our major supporters nz foundation for conductive...
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NZ FOUNDATION FOR CONDUCTIVE EDUCATIONOUR MAJOR SUPPORTERS
Wellington Conductive Education
Early Childhood Centre
(pre-school children)PO Box 35 078, Naenae 5041Ph: 04 577 3480 Fax: 04 577 3480Email: [email protected]: www.cewellington.org.nz
Naenae Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)Wheatley Street, Naenae, WellingtonPh: 04 567 8117 Fax: 04 567 8771Email: [email protected]: www.naenae-primary.school.nz
Conductive Education Taranaki Trust PO Box 3150, Fitzroy, New PlymouthPh: 021 130 5797Email: [email protected]
Conductive Education Waikato
Trust Early Intervention Unit
(pre-school children)
Chartwell Square, Hamilton 3248Ph: 07 855 7013 Fax: 07 855 7014Email: [email protected]: www.cewaikato.org.nz
Woodstock Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)
Ph: 07 855 6686 Fax: 07 853 7056Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.woodstock.school.nz
GlowKids
13 Coyle Street, P.0. Box 16291Sandringham, Auckland 1351Ph: 09 845 8070Email: [email protected]: www.glowkids.org.nz
Integrated Neurological
Rehabilitation Foundation (iNRF)
(Conductive Education for adults)2 Claude Brookes Drive, HendersonPO Box 21 504, AucklandPh: 09 836 6830Email: [email protected]: www.inrf.org.nz
N.Z. Foundation for Conductive
Education (NZFCE)
Chairperson Trudy HeathNational Coordinator Sally ThomasP.0. Box 9230, Tower Junction22 Brougham Street, Christchurch, 8024Ph: 0800 169 323 or 0277 169 323Email: [email protected]: www.conductive-education.org.nzFacebook: www.facebook.com/NZFCE/
N.Z. Conductors’ Association (NZCA)
President Virag CzibokPhone 07 855 7013 Email: [email protected]
Addington Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)22 Brougham Street, ChristchurchPh: 03 366 2909 Fax: 03 365 8940Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.addington.school.nz/conductive.htm
Conductive Education Canterbury
Early Intervention Unit
(pre-school children)22 Brougham Street, ChristchurchPO Box 9230, Tower JunctionPh: 03 372 1399 Fax: 03 372 1499Email: [email protected]: www.cecanterbury.org
Cashmere High School
Conductive Education
(secondary school aged students)
Ph: 03 332 9129 Fax: 03 332 9126Email: [email protected]: www.cashmere.school.nz
Adult Conductive Education Trust
(ACET) Christchurch
(Conductive Education for adults)P.O. Box 29650, Fendalton, ChristchurchPh: 03 372 1399Email: [email protected]
Supported by:
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
P.O. Box 9230 Tower Junction, Christchurch • Phone 0800 169 323 or 0277 169 323
Web: www.conductive-education.org.nz • Email: [email protected]
MAXIMISING THE ABILITY IN DISABILITY
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I commenced in the role of National Coordinator in April — a very bitter sweet appointment. I am delighted to be back involved with Conductive Education after a long break, but very sad that the reason for my appointment was due to Dave Ching’s health issues and passing in May. Dave had done a stunning job of moving the NZ Foundation for Conductive Education forward over a long
period of time and is greatly missed by us all.I became involved with Conductive Education through
my son Alex, who is now almost 29! We, like many families in the late 1980’s saw the “Standing up for Joe” documentary and had the pleasure of meeting Gail Edgecumbe who had taken her daughter Holly to the Peto Institute. We were desperate to get Conductive Education to Christchurch and I was very involved in the establishment of all of the facilities
greatly from this, so when I look back I know that my investment was a very good one. In 1997 I took over the role of Manager at Conductive Education Canterbury — a position I held for 10 years. Since this time I have had various roles in the disability sector working in the area of transition from school to adult life and adult services. This has given me a clear vision of what is important for young people — life skills and social skills are right up there. These are key elements of Conductive Education amongst other skill development and as a result I know our programmes provide a good foundation for the future.
It is wonderful to be connecting with young people who were part of the pre-school programme more than ten
From the National Coordinator, Sally Thomas
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016 11
ACETOur organisation and programmes continue to grow
with 4 sessions currently running and a waiting list of clients looking for a range of different classes. Our clients are maintaining their range of movements, strengthening their bodies and minds all the while in a supportive environment in their local community with others that they have developed lifelong friendships with.
We are excited to have new Trustees to the Board following our meeting in August. Our current board is made up of Debra Davies, Lynda Vining, Lilan Weerasinghe, Kathyrn Bowler, Sue Brennock, Tyler Lamont, Sally Thomas and myself, all of whom bring a range of knowledge and experience. I would like
Naenae School Conductive Education
Room 7 had a busy Term 3. We had our School Concert at the end of term and we
did a lot of preparation for that.The concert’s theme was Countries and we choose to
perform an item on Spain. We were the opening item of the night.
Levai, the Matador received a round of applause as well as the smiling Daemon, who played the bull in the play.
Keeleigh, Misty and Renee’s dance was also a huge success. Paulini did a great job sitting up on the stage and helping the dancers with their instruments. David played guitar music for the afternoon show.
Tracey did a lots of work with the girl’s skirts, and they looked stunning on the night.
We also involved the parents making the matador’s
Lauris, Ebonie, Matile and her parents.
years ago — although I must say it makes me feel very old! I have witnessed the evolution of Conductive Education in New Zealand during this time and have been impressed by the diversity of programmes offered to meet the needs of people with disabilities and their families and the forward thinking of our centres. Alex is in his second term of the adult programme operating in Christchurch and is delighted to be back “working out” and socialising.
It has been a busy six months in the job and has been fantastic to have the opportunity to connect with centres throughout the country. There is lots of a good work happening.
A Good Start in Life I was nominated to be on the Reference Group for this
joint Ministry of Education / Ministry of Health project which is focused on improving supports for parents, family and whanau with disabled children in the 0-8 age range. It is early days but it will be wonderful to see Ministries working together and creating a system that is easy for families to access. At our last meeting the reference group which has representation from across the sector including a number of parents, did some “blue skies” thinking and some great ideas came forward. Let’s hope that these can be further developed. Exciting times!
Social EnterpriseI have been attending a social enterprise course which
has been the best PD I have ever been on. Social enterprise is a way of developing alternative funding streams for a social purpose. NZ Foundation for Conductive Education has been very fortunate to be well supported by our funders over many years — we couldn’t carry on our work without their generosity. As a result of the course NZFCE are looking to establish a social enterprise, while at the same time
used to enhance what NZFCE provides. Watch this space!!
