Offaly Branch of the DAI

Parents & Supporters of the Offaly Branch of the DAI are reminded that with Spring finally here(?) the days are lengthening and so are opportunities to raise funds…

Formerly known as the Offaly Dyslexia Group, we ran an information/flag day in July of last year and have been collecting unused/unwanted stamps for resale. These are only two of our activities, which include the submission of application for grants and bursaries from various organisations.

Since our inaugural workshop series in April 2009 we have gone from strength to strength. Our numbers have more than doubled in almost all senses of the word. We now have 24 children and seven tutors. On the administration side we still have our original four officers, but we are delighted to welcome three more parents to participate at committee level.

Now is the time for us to start thinking about raising much needed funding. In order to sustain the remarkable success of our group and our workshops, please put on your thinking caps and come up with some suggestions on how we can raise the public profile of the group and raise some funds.

Applications for church gate collections and a flag day will be submitted again this year. However, if your interest is in greyhound racing, perhaps you could help us organise a night at the dogs? Maybe ballroom dancing is your forte, in which case perhaps you could help us organise a dance or a disco? What about a coffee morning or a bake sale, or even what our American cousins call a yard sale – remember one man’s junk is another man’s treasure…

Do you remember the days of the American Supper or Tea Party, when everyone brought one dish to add to the buffet and entertainment was provided for a small fee – they were fun, weren’t they? And what about the fancy, smancy garden party that coincides with Wimbledon – word has it that this year we’re going to have a proper Summer!?

Maybe you are a whizz kid at answering sporting questions, if so, do you have a few mates that you could round up to form a team for a pub quizz? And what about the card players amongst you, how do you fancy a round or two of poker, kaluki or twenty-fives? Whatever your idea, no matter how daft it may be please give it some serious thought and let us know what we can do to make it happen…

Good will and energy levels only go so far on their own. We need your help to continue making this happen, so please help us help the children conquer their battle with dyslexia and achieve their ambitions by becoming actively involved…

Please contact us for more information.

The Offaly Branch of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland is delighted to announce that for the second year running we have been awarded an ESB Community Fund grant. This €250.00 grant will support a new workshop programme designed for secondary school children.

As anticipated at the beginning, the group must grow with our members. The new Secondary School Workshop Programme coincides with a number of our existing workshop members commencing their first year in secondary school in September 2010.

Once again, places at the Offaly Branch of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland workshops will be limited. Parents are advised to contact us for details of enrollment for Autumn 2010.

Please support DAI Branches which have been nominated for the AIB Better Ireland Programme.

Please support three of our reading workshops in the AIB Better Ireland Programme. The Dublin Northside (Gardiner Street) workshop, the Rush/Lusk/Skerries workshop and the Enniscorthy workshop have all been short listed for the AIB Better Ireland programme and we would really appreciate your support in voting for them in order to receive much needed funds.

To vote by text:
Text BLANCH followed by a space, followed by B to 51303 (standard rates apply).
Text BALBRIGGAN followed by a space, followed by A to 51303 (standard rates apply).
Text ENNISCORTHY followed by a space, followed by B to 51303 (standard rates apply).

To vote online:
Go to www.betterireland.ie:
Select Blanchardstown branch and choose the Northside Reading workshop.
Select Balbriggan branch and choose the Rush/Lusk/Skerries branch of Dyslexia Association.
Select Enniscorthy branch and choose the Enniscorthy Dyslexia workshop.

The lines for both texting and voting are open until 15th March and it is a wonderful chance to help us get some extra funding for the workshops. Please register a vote for the workshops and ask family, friends and work colleges to do the same. (Voting outside the dates does not count but you may be charged).

Hi there! Do you remember last autumn, we here at the Offaly Branch of the DAI launched our appeal for used and un-wanted postage stamps? Well, the good news is that thanks to our collectors we now have just under a kilo-gram of mixed stamps to sell…

Although there is a bit of work involved in sorting the stamps, ie checking for damaged/un-usuable stamps The Offaly Branch DAI can use these stamps to raise much needed funds. There are a number of ways of doing this, including opening a charity shop on an e-commerce site such as E-bay, private sales, advertising on philatelist sites or by sending them as un-sorted kilo-ware to stamp merchants.

How much our return will be, we don’t yet know, as we’ve yet to decide on the best way of selling our hard won stamp-booty. The easiest option would be to sell it to stamp merchants, although this may not be the best option as the return for less work is of course less cash! Whichever route we decide to take, rest assured your stamps will be put to good use…

Meanwhile we have a few thank you’s to offer. Most noticeably is a young friend of the Offaly Branch DAI, Miss Emma Murphy who religiously sends an envelope of stamps in to us almost every week since we launched our appeal back in the autumn of 2009…

Thanks must also go to our friends up at Strathroy Dairy, also to our PALS, which is an acronym for Psychological Assessments & Learning Solutions, down in Co Claire.

Special thanks must also be offered to Miss Angela Darmody who has sent us a number of envelopes stuffed with treasure and a lady known only as Kismet80 who contacted us via a post on Boards.ie with the promise of stamps from all over the world – we can’t wait to see what’ll turn up in that one…

For our newer readers we’d love to make use of your un-wanted/used stamps too! Simply tear or cut them from the envelope leaving a 3mm margin if possible and pop them into a bag or envelope. When it’s full send it on to us here and we will put them to the best possible use – promise!

