Happy Christmas from Saplings Rathfarnham

Saplings Rathfarnham would like to say a huge Happy Christmas to all our friends, family, staff and supporters.
It has been a busy year with many changes and challenges but we are continuing on and want to keep providing the best evidence based education for our children possible.
We would like to thank everyone who supported our fundraising efforts this year and wish you all a safe and successful 2012.

Santa Claus is Comin'

Christmas time can be a tricky time of the year for kids with Autism. There are a lot of expectations and it can be hard for families to find a middle ground between inclusion and not overwhelming their kids.

One of the ways that a school like Saplings helps our children; is to get them used to things gradually in a safe and controlled environment. This applies to many events that a typical child would take for granted. 

Activities such as going shopping, getting a haircut, going to the dentist or doctor or visiting Santa can be introduced with social stories, picture schedules and a "practice run" in the school. And the fellow who sets up these practice runs is our wonderful Occupational Therapist; JoJo.

Saplings parents association decided long ago that they were not going to wait for the health board to get around to sending an occupational therapist to our school so we fundraise all year round to make sure our kids get the access to this valuable service that they deserve.

All the cards are on sale at Project 51, an Irish design collective which can be found at

 51 South William Street, Dublin 2, 

 right behind the Powerscourt Townhouse).

Saplings Needs You! (and your old mobile phone)

Irish Autism Action (IAA) is an umbrella body currently representing parent groups, support groups and schools like Saplings. IAA in partnership with BPI Ireland are offering to supply assistive technology in return for the collection of old mobile phones.

If we can collect:

 
  85 phones   – Apple iTouch (with camera) and Grace App.
  100 phones – 15” Laptop
  300 phones – Interactive White Board (Installation, training, support at schools expense)
  500 phones – Interactive White Board, including full installation, training, support and warranty

To date, over 13 million mobile phones have been sold in Ireland, which means there are at least 3 or 4 old phones rattling around in cupboards and drawers throughout the country! They do not need to be working or even in one piece. BPI will recycle them and extract the precious metal for making more phones.

If you have old phones - please call, email or drop them in to:

Saplings Rathfarnham, St Mary's Convent, Ballyroan Crescent, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

Email: saplingsrathfarnham@saplings.org 

Telephone: (01) 4951620

Charity Fundraiser for Saplings School for Children with Autism (Rathfarnham)

Charity Fundraiser for Saplings School for Children with Autism (Rathfarnham).

SAPLINGS School for Children with Autism is proud to announce their charity fundraiser featuring a host of talented and fresh Irish bands, including The Gorgeous Colours, Attention Bébé, Oddsocks Revival and Thousandaires.

What Saplings does:

SAPLINGS is an independent not-for-profit registered charity which provides intensive, much needed one-to-one teaching for children with autism using the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis.

Due to increasing budget cuts, schools like Saplings need all the help they can get to provide their pupils with the resources and materials needed to maintain the high standard of education and life-skills training they provide.

This fundraiser aims to raise money to provide the school with much needed resources and materials

Where, when, how much:

The gig will take place in the Button Factory on Saturday April 9^th from 7.30pm until late. Tickets will cost €20, and are available from Tickets.ie, with a limited number on the door on the night.

Who’s playing?

The Gorgeous Colours:

Their Creatures Down Below EP – their first release since their eponymous debut album in 2008, which was described by State magazine as “one of the finest Irish pop albums for some time…a quite remarkable debut” - was funded by their fans through an online pledge campaign. The video for the title track recently won the Viewer's Choice Award for best video at the IMTV awards.

Bandcamp: http://thegorgeouscolours.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheGorgeousColours

Blog: http://thegorgeouscolours.blogspot.com/

 

Attention Bébé:

Attention Bebe are a gargantuan band that love to play 90s dance tunes and ‘90s chart music. They like to raise the roof, pass the parcel and party. They have played The Electric Picnic and have a regular night in Crawdaddy.

www.myspace.com/attentionbebe if you want to hear some tunes and remember how great the 90s were.

