Education

Graduation

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Congratulations to the wonderful students from our Athboy class who graduated recently.

Aimee, Ann-Marie, Cara, Cathal, Deirdre, Dualta, Eileen, Eleanor, Emily,Fintan, Joan, Liam, Katie, Michelle, Monica, Teresa and Tomás graduated from a mixof four courses – Latch-On Literacy and Technology, MOTE My Opinion My Vote,Work Skills and Personal Development.

Athboy Graduation Class 2022

They were joined by proud families, friends, teachers and DSI branch and national representatives for a lovely celebration ceremony in the Darnley Lodge Hotel, Athboy.

The Athboy class started out in September 2016 with 10 students for a two-year Latch-On programme. After an enjoyable and worthwhile two years, and with 8 morestudents joining, the class continued to work through DSI’s adult education modules.With the programme extended due to Covid, all modules were completed in March2022.

Athboy Class Graduation

The Louth Meath branch was delighted to have such a fantastic group of students. We look forward to seeing them move on, building on the skills and friendships that havebeen developed over the six years of the programme.

Fun With Numbers

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“Fun with Numbers” has starting up again.

We run “Fun with Numbers” Sessions each week.  There are 2 sessions per week on Mondays and Thursdays.
We are starting again on Monday 13th and Thursday 16th of September.

We have set up the following age groupings however if your child’s age falls outside these categories we will still try to accommodate.
Junior Group Ages   8-11 – 4pm Mondays
Senior Group Ages 12 and up – 5.30pm Thursdays

The thought is that Deirdre will target older children on a Thursday and younger children on a Monday, however all children are welcome to participate in either or both sessions each week if you think the content is suitable.


Down Syndrome Louth Meath will cover the cost of the sessions, so there will be no cost to parents for these sessions. The Sessions will run during the school terms as long as there is interest.

The students will need some materials ahead of the sessions, but Deirdre will let you know ahead of time what will be needed – it will all be inexpensive stuff that you may already have or can recycle around the house or will be able to get in the likes of Dealz. Deirdre will  also send links for printable materials, should any member not have access to a printer please contact us immediately when Deirdre posts links to printables and we can arrange to have them posted to you.

We have set up a WhatsApp group for each age group, so that Deirdre can fill you in on what materials are needed and send you the Zoom ID and password.  Deirdre posts a video each week explaining about materials required.

Please let me know if you would like your child to take part (if you have taken part before there is no need to register again). 
I will need the following details by return of email as soon as possible.

Child Name:Parents name and telephone number for WhatsApp Group:
Child’s age:Email Address:

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Online Adult Learning Opportunities for Summer 2021

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Down Syndrome Ireland Louth Meath Branch in conjunction with the LMETB are offering online Art & Crafts Classes and online Cookery Classes to our Adult members.


Art & Craft Classes start  AUG 4/5TH and the Cookery Classes will be starting soon.  


To book places, please contact: Mike Egan mike@downsyndrome.ie or 085 8618866.

Online Adult Learning Opportunities Spring 2021

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Online Adult Learning Opportunities Spring 2021 from Louth and Meath Education and Training Board and Down Syndrome Louth Meath Branch.

ONLINE COOKERY CLASSES & ONLINE COMPUTER SKILLS CLASSES

The Cookery Classes start April 15th 2021.

The Computer Classes are starting soon.

To book places, please contact: Mike Egan by email mike@downsyndrome.ie or Phone 085.8618866.

Fun With Numbers

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Fun with Numbers is a fun way of working with numbers through games and creative learning aids. It is a light-hearted way of learning basic number skills like counting, adding, and subtraction, incorporating concepts of division and multiplication. Fun with Numbers presents opportunities for using life skills like following a recipe using measurements and time, along with planning journeys and using money.

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We have set up the following age groupings however if your child’s age falls outside these categories we will still try to accommodate, it’s not too late to get in touch. 

There are 2 sessions per week on Mondays and Thursdays.

The times of the sessions are as follows:

Junior Group Ages  8-11. 2pm Mondays
Senior Group Ages 12 and up. 4pm Thursdays

The thought is that Deirdre will target older children on a Thursday and younger children on a Monday, however all children are welcome to participate in either or both sessions each week if you think the content is suitable.


Down Syndrome Louth Meath will cover the cost of the sessions, so there will be no cost to parents for those four weeks. We will review at the end of 4 weeks and will welcome your feedback.

The students will need some materials ahead of the sessions, but Deirdre will let you know ahead of time what will  be needed – it will all be inexpensive stuff that you may already have or can recycle around the house or will be able to get in the likes of Dealz. Deirdre will  also send links for printable materials, should any member not have access to a printer please contact us immediately when Deirdre posts links to printables  and we can arrange to have them posted to you.

We have set up a WhatsApp group for the groups, so that Deirdre can fill you in on what materials are needed and send you the Zoom ID and password.  Deirdre posts a video each week explaining about materials required.

Please contact Brendan on secretarydslm@gmail.com if you would like your child to take part with the following details.

Child Name:

Parents name:

Telephone number for WhatsApp Group:Child’s age:

Email Address:

  • If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.  

Fun with Numbers

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Thank you for expressing interest in taking part in the Fun With Numbers Zoom workshops.

We had a lot of interest, especially from our teenage members, so we have set up the following age groupings however if your child’s age falls outside these categories we will still try to accommodate, it’s not too late to get in touch.

The workshops will be taking place on Thursdays with the first session scheduled for Thursday 5th November .

