what lies ahead in terms of elections, the closure of the YG+T programme and funding.  With your support, I am sure that we will respond to whatever faces us with the same determination as we show in ensuring our children are helped on the road to becoming happy, confident adults in the future.

Thank you.