INRF Open DayI was fortunate to go to Auckland to this open day as
outlined in Inna’s report opposite. It was fantastic to see the facility that was on the drawing board when I was last involved with Conductive Education and to connect with staff and board members. INRF have been supporting adults with disabilities over a long period of time and it is interesting to see that other centres are now taking their lead.
Coffee Catch-ups
Christchurch and this is now to be a regular monthly event — alternating between day and evening opportunities so that everyone has a chance to come. This is a great way of connecting with new people and gathering information. I would be interested to know if families in other regions would like to have Conductive Education social gatherings? I would be happy to help start something up in your region, so please get in touch.
FacebookDid you know we have a Facebook Page? Check us out
at www.facebook.com/NZFCE/
New Logo and WebsiteWe are delighted to have launched our new logo and
website recently with our Patron Wayne Smith and our Ambassadors Chris Harris and Laura McGoldrick joining us. We would appreciate your feedback on the new website
information. The website will evolve over time as we want people to use it as a resource for information. NZFCE are wanting to develop the stories section as we know that actual accounts of people’s lives really give those that don’t know a lot about Conductive Education a good overview of what is offered. Visit www.conductive-education.org.nz
A big thank you to Antoinette Baker for her wonderful photography, Sampatico and Zoom Group for the design and Linda Harris for all her hard work to pull this together.
to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved and welcome our new Trustees.
Due to restrictions with premises and funding we are currently at capacity and the Board are continuing to look into options for new premises and ways to continue to support our clients and expand our service. If anyone has any suggestions for future proofing or fundraising, please contact us at [email protected] We would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters, The Lottery Community, The Rata Foundation, COGS, and the Christchurch City Council. Without their contributions we would be unable to run our weekly programmes.
We currently have two fundraising events underway. If anyone would like to purchase gladwrap, tin foil or baking paper we have catering sized boxes available. On Monday 17th October we have a pizza evening at Winnie Bagoes City occurring. Check out our Facebook page Adult-Conductive-Education-Trust-373710639446037/events for more details. We are also involved in the annual charity golf day taking place in April 2017 for the four CE centres in Christchurch. If you would like further information about this great event, please email [email protected] —Camille Ross, Chairperson ACET
MAXIMISING THE ABILITY IN DISABILITY
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
cupcakes and on the 15th August the students and staff spent the morning decorating them all as beautifully as they could and then they sold them to our school community. Marta Katona had organised a Hungarian pastry chef, Aniko to join us and she taught us how to decorate all the cupcakes. All the students were very proud of their efforts and they certainly created some beautiful cupcakes. We raised $468.70 for the SPCA. All the students enjoyed this day and as we have adopted our own rabbit (Ralph) from the SPCA, our students are aware that there are lots of animals in the community who need help so they were excited to be able to help such a worthy organisation. This made everybody feel really good. We had so much fun I am sure we will do it again. Boccia Championships
Once again we were the host school for the Secondary School Boccia Championships on 29th August 2016, organised and run by the Halberg Disability Sports Foundation. This year twenty two students from six different Canterbury secondary schools competed. Conductive Education students from Cashmere have been practicing in their lunch breaks for the past four weeks and we got some pleasing results. With the Paralympics in Rio it is a nice reminder of how wonderful it is to see students participating in a competitive sport such as Boccia.— The Team at Cashmere High School’s Conductive Education Unit
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Cashmere High School Conductive Education
We are enjoying a busy and productive term three at Te Pukenga – Conductive Education, Cashmere High School
We would like to share with you some of our highlights from this school term.School Formal
Cashmere High School held its school formal on Friday 5th August. This event is looked forward to for months from all the students with all its glitz and glamour and photo taking. This year three students from Conductive Education attended this exciting night at Wigram Airbase. The students who attended were Charlie Loffhagen, Kirsteen Reid and Kayla Simpson. The theme for this year was “It’s a Carnival”. Our students were supported by our two conductors, Marta Katona and Agnes Jankovics, who commented that “the night was a great success and the students can’t wait for next year”.SPCA Cupcake Fundraising Day
This year the staff and students decided that they would like to support the SPCA by becoming involved in the cupcake fundraising event that the SPCA hold annually. So we all got busy and made lots and lots of
FR
OM
TH
E C
EN
TR
ES INRF
We’ve been busy at the Integrated Neurological Rehabilitation Foundation in Auckland. Since January 2016, twenty new attendees have commenced, taking us up to 105 clients.
2 Senior Conductors (as at December 2015) to a total of seven staff, including 1 new Conductor, 2 part-time Rehabilitation Assistants and a part-time Administrator.
Referrals from the MS Society, Parkinson’s Auckland and the Stroke Foundation continue. As always, word of mouth remains a very important referral source for our organisation.
Our new clients have integrated well into our
of our holistic approach and the value of an
encouraging environment that motivates them to move forward.
An Open Day hosted in May was well received by clients and professionals. The client presentations delivered were exceptional. Introductions to health professionals were made and opportunities established.
The local RSA was the venue for our Mid-Winter Christmas. A pre-lim to the end of year celebrations. Mixing and mingling allowed clients to meet people from different programs who attend on alternative days. Fun and frivolity was shared by all.
We’re grateful for the support of an active Board of Trustees. Currently a Strategic Plan focussing on operational stability and growth is underway and a rebranding exercise should be in place by year end.—Inna Chochina
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 20164 9
GlowkidsKia Ora,
I would like to share a bit of background info about us. GlowKids is a parent led Charitable Trust established
intensive, specialist programmes for children who have physical and or sensory disabilities. We are a NZ Ministry of Health contracted service provider and Ministry of Education licensed Early Childhood Centre providing a warm and friendly learning environment for children.
Occupational Therapist, Early Childhood Teachers, Social Worker, Early Intervention Teacher and trained support staff. We deliver a comprehensive programme that is focused on the needs of the whole child and is responsive to the aspirations of the child’s whanau/family. Our vision is for “every child to reach their greatest potential”.
Like other Conductive Education centres we are always trying to increase our numbers, and recently saw an increase across the centre. We have also seen an increase in enquiries which has been fantastic as it lets us know that people are aware of who we are.
We have a variety of ethnicities at Glowkids and recently held a cultural day to celebrate our different cultures. It was so good to see some of our children dressed in their cultural dress, some of the staff also joined in. The sharing of food is such a good way to come together and share amongst each other.
