Jemima's Annual Review

Jemima's stautory Annual Review will take place at her school during the coming week. This is an opportunity both to look back over the past year, and to look forward to the coming twelve months.

Most obviously, Jemima has developed some, albeit only a little, confidence about being away both from home and from parents. This began with the residential visit to the Calvert Trust, Kielder in 2007, for which she felt motivated to accept two nights away, and was further boosted by two school “sleepovers” during the summer term. Based on these experiences, Jemima suggested that she would like to try a week in residence at summer school. Whilst she enjoyed the experience, she also reported feeling homesick. She was a little uneasy about a full five days in residence at school during the autumn term, but did eventually decide to stay for the final night. She seems happy about the next planned week, in April 2008. However, she has rejected the idea of participating in the respite weekends, saying that she wants to be at home at the weekend.

In terms of her learning, Jemima appears to be making some, albeit tentative, progress with arithmetic, which she has always found difficult, mainly in the motivating context of money. She was, with encouragement, able to add up the cheques and cash she received for her recent birthday.

Jemima remains motivated to use her Dynavox communication aid in situations where it is clearly the most effective way to communicate. This includes the regular trip from school to a cafe where she can buy a mug of hot chocolate.

She enjoyed greatly participating in the process of making a DVD with the One Voice teenagers’ group in July 2007, and worked very hard in advance to prepare her ideas and contributions on her Dynavox.

Jemima was pleased to be asked at Guides if she would go and talk to a local Brownie pack who were working towards their Disability Awareness badge. She saw it as akin to being a role model, something to which she aspires as a result of her very positive contact with the young adult role models at One Voice events. She spent some time preparing the talk in advance; she also used the Dynavox more spontaneously to respond to the Brownies’ questions.

Jemima enjoys the social aspects of school; she clearly has very positive relationships with and interacts confidently with both staff and her peers. She tells us about things they say or do and is concerned when they are ill. This year she has been interested in work on Buddhism, recycling and art, and has enjoyed the associated visits; she still says her favourite lesson is swimming. She says work-related learning and life-skills are boring, perhaps because she has grown up with a reasonable level of awareness of many of the skills involved; this does not stop her from enjoying cooking. Her desire for involvement and engagement results in her enjoyment of, and participation in, the special events and fundraising activities which are organised in school.

Jemima continues to be highly compliant in her behaviour, and shows few signs of being a ‘difficult teenager’. We have encouraged her to express herself a little more assertively, including responding with respect to her wishes and preferences. The occasions when she is less willing to be compliant is when she perceives her routine to have been overturned. It seems that she uses routine as a way of feeling as though everything is under control.

Jemima is enthusiastic to keep in touch by e-mail both with friends from One Voice and with some of her relatives. She likes using the computer for a variety of purposes, including finding things out online, visiting websites relating to programmes she watches on television, and looking for information about places she may visit. In addition to this family weblog, Sound Signs, for which she writes occasional postings, Jemima is excited to have her own simple website, although its development is at an early stage. It is obvious that Jemima understands electronic communications, and we consider this to be an area to be taken seriously in terms of future educational study.

Jemima enjoys crafts and creativity, which frequently includes designing and making greetings cards. She has a strong sense of style. She willingly participates in shopping trips to buy supplies. She ‘takes’ photographs, and more recently has expressed a focused enthusiasm for making videos using a camcorder. Jemima enjoys the arts, and is able to recognise and enjoy the work of several nineteenth and twentieth century artists, including Monet, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock.

Jemima enjoys shopping trips for clothes. She enjoys going to the cinema when the screening is subtitled; visits to the theatre, particularly when the performance is sign-supported, ballet (Rambert Dance Company) and productions on ice (High School Musical). Inevitably she spends a lot of time watching television and DVDs.