Befriending

The West Cumbria Dyslexia Association holds regular Befriending sessions with two trained Befrienders.

It is held at Lakes College West Cumbria on the first Tuesday of each month during term time.

We meet in the College Learning Resouce Centre from 5-30 p.m. to 6-30 p.m.

We hold these sessions to try to help parents who are worried about their children's progress, and wonder if their child might have specific learning difficulties, and if so what should they do to help. Sometimes they feel the school is not recognising the problem, leaving them very anxious. We have had parents who are wary of school but will make an appointment to see the teacher in the first place if we can suggest questions to be asked. As the Befrienders have dyslexic children and have had a considerable amount of experience in dealing with both schools and the Local Education Authority, they are able to empathise with parents' anxieties and difficulties.

Sometimes communication has broken down completely and parents need help to take the case to Tribunal. This is very much a last resort, and we usually try to inform parents of their entitlements according to the Special Needs Code of Practice, and the kind of help available in schools so that they can ask for the help needed.

Last year 25 families used our befriender sessions. Most were able to use their increased knowledge of special education provision to sort things out in school. Three families went ahead with an appeal against an LEA decision, of these the LEA reversed its decision in two cases before Tribunal and in the other case the Tribunal directed that a Statutory Assessment which had been refused should be done.

In short we try to use our experience to help parents not to waste time and to get appropriate help for their child before the child falls too far behind. So if you need a listening ear, come along to one of our surgeries and we shall try to help.

The Surgeries are drop-in sessions and although we try to talk with parents individually this is easier to arrange if we know who is coming.

Contact number for Befriender sessions is 019467 25492.

Last year the sessions were well attended and our Befrienders were kept busy with at least two families per session. If it is not possible to attend a session you can still have a chat and obtain information on the phone at this time. The Lakes College number is 01946 839300.

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West Cumbria Dyslexia Association: Contact Doris Pearce 07863 329747

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