Last year we saw the need for a Sensory Kindergarten for children on the Autism Spectrum, the class is small (6) and has a high adult/child ratio, this class is led by a ECE/OT and is currently fully subscribed at present with a waiting list. We have other professionals that visit the class on a regular basis, to seek strategies that they too can implement in the mainstream environment. It is rewarding to see the children progress towards their goals.
We are constantly looking at ways to improve our service and as part of this we have regular meetings with families to discuss their individual goals for their children. We believe that by encouraging other professionals to visit our centre we can collaboratively work together to achieve these goals. This is integral to the Conductive Education philosophy.Ka kite anoSonya Sinclair & the staff of Glowkids
Woodstock Conductive EducationIn Term 2 and Term 3 our students took active part
in the outer community. In Term 2 the music society competition we participated in was greatly enjoyed. We won 2nd place this year which was fantastic, our students were excited to be performing again. We have been a part of this competition for several years, so it’s wonderful to be part of it and build our music knowledge.
During Term 3 we are now preparing to present a drama piece to parents and friends, including the Conductive Education Early Child Centre students.
Conductive Education CanterburyWell here we are in the middle of Spring! Life at
Conductive Education Canterbury has been very busy with over 27 children accessing our service now, through our Early Intervention and Early Childhood programmes and our Afterschool “Boot Camp” class.
Conductive Education Canterbury is a continually evolving service and we are very fortunate to have such
who encourage and adapt as the Disability and Education sectors change.
Some of the recent additions to our service that we are
After School programme “Boot Camp”
This has now been running for 12 months and Dora holds two classes a week during term time. It is fantastic to see the children and young people returning to Conductive Education and re-establishing some old friendships — the class is as much about staying active as it is about the social aspect of the children/young people being with their peers. Infant Massage
Nichola our Early Intervention Teacher is a trained Infant
We all have some nervous feelings about being on stage but we were very hopeful that the “three little pigs” will behave and the “wolf” will become kind in the end! Every actor is enjoying their role in our drama, and we’ll send some photos of the performance in the next news update.
All our eight students are very different with their physical abilities, movements, speech and behaviours. But as we know, everybody likes to step forward and show their talents to their family and friends, it’s a great achievement. We wish the best for our wonderful students and our supporters in their further endeavours.— Livia Jeanplong
Massage Instructor and all new families to Conductive Education Canterbury are now offered the 5 week programme. This allows some of the families to reconnect and establish new routines to incorporate into their daily lives with their babies after the stress of spending the start of their babies lives in the Neonatal units.Babies Music and Movement Class
This class has been established this year to meet the needs of a particular group of young babies and their mothers — The whole team is involved in this group so the families get to spend time with our Conductor Dora, Speech Language Therapist Kay and Nichola and Hannah our Early Intervention Teachers as well as myself offering support and pointing them in the direction of resources and other services where necessary. The session focuses on a range of developmental areas such as social, communication,
is wonderful to see the families forming natural supports and lifelong relationships with each other as many of our Conductive Education families do.
We look forward to the warmer weather and celebrations that term 4 always bring.— Rebecca Courtney, Manager
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 20168 5
Addington School2016 has been a very busy year so far. The children
are well settled into their routines and it is exciting to see the progress they are all making. We are fortunate to have a very dedicated and experienced group of staff who know the children well.
Our conductor, Sevi, teachers Sam and Astrid, and SLT Meagan, are working collaboratively to plan and implement the programmes. This is allowing us to provide learning that targets both group and individual needs.
Each morning, the children transition from their classroom to the programme room, following our karakia and shared news session. The next part of the
programme, or hand tasks, in this order from Monday to Thursday. Often on a Friday we will have a Fun Friday activity such as bowling, balloon tennis, or a tug of war.
The movement from room to room is an integral part of the programme and allows opportunities for each child to work on their specific goals, with Sevi guiding and supporting the staff in facilitating. We are very excited to see the progress many children have made, whether it be crawling, pushing on the boogie board, walking with a walker, stepping on targets, or side stepping through the ladders. A number of children are now able to perform these tasks with a great deal of independence. Practice definitely makes progress!
Each week we also run regular sessions in music and technology. In these sessions Meagan provides support and training for the staff to offer a range of communication opportunities for the children, as they choose songs, apps, and activities. We are seeing great improvements in the ability of our students to actively communicate their need for ‘more’, ‘same’, ‘different’, and to choose what they would like to do or to tell us they have finished. The level of understanding and meaningful use of Boardmaker as a communication tool is great to see. Many of our children are showing increased skill and independence in their use of switches and IPads.
Boardmaker is also an important part of our weekly cooking sessions. We alternate between sweet and savoury dishes, cooking on a Thursday afternoon and eating the results on Fridays for lunch. We have a dedicated group of exceptional mainstream buddies who
Conductive Education WaikatoWe always seem to be busy and the weeks are
speeding by. Is this a sign that we are delivering a quality service? We hope so. Is it also a sign that the number of families in need of services is increasing? Or, is it that families are more aware that we are an option for service?
Whatever the reason, it has been especially nice to meet new families this term. We have a lovely growing roll of children engaged with us with an additional five families visiting these past two weeks. More community agencies are referring as they become more aware of options. This is an ongoing challenge, with an associated cost for promotion. Our new website nz finally went live this week and we hope that this major financial outlay for our Trust will be beneficial in promoting our service.
Each day we see our children growing and achieving; such a great service to be part of. To view some of our very early achievers, take a look at ‘EarlyArrivalsNZ’ on Facebook com/virag.czibok/videos/10154479116818766/. We were especially thrilled to see a child who attended for an assessment in July initiate walking during the visit — fun, motivation and the depth of staff knowledge to facilitated the next step.
We have had many visitors to our centre this term. Currently we have two Occupational Therapy Students and a Social Worker Student on placement, and a rotation of Media, Medical and Early Intervention Students. This all takes time but it is essential to share information about the importance of Early Intervention for children and families alongside our specific Conductive Education practice. Our Social Work Student, Mhairi, has been out and about learning about the varied services in the Community. It has ben great to have her welcomed by so many people, sharing their valuable time. We look forward to reading her summary of experiences in the early intervention field.
We have also had a few visitors coming to meet us and sharing information about their own services — Enabling Good Lives Team, Epilepsy Waikato, Parent to Parent with a Renew Workshop and the Therapy Team from the Child Development Centre. The more we can engage with other services and clarify their expertise, the more support we can offer our families.
