About us

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN : FRIDAYS (TERMTIME)

We run weekly Speech and Language Therapy groups. We have two SLT therapists, Beth Davies and Sandra Redman. The groups (except the older babies SLT group who see Sandra at 1pm) alternate between the two teachers. There is a maximum number of six children per group, as we place an emphasis on learning in small groups. Age-appropriate groups currently start at 10am, 11am and 1pm. Our therapists decide which group a child will go into and their decision is final. Here’s a sample of some of our sessions:

We have also delivered occupational therapy sessions in the past to help children with sensory processing difficulties and are currently fundraising to complement SLT sessions with OT.

SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN : SATURDAYS (TERMTIME)

We started our sessions for school age children in May 2010, originally running groups for 3 hours from 9.30 to 12.30 in a similar format to the Friday groups. Having the group established at Rollercoasters Play Centre in Camden allowed us to introduce additional activities to encourage communication, friendship and independence. Since April 2011, we have been able to run our Saturday sessions using the outstanding facilities at Golden Lane Children’s Centre.

HISTORY

Downright Excellent began as a small group in a living room in Haringey, started by Suzanne Williams who worked with young children with additional needs. Suzanne had been on training run by the Down Syndrome Educational Trust (DownsEd) and wanted to put their research into practice. She moved jobs to Surestart in Islington- who in May 2006 contributed £2000 for a pilot project – and Downright Excellent was off. Suzanne ran the Speech and Language groups for children age 0-4 with Downs Syndrome. We started to employ Dee Hotonu as our Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) in November 2006, freeing Suzanne to work with our families in the stay and play. We registered as a limited company and then as registered charity in September 2007. Our administration and organising was originally done by parents, but is now mainly run by a Board which includes parent trustees. With advice and support from local organisations, we submitted a number of successful funding applications and money started to come in just in time to prevent the group folding.

As a charity, we are continually fundraising. Parents and friends run marathons for us, we receive generous donations and we produce Christmas Cards and other items for sale. Our parents are a constant source of inventive schemes for combining fundraising with family fun days – for example, our annual sponsored walk on Hampstead Heath, which has been a great success two years running.

DownsEd came to observe and assess our group in February 2008. They made various recommendations, all of which we were able to implement immediately thanks to the arrival of our second Speech and Language Therapist Sandra Redman. Sandra is also the parent of a boy with Downs Syndrome. DownsEd have said to parents enquiring about bringing a child to their lessons that it is not necessary to make the trip to Portsmouth as Downright Excellent is covering the same material to the same standard. We are proud of the external recognition which we receive even as a small and growing group.

We have occupied three different premises since 2006. We started out in St George’s Church Hall, moved to Willow Children’s Centre, and are now extremely happy to be in the wonderful Golden Lane Children’s Centre at Barbican. We are grateful to everyone at Golden Lane for the use of their lovely stay and play facilities, outside space and the rooms we use for teaching. We also thank the Richard Cloudesley Special School at Golden Lane for allowing us to use their state of the art physio room.

Up to sixty families are registered with Downright Excellent and we remain in contact with others who have moved away from London.

We run a small lending library of specialist dvds, books and publications that parents can borrow and return.

We are fortunate in having the expertise of two consultants, Ann Reynard and Angela Noonan, who were central to setting up the Primary School age children’s Saturday sessions. Ann and Angela are also helping us to improve our systems and governance. With the expansion of our group and with an eye on the exciting times ahead, we have taken on two new volunteer Trustees – Debbie Allen, our Chair and Company Secretary, and Lucy Lloyd-Scott, a parent Trustee. We are seeking a Treasurer to keep the financial aspects of the organisation sound and complement the sterling work done by Angela Noonan.

Our official charitable aims are to help children with Downs Syndrome in London to develop their life skills so they may reach their full potential as individuals and equally participating members of society through, especially but not exclusively:

• educational programmes
• quality play
• education and support for parents
• education and support for siblings