The times of the sessions are as follows:

Ages 8-11 – 3.30pm

Ages 12-18 – 4.30pm

Down Syndrome Louth Meath will cover the cost of the four weeks so there will be no cost to parents for those four weeks. We will review at the end of 4 weeks and will welcome your feedback.

The students will need some materials ahead of the sessions, but Deirdre will let you know ahead of time what will be needed – it will all be inexpensive stuff that you may already have or can recycle around the house or will be able to get in the likes of Dealz.

Deirdre will also send links for printable materials, should any member not have access to a printer please contact us immediately when Deirdre posts links to printables and we can arrange to have them posted to you.

We will be setting up a WhatsApp group for each age group, so that Deirdre can fill you in on what materials are needed and send you the Zoom ID and password. Deirdre posts a video each week explaining about materials required.

Please let me know if you would like your child to take part. I will need the following details by return of email as soon as possible.

Child Name:

Parents name and telephone number for WhatsApp Group:

Child’s age:

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me secretarydslm@gmail.com.

Free Online Classes in Art and Computer Skills

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The branch is very much aware that many of our adult members are missing out on learning opportunities because of the closure of services and classes due to the COVID-19 situation.

We are delighted to have been allocated tuition hours resources from the Louth Community Education Service of the Louth Meath Education and Training Board.

These tuition hours will support online classes in the areas of Art and Computer Skills. The two courses will be tailored to the needs of our members to help them to maintain/develop their artistic and computer skills over the next two months.

The classes will be delivered online to a class of approx’ 6-10 students. This will allow for a good level of interaction between the tutors and the students. We have had some very good feedback recently from members engaging in online classes and meetings.

We expect that this will form an increasingly important part of educational provision in the future and we invite our adult members to give it a try through these classes. This is a great opportunity especially if you haven’t done online classes before.

If you are interested in a class in Art or Computer Skills(or both), please email your contact details to:
Mike Egan at mike@downsyndrome.ie or call 085.8618866.

The weekly class times will be arranged to best suit the availability of the students and tutors. Give Mike a call if you have any questions

Parent/Toddler Group by Olive Buckeridge for our Branch

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Olive Buckeridge, DSI Early Years Specialist will run a weekly Louth/Meath Zoom Session for Parents & Toddlers on Tuesday each week on Zoom.

The first Session will be on Tuesday 19th May at 11.15. 

The sessions are informal with lots of  Singing, Signing and some Vocabulary and there is no limit on the numbers just that they are for Parents and Toddlers.

Olive want to stress that Parents can dip in and out of them and use them as a support. 


Olive will send a link with a Password each week to the Branch and we will send it on to our Parents and Toddlers.

Activities to Promote Communication

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These activities are designed to promote your baby/toddler/child’s communication development. These activities can be easily carried out at home as each activity is nice and short. You can do one, some or all of these activities. You may choose to do them daily or weekly, it’s completely up to you!

All you need for these activities is a little bit of space and toys/objects that you have in the house.


Activities to Promote Communication 1


We are going to focus on eye-contact, naming, action songs, cause and effect and teaching some important songs – “Hello song” and “The Clean-up Song”.

https://downsyndrome.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Activities-to-Promote-Communication.pdf

Activities to Promote Communication 2

If you are still working through the previous activities, don’t worry, you can start the following activities when your child is ready. You can also start these activities if you need a change and are feeling demotivated! Follow your child’s lead.

https://downsyndrome.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Activities-to-Promote-Communication-2.pdf?fbclid=IwAR23DzG5QWk8BTnxAv8fkAmzHpsIwjPnO84LzeuhJhm_IU8yJoAixnCrjjU

Activities to Promote Communication 3

This week we will be focusing on positive interaction through song, taking turns, cooking and much more.

https://downsyndrome.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Activities-to-Promote-Communication-3.pdf?fbclid=IwAR25Piyf7m8e4XYK7gPVxunrbJ90iYlsyK_ewKq8PXP_wlEXY5AwI7ls620

THE FIRST BIG STEP – TRANSITION TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CONFERENCE

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THE FIRST BIG STEP – TRANSITION TO PRIMARY SCHOOL CONFERENCE

The First Big Step – Transition to Primary School conferences will benefit both parents, teachers, SNA’s and other professionals from the knowledge and expertise of the individual presenters and topics covered. As an attendee, you will gain an insight into the learning profile of a young child with Down syndrome and practical strategies to support them in the classroom environment.

We welcome all people who are part of the team supporting the student with Down syndrome, including parents, teachers, SNAs and other professionals

Topics to be covered at the conference may include:

▪️The Process of Transitioning to Primary School
▪️Choosing a school
▪️Additional supports
▪️Facilitating the transition to Primary School
▪️Early Primary Literacy
▪️Early Primary Numeracy
▪️Lámh
▪️Guest speakers will also present at the conferences from the following disciplines audiology, psychology and occupational therapy.

This conference will be held in a number of different locations over the coming months, our final dates are:

▪️February 8th: Down Syndrome Ireland, Ballymount, Dublin.
▪️February 28th: Great National Hotel, Ballina, Co.Mayo.
▪️March 14th: Clayton Silversprings Hotel, Cork.

Registration is at 9:30 am with the conference starting at 10 am – 4 pm.

To book your tickets, please visit our website here: http://bit.ly/2NUdcpV

For further details please contact our Early Years Specialist – Olive Buckeridge by email at olive@downsyndrome.ie

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