NZFCE have supported our centre to have online access to a specific Assessment Tool. Staff are quite pleased to have this access and once embedded, it will not only make assessment easier and save a few trees, but it will enable our service to collate data for Ministry of Health. We will continue to work on taking other Assessment Tools digital. Thank you NZFCE for supporting this initiative! With parent feedback (hopefully) from our new Parent Portal conductiveeducationwaikato.nz/parent-portal/, we hope to be able to show government departments the many positive outcomes from engaging with our service.
The 2nd September marks 15 Years of service for Zita Menfoi with our Trust. We are very privileged to have staff dedicated to their profession as part of our team. As many will know, Zita is a Conductor and
come to work with us. Together we have been learning about food and nutrition, and building skills in naming and categorising ingredients and equipment, while we learn to follow recipes. We work hard to choose recipes that meet the specialised needs of all our students, and the results have been impressive.
A big thank you to all our team for their unfailing commitment to the welfare and learning of our wonderful group of children. Addington School Conductive Education is a great place to come to every day, filled with busy, happy students and staff.— Astrid Sydow, Associate Principal
a qualified Early Childhood Teacher, and recently, completed training for Hand Assessment and Function. As part of the Early Childhood Curriculum, staff plan ‘Topics’ to support children to learn about the world around them as well as enjoy participation in regular activities in a variety of ways. This term, one Group enjoyed learning about the Olympics. It must be said, that Zita is also a wonderful shopper — this additional skill supported the children to try a myriad of sporting activities including archery and shooting! For a glimpse of the fun, check out the photo montage on our Facebook page facebook.com/ConductiveEducationWaikatoTrust/videos/1271664459535135/
Thank you Zita and team — great effort!Bye for now, Aakuanei, we hope your next few
months are warm and sunny!— The Team at Conductive Education Waikato, Early
Intervention Centre
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
Wellington Conductive Education Early Childhood Centre
It almost goes without saying that the last 9 months has been an extremely busy time at Conductive Education Wellington. We are delighted to have welcomed six preschool and two after-school families to our centre during the year.
We have now a lovely mix of preschool ages, which is
children attend mainstream Kindergarten part-time, spending at least two days a week there, as well as coming to the centre. This is a good combination of learning environments that complement each other. We also have a couple of children that will be delaying their starting date for school so they will be with us until they turn six years old.
Our afterschool programme is running ahead in leaps and bounds. The swimming programme each
the children’s favourite.We are all very
excited on how well our children are progressing with both their gross motor and
have seen several of our children advance with their walking frames and sticks, allowing them to be more independent with their walking.
We continue to improve our physical environment and expand the range of experiences enjoyed by our children. We are into a busy third Term with our preschool and afterschool swimming programme and preschool horse riding, as well as our group and individual music sessions, along with all our other daily activities to support the Conductive and Early Childhood programme.
We have had several outings so far this year with the biggest one being the TriAbility Micro Triathlon that both our preschool and afterschool children took part in. This event has traditionally been for people 11 years and older, however the Hutt Valley Disabled Resources Trust set up a smaller triathlon course for our little ones to take part in (which was more fun focused). This was
an awesome event and we were all so proud of their physical achievements.
We have had two changes to our staffing team since our last update. We said farewell to Paz Martinez our full-time Conductor’s Assistant that left us to head back home to Chile and Fiona Edwards our Centre Administrator who left to set up life in Christchurch. Anna Cseh has now taken the role of Conductor’s Assistant and Karen Garrison has taken the role as Centre Administrator.
We also welcome back Laura Anderson this year. Laura is a student at Victoria University studying Psychology and is hoping to move into paediatric psychology. Laura volunteers her time at the centre on Mondays with our pre-school children.
Byron and Judy continue to volunteer at our Centre and their time is hugely appreciated.
During the term one holidays our staff attended a Poi Making Workshop where we made a number of Poi for our children to use for our Term 2 Focus of music and movement. A big thank you goes out to Tania Piki who
Conductive Education Taranaki Trust
6 7
[Wellington Conductive Education Report continues]
Its been a pretty exciting time for our Trust, going from being a group of parents on a mission to improve their children’s life potential to becoming a registered charitable trust, with a great new Chairperson and a really hard working core group.
Thanks to all our volunteers — huge efforts at the Mad Hatters Tea Party, Car Show, Rugby night, Zumba, Inner Wheel, BBQ’s, cakes, donations of time or money; any involvement. We wouldn’t be where we are without your help.
It has been valuable to have TSB Community Trust support to enable me to dedicate more time through a part-time paid role. As a result of this we have made some progress. We have met with local and central Ministry of Education to get some movement and hopefully buy-in around establishing an Early Intervention programme in Taranaki while at the same time working on incorporating school age delivery. I have also been meeting with the Associate Minister of Health and Jonathan Young who has been helpful and has asked us to submit a proposal for what are wanting to achieve to present to others.
Our focus is to ultimately support children and parents by providing a sustainable option for future generations while maintaining good working relationships with the Ministries of Education and Health and the Taranaki DHB. It
from Conductive Education, so if there is anyone that you can
CE, please encourage them to complete an Expression of
Interest form or get a referral to Wellington or Waikato.Unfortunately Dave Ching the long-time NZFCE
coordinator passed away this year — he was very helpful and visited with us in November 2015. Sally Thomas has taken the reigns with verve and attended two MOE meetings with us and is really helping push our case.
We would like to thank NZ Community Trust for two large branded marquees, Southern Trust for a computer to work with, hopefully Fonterra soon and Vanburwray for a location to work from. A couple of big events are coming up — Victorian Christmas in November then Street Drags in March 2017.
Lastly thank you to the parents that have made the commitment to Conductive Education and are travelling to access programmes — It’s a long road but a good one. Hopefully we can realise the goal of a Taranaki kick-off in 2017.— Craig Nielsen, CETT Coordinator
ran the workshop for us and also made additional Poi to ensure that all of our children received a set.
We held our six monthly Conductive Education Plan (CEP) assessment day in April. It was wonderful to meet with all the families and jointly form plans for their child’s future goals.
We have a couple of Centre projects underway, one being a joint project between us, the Hutt City Council, Rangatahi School and artist Ranga Tuhi where we are all teaming up to fund, design and paint new murals that will cover the front wall of our building. The murals will be designed by Rangatahi School students and the artist, who plan to gather inspiration by researching the past, present and future of Conductive Education and the Naenae community. We also received some money for our fundraising effort through The Warehouse Lower Hutt. This money will go towards upgrading our outdoor/deck area for our children.
We are now looking forward to our upcoming Family Day and an excursion to Te Papa this month.— The Team at Conductive Education Wellington Trust
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
Wellington Conductive Education Early Childhood Centre
It almost goes without saying that the last 9 months has been an extremely busy time at Conductive Education Wellington. We are delighted to have welcomed six preschool and two after-school families to our centre during the year.
