Did you miss me?

You probably haven't noticed but I haven't been around much these last couple of weeks! I've been off travelling around the countries doing lots of fun things, especially NDCS events!

The other weekend I was volunteering at a Pre-Secondary Weekend in a place called Irthlingborough, near Northampton. The idea of the weekends is that all the parents come together and meet with other parents, NDCS staff and in particular education advice people who talk about statements, picking the right school etc. The parents (and kids!) also get to meet Deaf role models who share their experiences of secondary school and what worked for them.

At the same time the kids meet and do fun activities aimed at raising their confidence and talking about things such as "what makes a good or a bad friend?".  They also do outdoor activities - team building, climbing and archery this time...

For a volunteer its an awesome weekend with the best of both worlds, you spend the day with the kids but at meal times and in the evenings the families have responsibility so you're free to do silly things like have pyjama parties...

I've just got back from my latest NDCS event... Last year I was lucky to be a member of the NDCS Youth Advisory Board along with 13 other amazing deaf young people. Now that we've "graduated" from the YAB a group of us have become young facilitators and did a day of training on Friday where we learnt about communication, leading sessions and the importance of giving clear instructions! It was a great day (yummy food) and in the same place as our last residential as a YAB. (The Studio in Birmingham.)

Today the new YAB arrived - looking very nervous! and Ellen and I were on hand to "meet and greet". It's great to see how similar and yet different our two groups are. This years board are much more diverse with a deaf-blind member, more BSL users and more people from Deaf schools. Oh and there are people from Wales this year too!! (drastically under represented last year!!)

The new YAB have done most of the same activities that we did last year... Talking about why they wanted to join the board, getting to know each other and discussing their rights as young people.

Ellen and I also ran a session about the "vintage" YAB and explained what we had achieved...

It was great to see and new, motivated and committed YAB and I hope they become great friends and enjoy the rest of their weekend :)