Course For Parents:

Venue: Mercer Hotel, Mercer St., Dublin 2. (behind Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre).
Dates: Wednesday 24th February and 3rd March, 2010.
Time: 7.00 – 9.30 pm each evening.
This course will take place over two evenings. Topics covered will include:

* Understanding Dyslexia.
* Understanding the assessment report.
* Accessing support in school, e.g. learning support, Irish exemption, exam accommodations.
* Practical suggestions for parents and helping with homework.
* Planning for the future – second level and beyond.
* Computers and assistive technology.

Fee per parent: €60 (DAI Members) €85 (Non-Members).
Reduced rates available for people on social welfare/low income.
(Coffee/tea will be provided on arrival).

The course information and booking form can be downloaded below.

Parents’ Course Brochure (WORD format).
Parents’ Course Brochure (PDF format).

Course for Junior Cert. Students

A free course for Junior Certificate students with dyslexia will be run concurrently with the Parents’ Course on Wednesday, 3rd March. This students’ course is for 3rd Year students only. The course will cover topics such as study skills and exam preparation for the Junior Certificate. There is no fee for the students’ course but students’ families must be current members of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. The Booking form for this course is included in the above Parents’ Course Brochure.

Offaly Branch of the DAI is pleased to inform our regular readers that we now have three new committee members!

The committee is comprised of the parents of children, officers of the group and the workshop co-ordinator. From the outset it was our intention that the workshops and the group itself would be ‘owned’ by the members and their parents.

With the addition of our new committee members Ms Jacinta Maxwell, Ms Mary Tynan and Ms Mary Bryan this brings our number to eight. We will now be able to introduce a rota system for the supervision and signing in of the children each week.

Until recently, this was one of the many responsibilities of the original four committee members. As there is a lot of work involved in running the group efficiently we are delighted to welcome our new committee members and share this with them!

If you have an interest in becoming more involved in the running of the group we’d be delighted to hear from you. Simply make your interest known to any of the committee members and let us do the rest! Alternatively, drop us an e-mail or ring The Dyslexia Phone for a chat about how you might be able to help us help your child…

Committee Roles Currently Available:
PR Officer – responsible for advertising and submitting press-releases to local and national media,
Events Co-ordinator – responsible for organising public meetings, events, refreshments, etc,
Fund-raising Sub-committee – this role is self-explanatory! We want you to help us raise funds and plenty more…

With the exception of this month, ie February 2010 we anticipate that the committee will meet on the first Monday of each month. Our next meeting will be held on Monday 1st March at 5.30pm in Geashill National School, perhaps you’d like to join us?

Last year The Offaly Branch of the DAI launched an appeal for used and un-wanted postage stamps. Thanks to the combined efforts of our supporters we’re getting close to having a kilo’s worth of stamps to sell…

Special thanks must go to all our friends, young and old, small and large for all the hard work that goes into collecting for us. Unfortunately, the size of funds raised in this manner is minimal…

As a result the best way that we can thank our supporters is here on the website. (In a few days time we’ll be adding a few more names to our list of benefactors and supporters…)

Sending out letters in stamped envelopes isn’t an option due to the high cost involved – and anyway, you’d probably end up sending them back again to raise funds!!!!

Like all blogs and websites we here at the Offaly Branch of the DAI love to hear from our readers. We love your positive contributions and enjoy sharing them with other readers.

Unfortunately, it has come to the admin team that some of our commentators are not always what they seem. The expressiom “…a wolf in sheep’s clothing…” somehow springs to mind!

Anyway, because your contribution is so valued, we’d still love to hear from ye. However, we have turned off the comments facility and request that you drop us an e-mail instead.

Our contact details may be found here…

Like all responsible admin teams we will then sift through the comments and publish the genuine article on our new comments page. So, don’t be upset or disappointed by this move just keep the comments coming…

Hi there! This post is to update our readers about a change which has taken place in relation to the group generally and the website here as a result. Don’t worry, it’s nothing to worry about – it’s all good!

Following discussion with the Branch Committee the decision has been taken that in recognition of our affiliation to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland we are changing the name of our group to The Offaly Branch of The Dyslexia Association of Ireland

As you might imagine this has been a laborious task undertaken today, changing our entire internet accounts, blogs and pages. It will however not be possible in the near future to alter posts which have already been published to reflect this decision.

A short explanation of this change is that we are affiliated to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland and operate our workshops under the auspices of their policies and recommendations. As such we feel that it is appropriate to display this affiliation in the choice of name used to represent the group.

The Dyslexia association of Ireland has been established for some thirty five years now and has advocated on the behalf of parents, like us whose children have dyslexia. Because of the DAI’s ground breaking work in this area dyslexia is now recognized in Ireland as a bona fide learning difficulty in the area of literacy.

It is with great pride that the Offaly Dyslexia Group has chosen to recognize this and to acknowledge the work that goes on behind the scenes at national level by assuming the Offaly Branch of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland.

From time to time we may, however fall back and use the term the Offaly Dyslexia Group as a pet name for the group that we worked so hard to establish over the past year. So do please be patient with us as we get used to the changes…

This is just a short post to remind readers that the Offaly Dyslexia Group are collecting used and unused postage stamps as part of our fund-raising campaign. As the festive season is rapidly approaching we will all be receiving extra post, some of which will have good old fashioned stamps on it!

Please remember the Offaly Dyslexia Group as you celebrate Christmas with your loved ones. If you could just tear or cut the stamps from your used envelopes, leaving a 3mm margin on all sides and place them into an envelope as you sort through your mail we will be glad to take them off your hands.

Many thanks for all your support throughout 2009!

Best wishes,

The Offaly Dyslexia Group