We have now a lovely mix of preschool ages, which is
children attend mainstream Kindergarten part-time, spending at least two days a week there, as well as coming to the centre. This is a good combination of learning environments that complement each other. We also have a couple of children that will be delaying their starting date for school so they will be with us until they turn six years old.
Our afterschool programme is running ahead in leaps and bounds. The swimming programme each
the children’s favourite.We are all very
excited on how well our children are progressing with both their gross motor and
have seen several of our children advance with their walking frames and sticks, allowing them to be more independent with their walking.
We continue to improve our physical environment and expand the range of experiences enjoyed by our children. We are into a busy third Term with our preschool and afterschool swimming programme and preschool horse riding, as well as our group and individual music sessions, along with all our other daily activities to support the Conductive and Early Childhood programme.
We have had several outings so far this year with the biggest one being the TriAbility Micro Triathlon that both our preschool and afterschool children took part in. This event has traditionally been for people 11 years and older, however the Hutt Valley Disabled Resources Trust set up a smaller triathlon course for our little ones to take part in (which was more fun focused). This was
an awesome event and we were all so proud of their physical achievements.
We have had two changes to our staffing team since our last update. We said farewell to Paz Martinez our full-time Conductor’s Assistant that left us to head back home to Chile and Fiona Edwards our Centre Administrator who left to set up life in Christchurch. Anna Cseh has now taken the role of Conductor’s Assistant and Karen Garrison has taken the role as Centre Administrator.
We also welcome back Laura Anderson this year. Laura is a student at Victoria University studying Psychology and is hoping to move into paediatric psychology. Laura volunteers her time at the centre on Mondays with our pre-school children.
Byron and Judy continue to volunteer at our Centre and their time is hugely appreciated.
During the term one holidays our staff attended a Poi Making Workshop where we made a number of Poi for our children to use for our Term 2 Focus of music and movement. A big thank you goes out to Tania Piki who
Conductive Education Taranaki Trust
6 7
[Wellington Conductive Education Report continues]
Its been a pretty exciting time for our Trust, going from being a group of parents on a mission to improve their children’s life potential to becoming a registered charitable trust, with a great new Chairperson and a really hard working core group.
Thanks to all our volunteers — huge efforts at the Mad Hatters Tea Party, Car Show, Rugby night, Zumba, Inner Wheel, BBQ’s, cakes, donations of time or money; any involvement. We wouldn’t be where we are without your help.
It has been valuable to have TSB Community Trust support to enable me to dedicate more time through a part-time paid role. As a result of this we have made some progress. We have met with local and central Ministry of Education to get some movement and hopefully buy-in around establishing an Early Intervention programme in Taranaki while at the same time working on incorporating school age delivery. I have also been meeting with the Associate Minister of Health and Jonathan Young who has been helpful and has asked us to submit a proposal for what are wanting to achieve to present to others.
Our focus is to ultimately support children and parents by providing a sustainable option for future generations while maintaining good working relationships with the Ministries of Education and Health and the Taranaki DHB. It
from Conductive Education, so if there is anyone that you can
CE, please encourage them to complete an Expression of
Interest form or get a referral to Wellington or Waikato.Unfortunately Dave Ching the long-time NZFCE
coordinator passed away this year — he was very helpful and visited with us in November 2015. Sally Thomas has taken the reigns with verve and attended two MOE meetings with us and is really helping push our case.
We would like to thank NZ Community Trust for two large branded marquees, Southern Trust for a computer to work with, hopefully Fonterra soon and Vanburwray for a location to work from. A couple of big events are coming up — Victorian Christmas in November then Street Drags in March 2017.
Lastly thank you to the parents that have made the commitment to Conductive Education and are travelling to access programmes — It’s a long road but a good one. Hopefully we can realise the goal of a Taranaki kick-off in 2017.— Craig Nielsen, CETT Coordinator
ran the workshop for us and also made additional Poi to ensure that all of our children received a set.
We held our six monthly Conductive Education Plan (CEP) assessment day in April. It was wonderful to meet with all the families and jointly form plans for their child’s future goals.
We have a couple of Centre projects underway, one being a joint project between us, the Hutt City Council, Rangatahi School and artist Ranga Tuhi where we are all teaming up to fund, design and paint new murals that will cover the front wall of our building. The murals will be designed by Rangatahi School students and the artist, who plan to gather inspiration by researching the past, present and future of Conductive Education and the Naenae community. We also received some money for our fundraising effort through The Warehouse Lower Hutt. This money will go towards upgrading our outdoor/deck area for our children.
We are now looking forward to our upcoming Family Day and an excursion to Te Papa this month.— The Team at Conductive Education Wellington Trust
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 20168 5
Addington School2016 has been a very busy year so far. The children
are well settled into their routines and it is exciting to see the progress they are all making. We are fortunate to have a very dedicated and experienced group of staff who know the children well.
Our conductor, Sevi, teachers Sam and Astrid, and SLT Meagan, are working collaboratively to plan and implement the programmes. This is allowing us to provide learning that targets both group and individual needs.
Each morning, the children transition from their classroom to the programme room, following our karakia and shared news session. The next part of the
programme, or hand tasks, in this order from Monday to Thursday. Often on a Friday we will have a Fun Friday activity such as bowling, balloon tennis, or a tug of war.
The movement from room to room is an integral part of the programme and allows opportunities for each child to work on their specific goals, with Sevi guiding and supporting the staff in facilitating. We are very excited to see the progress many children have made, whether it be crawling, pushing on the boogie board, walking with a walker, stepping on targets, or side stepping through the ladders. A number of children are now able to perform these tasks with a great deal of independence. Practice definitely makes progress!
Each week we also run regular sessions in music and technology. In these sessions Meagan provides support and training for the staff to offer a range of communication opportunities for the children, as they choose songs, apps, and activities. We are seeing great improvements in the ability of our students to actively communicate their need for ‘more’, ‘same’, ‘different’, and to choose what they would like to do or to tell us they have finished. The level of understanding and meaningful use of Boardmaker as a communication tool is great to see. Many of our children are showing increased skill and independence in their use of switches and IPads.
Boardmaker is also an important part of our weekly cooking sessions. We alternate between sweet and savoury dishes, cooking on a Thursday afternoon and eating the results on Fridays for lunch. We have a dedicated group of exceptional mainstream buddies who
Conductive Education WaikatoWe always seem to be busy and the weeks are
speeding by. Is this a sign that we are delivering a quality service? We hope so. Is it also a sign that the number of families in need of services is increasing? Or, is it that families are more aware that we are an option for service?
