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AGM and Party
15 families attended our latest party held in March at Summerside School in North Finchley. Children and adults alike were enthralled by Alim Kamara whose exuberant stories and raps had the whole audience actively responding and clapping. Many thanks to Alim and to Ben for his brilliant communication support. The entertainment was followed by some quiet craft time and finally our wonderful party tea with contributions from all.
The AGM meeting was attended by 12 members including committee. Esther Conway quickly covered the minutes of the previous AGM, and reported on 2022 activities whilst Treasurer Donna Apparicio gave an update of the accounts for the period 2021-2022. We are delighted to announce that Kanwaljit Makram and Natalie Collins are to be co-chairs of the group as Esther stepped down from the acting-chair role. Other committee members were re-elected. The officers are:
- Kanwaljit Makram (Kam) and Natalie Collins, Co-chairs
- Donna Apparicio, Treasurer
- Zibiah Loakthar, Secretary
Other committee members are; Nosheen Akhatar, (Designated Person for Child Safeguarding, so is first point of contact for any child welfare issues), Lauren Rapacioli, Denis Coelho, Linda Sells, Suki Gill, Barbara Kasperska, Rayan Basma, Marvi Rauf (maternity leave) and Pari Kotecha.
Finally we offered our thoughts and condolences to the family of Jess White, committee member (2018-2022) who sadly passed away in 2022.
Read the full NLDCS AGM REPORT 2022. Any member wishing to see our accounts, please contact us.
Chickenshed – Jack 
Nearly 60 of us from age 5 upwards attended Chickenshed’s captioned production of Jack! in December and enjoyed a wonderful musical show with integrated sign. Well done to all NLDCS members who were involved in the production.
This is what our families said:
“With the generous supports from Chickenshed, and the helpful organisation from NLDCS, we all enjoyed the show after the long Lockdown. The show was enthusiastic, talented, the kids with additional needs on the stage are inspiring, professional. Thank you so much, our special Chickenshed!”
“The show was so brilliant that I had tears half of it. Everything was to perfect, the actors, the interpretation, the energy. Me and my daughter loved it so much that we definitely looking forward to se more of this type of play. In one word was amazing!”
“…incredible show. Both my children were enthralled for every second of the performance and can’t wait to see more! I loved it too!”
Disco fever- Sunday 20th November 2022
What a great way to end the year 2022 by dancing our hearts out at the electrifying Disco Party held by NLDCS.
“The hall at Martin Primary was absolutely bouncing with 18 delightful deaf children plus excited siblings. Neon lights, blaring music, shrieks of delight, glow in the dark sticks, bright balloons, crazy brilliant games, funky crafts and delicious selection of party foods certainly kept all our little (and not so little) party animals entertained. On top of all that we had a DJ to make sure the music was loud enough to get our heartbeats skipping and heads spinning (in a good way). Before the music stopped, the children were covered in frothy white clouds spraying from the foam machine.
Every member of the NLDCS committee did a spectacular job to make sure every child left the party with a thrilled smile on their faces. Thank you for hosting the perfect party.”
Harry Potter World
October 2022 saw a trip to Harry Potter World, thanks to some additionally discounted tickets from Disney. 13 deaf children and their carers took an adventure into the world of wizarding. Parent Kam, tells us about their experience.
“What a wonderful trip to Harry Potter studios and tour. We were all mesmerised by the magic behind the scenes. The kids took a broom stick ride through London and the country side fought off dragons, spiders and death eaters. They bagged their riches at Gringots bank, battled the screams from the of the Mandrakes in Professors Sprouts Greenhouse, walked through the famous diagon alley and much more. We felt very lucky to be given the opportunity to go to Harry Potter studios and enjoyed every minute. Thank you NLDCS”.
In the school Easter holidays, 11 of us met up one morning with a little bear, Raffi, for a picnic at the RAF Museum, based at the former Hendon Aerodrome in Barnet. There were lots of indoor spaces to explore, models to climb into and listening posts and touchscreen displays to interact with. And of course planes to spot in all colours, including pink! Children and their grown ups had fun playing tag in the large grassy space around the hangars. The plane themed outdoor playground was a big hit with pilots who could park their grownups at a convenient picnic table to hit the coffee and take off into freedom. Raffi loves outings and is looking forward to more adventures with our NLDCS family!
Baking with Alison
A big thank you Harriet and Alison for a wonderful family baking session together online the day before Mother’s Day. We loved the trick of fizzing milk and lemon juice together and glazing scones with egg.