Oddsocks Revival:

one of the most exciting live acts to hit the Irish music scene are bringing their epic live performance to Europe this March. They have also just finished recording their eagerly anticipated debut album, which is due for release at Easter. The Debut Single “Right On” is out on April 15th and it will bring their unique blend of funk rock to the airwaves of the masses. These Sligo natives have been touring Ireland constantly since April 2010. Oddsocks Revival have toured and performed with the infamous Alabama 3 and just recently jammed with Tommy Ramone at one of their legendary after parties. On this tour the band will be doing three London shows; Joining Primal Scream in Brixton, Alabama 3 at their request and fellow Irish band The Rubberbandits.

www.myspace.com/oddsocksrevival

Thousandaires:

Thousandaires are a young Dublin Based four piece beginning work on their first EP for release in Spring 2011.

http://www.myspace.com/thousandairesireland

 

In addition to the bands above, there will be a raffle on the night with fantastic prizes!! We hope you come and enjoy the show.

Contact us: saplingsfundraiser@hotmail.com

Saplings, Providing a Unique Education for Children with Autism

With thanks to The Ireland Funds - we present The Saplings Rathfarnham Connect Magazine. 

Click on the images to enlarge.

 

Click on the images to enlarge them.

All the beautiful photographs by Aengus McMahon Photography. Aengus was fantastic with the kids and as you can see did beautiful work.  Please contact him at aengus@mcmphoto.com

Christmas Morning Jump in the 40 foot!

A group of us hardy parents and friends are doing the Christmas morning jump into the 40 foot to raise what we can for Sapling School for Children with Autism Rathfarnham.

If you would like to take part please contact fortyfootjump@gmail.com

We will do our best to accomodate people with lifts etc and hot drinks & snacks will be on hand!

If you don't want to brave the nippy water you could perhaps donate to our MyCharity page where all funds will go directly to Saplings Rathfarnham's ongoing commitment to hands on evidence based education for children with severe autism.

Then come along and cheer us on!

Saplings is registered charity CHY14453 and we have permission from the school for this event.

Thanks so much

How our School Works - Part 1 Supervision and Planning

Jojo the OT presenting a medal, Susan the Supervisor, Grace Domican and her tutor Joanne on Sports Day, Friday 23rd July 2010.

As the mother of 2 kids of with very high needs, I am uniquely placed to appreciate the benefits of quality supervision in Saplings Rathfarnham.

The Supervisor, Director of Education and Senior Tutor in each classroom all work to plan and then implement agreed goals in liaison with our family.

Having a high level of supervision means that our kids individual needs are catered for in planning and constant measurement of results.

I have also found that where a problem existed only in the home environment, the Supervisors and Director have been very accessible in helping me understand and assess the key issues - with home visits, in school meetings and support in measuring the behaviour.

And then ultimately in creating a clearly agreed behaviour plan with practical supports to overcome the issues.

Communication within the school is consistent and I find that this supports the reduction of inappropriate behaviours while of course reinforcing those we want to improve.

The Supervisors, Senior Tutors and Director have also been a great source of moral support during the various difficulties we have had with the kids - which makes a huge difference to quality of life.

I also think they fundamentally believe in the potential of all our kids and it is a relief to be amongst people who think there is no problem or issue that cannot be solved - they just need to change the lesson - not the Learner!

And where possible they seek to incorporate the recommendations of key therapeutic staff, like our full time Occupational Therapist Jojo.

Jojo works year round in the school to support each individual child's well being through hands on physical therapy, and group activities like the weekly social role-play. (more about that next week)

However, for the last few weeks of term, Jojo was busy training everyone for the annual Sports day. It is a wonderful chance for parents to visit the school and watch their kids take part in games and races.

And of course - prizes!

Senior Tutor Tony supervises the scoreboard while Jojo presents a medal to Liam Domican