Whatever the reason, it has been especially nice to meet new families this term. We have a lovely growing roll of children engaged with us with an additional five families visiting these past two weeks. More community agencies are referring as they become more aware of options. This is an ongoing challenge, with an associated cost for promotion. Our new website nz finally went live this week and we hope that this major financial outlay for our Trust will be beneficial in promoting our service.
Each day we see our children growing and achieving; such a great service to be part of. To view some of our very early achievers, take a look at ‘EarlyArrivalsNZ’ on Facebook com/virag.czibok/videos/10154479116818766/. We were especially thrilled to see a child who attended for an assessment in July initiate walking during the visit — fun, motivation and the depth of staff knowledge to facilitated the next step.
We have had many visitors to our centre this term. Currently we have two Occupational Therapy Students and a Social Worker Student on placement, and a rotation of Media, Medical and Early Intervention Students. This all takes time but it is essential to share information about the importance of Early Intervention for children and families alongside our specific Conductive Education practice. Our Social Work Student, Mhairi, has been out and about learning about the varied services in the Community. It has ben great to have her welcomed by so many people, sharing their valuable time. We look forward to reading her summary of experiences in the early intervention field.
We have also had a few visitors coming to meet us and sharing information about their own services — Enabling Good Lives Team, Epilepsy Waikato, Parent to Parent with a Renew Workshop and the Therapy Team from the Child Development Centre. The more we can engage with other services and clarify their expertise, the more support we can offer our families.
NZFCE have supported our centre to have online access to a specific Assessment Tool. Staff are quite pleased to have this access and once embedded, it will not only make assessment easier and save a few trees, but it will enable our service to collate data for Ministry of Health. We will continue to work on taking other Assessment Tools digital. Thank you NZFCE for supporting this initiative! With parent feedback (hopefully) from our new Parent Portal conductiveeducationwaikato.nz/parent-portal/, we hope to be able to show government departments the many positive outcomes from engaging with our service.
The 2nd September marks 15 Years of service for Zita Menfoi with our Trust. We are very privileged to have staff dedicated to their profession as part of our team. As many will know, Zita is a Conductor and
come to work with us. Together we have been learning about food and nutrition, and building skills in naming and categorising ingredients and equipment, while we learn to follow recipes. We work hard to choose recipes that meet the specialised needs of all our students, and the results have been impressive.
A big thank you to all our team for their unfailing commitment to the welfare and learning of our wonderful group of children. Addington School Conductive Education is a great place to come to every day, filled with busy, happy students and staff.— Astrid Sydow, Associate Principal
a qualified Early Childhood Teacher, and recently, completed training for Hand Assessment and Function. As part of the Early Childhood Curriculum, staff plan ‘Topics’ to support children to learn about the world around them as well as enjoy participation in regular activities in a variety of ways. This term, one Group enjoyed learning about the Olympics. It must be said, that Zita is also a wonderful shopper — this additional skill supported the children to try a myriad of sporting activities including archery and shooting! For a glimpse of the fun, check out the photo montage on our Facebook page facebook.com/ConductiveEducationWaikatoTrust/videos/1271664459535135/
Thank you Zita and team — great effort!Bye for now, Aakuanei, we hope your next few
months are warm and sunny!— The Team at Conductive Education Waikato, Early
Intervention Centre
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GlowkidsKia Ora,
I would like to share a bit of background info about us. GlowKids is a parent led Charitable Trust established
intensive, specialist programmes for children who have physical and or sensory disabilities. We are a NZ Ministry of Health contracted service provider and Ministry of Education licensed Early Childhood Centre providing a warm and friendly learning environment for children.
Occupational Therapist, Early Childhood Teachers, Social Worker, Early Intervention Teacher and trained support staff. We deliver a comprehensive programme that is focused on the needs of the whole child and is responsive to the aspirations of the child’s whanau/family. Our vision is for “every child to reach their greatest potential”.
Like other Conductive Education centres we are always trying to increase our numbers, and recently saw an increase across the centre. We have also seen an increase in enquiries which has been fantastic as it lets us know that people are aware of who we are.
We have a variety of ethnicities at Glowkids and recently held a cultural day to celebrate our different cultures. It was so good to see some of our children dressed in their cultural dress, some of the staff also joined in. The sharing of food is such a good way to come together and share amongst each other.
Last year we saw the need for a Sensory Kindergarten for children on the Autism Spectrum, the class is small (6) and has a high adult/child ratio, this class is led by a ECE/OT and is currently fully subscribed at present with a waiting list. We have other professionals that visit the class on a regular basis, to seek strategies that they too can implement in the mainstream environment. It is rewarding to see the children progress towards their goals.
We are constantly looking at ways to improve our service and as part of this we have regular meetings with families to discuss their individual goals for their children. We believe that by encouraging other professionals to visit our centre we can collaboratively work together to achieve these goals. This is integral to the Conductive Education philosophy.Ka kite anoSonya Sinclair & the staff of Glowkids
Woodstock Conductive EducationIn Term 2 and Term 3 our students took active part
in the outer community. In Term 2 the music society competition we participated in was greatly enjoyed. We won 2nd place this year which was fantastic, our students were excited to be performing again. We have been a part of this competition for several years, so it’s wonderful to be part of it and build our music knowledge.
During Term 3 we are now preparing to present a drama piece to parents and friends, including the Conductive Education Early Child Centre students.
Conductive Education CanterburyWell here we are in the middle of Spring! Life at
Conductive Education Canterbury has been very busy with over 27 children accessing our service now, through our Early Intervention and Early Childhood programmes and our Afterschool “Boot Camp” class.
Conductive Education Canterbury is a continually evolving service and we are very fortunate to have such
who encourage and adapt as the Disability and Education sectors change.
Some of the recent additions to our service that we are
After School programme “Boot Camp”
This has now been running for 12 months and Dora holds two classes a week during term time. It is fantastic to see the children and young people returning to Conductive Education and re-establishing some old friendships — the class is as much about staying active as it is about the social aspect of the children/young people being with their peers. Infant Massage
Nichola our Early Intervention Teacher is a trained Infant
We all have some nervous feelings about being on stage but we were very hopeful that the “three little pigs” will behave and the “wolf” will become kind in the end! Every actor is enjoying their role in our drama, and we’ll send some photos of the performance in the next news update.
All our eight students are very different with their physical abilities, movements, speech and behaviours. But as we know, everybody likes to step forward and show their talents to their family and friends, it’s a great achievement. We wish the best for our wonderful students and our supporters in their further endeavours.— Livia Jeanplong
Massage Instructor and all new families to Conductive Education Canterbury are now offered the 5 week programme. This allows some of the families to reconnect and establish new routines to incorporate into their daily lives with their babies after the stress of spending the start of their babies lives in the Neonatal units.Babies Music and Movement Class
This class has been established this year to meet the needs of a particular group of young babies and their mothers — The whole team is involved in this group so the families get to spend time with our Conductor Dora, Speech Language Therapist Kay and Nichola and Hannah our Early Intervention Teachers as well as myself offering support and pointing them in the direction of resources and other services where necessary. The session focuses on a range of developmental areas such as social, communication,
is wonderful to see the families forming natural supports and lifelong relationships with each other as many of our Conductive Education families do.
We look forward to the warmer weather and celebrations that term 4 always bring.— Rebecca Courtney, Manager
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
cupcakes and on the 15th August the students and staff spent the morning decorating them all as beautifully as they could and then they sold them to our school community. Marta Katona had organised a Hungarian pastry chef, Aniko to join us and she taught us how to decorate all the cupcakes. All the students were very proud of their efforts and they certainly created some beautiful cupcakes. We raised $468.70 for the SPCA. All the students enjoyed this day and as we have adopted our own rabbit (Ralph) from the SPCA, our students are aware that there are lots of animals in the community who need help so they were excited to be able to help such a worthy organisation. This made everybody feel really good. We had so much fun I am sure we will do it again. Boccia Championships
Once again we were the host school for the Secondary School Boccia Championships on 29th August 2016, organised and run by the Halberg Disability Sports Foundation. This year twenty two students from six different Canterbury secondary schools competed. Conductive Education students from Cashmere have been practicing in their lunch breaks for the past four weeks and we got some pleasing results. With the Paralympics in Rio it is a nice reminder of how wonderful it is to see students participating in a competitive sport such as Boccia.— The Team at Cashmere High School’s Conductive Education Unit
10 3
Cashmere High School Conductive Education
We are enjoying a busy and productive term three at Te Pukenga – Conductive Education, Cashmere High School
We would like to share with you some of our highlights from this school term.School Formal
Cashmere High School held its school formal on Friday 5th August. This event is looked forward to for months from all the students with all its glitz and glamour and photo taking. This year three students from Conductive Education attended this exciting night at Wigram Airbase. The students who attended were Charlie Loffhagen, Kirsteen Reid and Kayla Simpson. The theme for this year was “It’s a Carnival”. Our students were supported by our two conductors, Marta Katona and Agnes Jankovics, who commented that “the night was a great success and the students can’t wait for next year”.SPCA Cupcake Fundraising Day
This year the staff and students decided that they would like to support the SPCA by becoming involved in the cupcake fundraising event that the SPCA hold annually. So we all got busy and made lots and lots of
FR
OM
TH
E C
EN
TR
ES INRF
We’ve been busy at the Integrated Neurological Rehabilitation Foundation in Auckland. Since January 2016, twenty new attendees have commenced, taking us up to 105 clients.
2 Senior Conductors (as at December 2015) to a total of seven staff, including 1 new Conductor, 2 part-time Rehabilitation Assistants and a part-time Administrator.
Referrals from the MS Society, Parkinson’s Auckland and the Stroke Foundation continue. As always, word of mouth remains a very important referral source for our organisation.
Our new clients have integrated well into our
of our holistic approach and the value of an
encouraging environment that motivates them to move forward.
An Open Day hosted in May was well received by clients and professionals. The client presentations delivered were exceptional. Introductions to health professionals were made and opportunities established.
The local RSA was the venue for our Mid-Winter Christmas. A pre-lim to the end of year celebrations. Mixing and mingling allowed clients to meet people from different programs who attend on alternative days. Fun and frivolity was shared by all.
We’re grateful for the support of an active Board of Trustees. Currently a Strategic Plan focussing on operational stability and growth is underway and a rebranding exercise should be in place by year end.—Inna Chochina
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016 11
ACETOur organisation and programmes continue to grow
with 4 sessions currently running and a waiting list of clients looking for a range of different classes. Our clients are maintaining their range of movements, strengthening their bodies and minds all the while in a supportive environment in their local community with others that they have developed lifelong friendships with.
We are excited to have new Trustees to the Board following our meeting in August. Our current board is made up of Debra Davies, Lynda Vining, Lilan Weerasinghe, Kathyrn Bowler, Sue Brennock, Tyler Lamont, Sally Thomas and myself, all of whom bring a range of knowledge and experience. I would like
Naenae School Conductive Education
Room 7 had a busy Term 3. We had our School Concert at the end of term and we
did a lot of preparation for that.The concert’s theme was Countries and we choose to
perform an item on Spain. We were the opening item of the night.
Levai, the Matador received a round of applause as well as the smiling Daemon, who played the bull in the play.
Keeleigh, Misty and Renee’s dance was also a huge success. Paulini did a great job sitting up on the stage and helping the dancers with their instruments. David played guitar music for the afternoon show.
Tracey did a lots of work with the girl’s skirts, and they looked stunning on the night.
We also involved the parents making the matador’s
Lauris, Ebonie, Matile and her parents.
years ago — although I must say it makes me feel very old! I have witnessed the evolution of Conductive Education in New Zealand during this time and have been impressed by the diversity of programmes offered to meet the needs of people with disabilities and their families and the forward thinking of our centres. Alex is in his second term of the adult programme operating in Christchurch and is delighted to be back “working out” and socialising.
It has been a busy six months in the job and has been fantastic to have the opportunity to connect with centres throughout the country. There is lots of a good work happening.
A Good Start in Life I was nominated to be on the Reference Group for this
joint Ministry of Education / Ministry of Health project which is focused on improving supports for parents, family and whanau with disabled children in the 0-8 age range. It is early days but it will be wonderful to see Ministries working together and creating a system that is easy for families to access. At our last meeting the reference group which has representation from across the sector including a number of parents, did some “blue skies” thinking and some great ideas came forward. Let’s hope that these can be further developed. Exciting times!
Social EnterpriseI have been attending a social enterprise course which
has been the best PD I have ever been on. Social enterprise is a way of developing alternative funding streams for a social purpose. NZ Foundation for Conductive Education has been very fortunate to be well supported by our funders over many years — we couldn’t carry on our work without their generosity. As a result of the course NZFCE are looking to establish a social enterprise, while at the same time
used to enhance what NZFCE provides. Watch this space!!
INRF Open DayI was fortunate to go to Auckland to this open day as
outlined in Inna’s report opposite. It was fantastic to see the facility that was on the drawing board when I was last involved with Conductive Education and to connect with staff and board members. INRF have been supporting adults with disabilities over a long period of time and it is interesting to see that other centres are now taking their lead.
Coffee Catch-ups
Christchurch and this is now to be a regular monthly event — alternating between day and evening opportunities so that everyone has a chance to come. This is a great way of connecting with new people and gathering information. I would be interested to know if families in other regions would like to have Conductive Education social gatherings? I would be happy to help start something up in your region, so please get in touch.
FacebookDid you know we have a Facebook Page? Check us out
at www.facebook.com/NZFCE/
New Logo and WebsiteWe are delighted to have launched our new logo and
website recently with our Patron Wayne Smith and our Ambassadors Chris Harris and Laura McGoldrick joining us. We would appreciate your feedback on the new website
information. The website will evolve over time as we want people to use it as a resource for information. NZFCE are wanting to develop the stories section as we know that actual accounts of people’s lives really give those that don’t know a lot about Conductive Education a good overview of what is offered. Visit www.conductive-education.org.nz
A big thank you to Antoinette Baker for her wonderful photography, Sampatico and Zoom Group for the design and Linda Harris for all her hard work to pull this together.
to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved and welcome our new Trustees.
Due to restrictions with premises and funding we are currently at capacity and the Board are continuing to look into options for new premises and ways to continue to support our clients and expand our service. If anyone has any suggestions for future proofing or fundraising, please contact us at [email protected] We would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters, The Lottery Community, The Rata Foundation, COGS, and the Christchurch City Council. Without their contributions we would be unable to run our weekly programmes.
We currently have two fundraising events underway. If anyone would like to purchase gladwrap, tin foil or baking paper we have catering sized boxes available. On Monday 17th October we have a pizza evening at Winnie Bagoes City occurring. Check out our Facebook page Adult-Conductive-Education-Trust-373710639446037/events for more details. We are also involved in the annual charity golf day taking place in April 2017 for the four CE centres in Christchurch. If you would like further information about this great event, please email [email protected] —Camille Ross, Chairperson ACET
MAXIMISING THE ABILITY IN DISABILITY
NZ FOUNDATION FOR CONDUCTIVE EDUCATIONOUR MAJOR SUPPORTERS
Wellington Conductive Education
Early Childhood Centre
(pre-school children)PO Box 35 078, Naenae 5041Ph: 04 577 3480 Fax: 04 577 3480Email: [email protected]: www.cewellington.org.nz
Naenae Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)Wheatley Street, Naenae, WellingtonPh: 04 567 8117 Fax: 04 567 8771Email: [email protected]: www.naenae-primary.school.nz
Conductive Education Taranaki Trust PO Box 3150, Fitzroy, New PlymouthPh: 021 130 5797Email: [email protected]
Conductive Education Waikato
Trust Early Intervention Unit
(pre-school children)
Chartwell Square, Hamilton 3248Ph: 07 855 7013 Fax: 07 855 7014Email: [email protected]: www.cewaikato.org.nz
Woodstock Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)
Ph: 07 855 6686 Fax: 07 853 7056Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.woodstock.school.nz
GlowKids
13 Coyle Street, P.0. Box 16291Sandringham, Auckland 1351Ph: 09 845 8070Email: [email protected]: www.glowkids.org.nz
Integrated Neurological
Rehabilitation Foundation (iNRF)
(Conductive Education for adults)2 Claude Brookes Drive, HendersonPO Box 21 504, AucklandPh: 09 836 6830Email: [email protected]: www.inrf.org.nz
N.Z. Foundation for Conductive
Education (NZFCE)
Chairperson Trudy HeathNational Coordinator Sally ThomasP.0. Box 9230, Tower Junction22 Brougham Street, Christchurch, 8024Ph: 0800 169 323 or 0277 169 323Email: [email protected]: www.conductive-education.org.nzFacebook: www.facebook.com/NZFCE/
N.Z. Conductors’ Association (NZCA)
President Virag CzibokPhone 07 855 7013 Email: [email protected]
Addington Primary School
Conductive Education
(primary school children)22 Brougham Street, ChristchurchPh: 03 366 2909 Fax: 03 365 8940Email: [email protected] [email protected]: www.addington.school.nz/conductive.htm
Conductive Education Canterbury
Early Intervention Unit
(pre-school children)22 Brougham Street, ChristchurchPO Box 9230, Tower JunctionPh: 03 372 1399 Fax: 03 372 1499Email: [email protected]: www.cecanterbury.org
Cashmere High School
Conductive Education
(secondary school aged students)
Ph: 03 332 9129 Fax: 03 332 9126Email: [email protected]: www.cashmere.school.nz
Adult Conductive Education Trust
(ACET) Christchurch
(Conductive Education for adults)P.O. Box 29650, Fendalton, ChristchurchPh: 03 372 1399Email: [email protected]
Supported by:
OCTOBER 2016 • NZFCE NEWSLETTER NZFCE NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2016
P.O. Box 9230 Tower Junction, Christchurch • Phone 0800 169 323 or 0277 169 323
Web: www.conductive-education.org.nz • Email: [email protected]
MAXIMISING THE ABILITY IN DISABILITY
12
I commenced in the role of National Coordinator in April — a very bitter sweet appointment. I am delighted to be back involved with Conductive Education after a long break, but very sad that the reason for my appointment was due to Dave Ching’s health issues and passing in May. Dave had done a stunning job of moving the NZ Foundation for Conductive Education forward over a long
period of time and is greatly missed by us all.I became involved with Conductive Education through
my son Alex, who is now almost 29! We, like many families in the late 1980’s saw the “Standing up for Joe” documentary and had the pleasure of meeting Gail Edgecumbe who had taken her daughter Holly to the Peto Institute. We were desperate to get Conductive Education to Christchurch and I was very involved in the establishment of all of the facilities
greatly from this, so when I look back I know that my investment was a very good one. In 1997 I took over the role of Manager at Conductive Education Canterbury — a position I held for 10 years. Since this time I have had various roles in the disability sector working in the area of transition from school to adult life and adult services. This has given me a clear vision of what is important for young people — life skills and social skills are right up there. These are key elements of Conductive Education amongst other skill development and as a result I know our programmes provide a good foundation for the future.
It is wonderful to be connecting with young people who were part of the pre-school programme more than ten
From the National Coordinator, Sally Thomas