Thanks too to Ben for being our BSL interpreter for the session and teaching us lots of sign vocabulary. Scones were delicious, all munched quickly and scone by Mother’s Day.
One parent’s view:
“We had a fabulous time baking and definitely think it should be a regular activity ….lots of rich language… we loved it”
NLDCS AGM
At the NLDCS online AGM on 3rd February, members were presented with an account of our activities in 2021, the financial statement for the period 2020 -21 and committee members and officers were elected. We were sad that committee member Sharon Webb has stepped down from the committee due to family commitments. Our new Designated Person for Safeguarding is Nosheen Akhatar. The remaining committee stays the same. See your committee members here.
You can read the 2021 Committee Report here
If you would like to view our Financial Statement please do contact us.
Amazon Smile for the NLDCS
We are pleased to announce that the NLDCS is now a registered Charity on Amazon Smile. It’s easy to use and doesn’t cost you anything but you can be helping us to support families with deaf children across North London every time you buy something.
With Christmas approaching, please select the North London Deaf Children’s Society as your chosen charity on smile.amazon.co.uk and get purchasing. You can add Smile to your Amazon App through Settings and still use Prime if you are a member.
London Zoo
In July and October, thanks to the amazing ZSL community access fund, we were able to take 29 families on outings to London Zoo.
One of our families, kindly wrote a review of their visit:
On the 24th October, our family attended the NLDCS zoos outing. Anticipation enough to go and see amazing animals in Central London’s Regent’s Park ZSL Zoo, let alone talk and spend time with other hearing impaired children and their families in a brilliant surrounding. We started our day out bright and early before the meet up time to see the Reptile House, ventured into Africa to see hippos, giraffes, zebras, gorillas and lions. All of whom were happy, healthy and active. We also had an interesting moment visiting the tigers reciting the ‘Tiger who came to Tea’ with Jimmy Carr next to us. Clearly, a star studded show.
At lunchtime we went over to the meet up point, surrounded by 12 other families and their deaf and hearing children. Some new and coming for the first time, some we’ve known for years. Everyone was talking to each other and sharing stories, snacks and watching the children all play together from 3 to 12 as if they’ve known each other all for years. Watching them communicate in their own ways, mixing spoken language, BSL, Makaton whilst playing tag, football, what’s the time Mr Wolf?, it was just pure joy.
We then went to get ice cream (not the biggest selection!) and caught an animal show meeting coati, owls and amusing character birds.Lots of families then went around the zoo in pairs or groups and enjoyed the rest of the day together. Us? With two families we journeyed to India, went on mini beast adventures, pedalled and cycled our way to the penguins, through the butterfly house, got screamed at by parrots and finished with a venture around the gift shop. Especially after the pandemic, which in itself has been quite isolating without many activities for deaf children and their families; this trip to the zoo was liberating.
We swapped number with families and kept in contact so far with other members and arranging our own little meet ups soon. If there’s another trip, social event or get together – count us in! Thank you for organising 💕 Love, Natalie, Jamie, Sol and Rico x
Picnics in Highgate Wood July 2021
With indoor face-to-face events still difficult to organise in the light of the continuing pandemic, picnics were a great way for us to get together with members new and old. Over two weekends in July more than 20 families collected together to play games, chat and eat. The weather was kind, the kids were happy, a great event. Thanks to the committee members who organised this really successful event.
Pizza making with Daisy Bake
Following the success of our previous baking activity, 9 families with 11 deaf children and 7 hearing siblings took part in the latest baking enterprise – pizza making with Daisy. Many thanks to Ben Jefferson for providing the BSL interpretation.
NLDCS Annual General Meeting (AGM) 8th February 2021.
The AGM this year was held on Zoom and chaired by Esther in Kam’s absence. Reports were presented on activities and accounts and the formal voting for committee officers – Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and the other members of the committee was actioned.
This year there were no changes to the committee.
Your NLDCS committee for 2021 consists:
Kam Makram (chair), Donna Apparicio (treasurer) Zibiah Loakthar (secretary). Other committee members are: Rayan Basma, Denis Coelho, Esther Conway, Suki Gill, Barbara Kasperska, Pari Kotecha, Lauren Rapacioli, Marvi Rauf, Jess Robson, Linda Sells & Sharon Webb.
Arts & Craft on Zoom
Rayan writes:
“What an Artastic day we had during the Arts and Crafts event organised by NLDCS. It was so lovely to see everyone and catch up.
The paper roll Christmas craft was a breeze to make and so fun to put together. Everyone had their supplies ready and were pumped to get started, especially on a cold frosty morning. The children had the option to make a snowman, elf, Santa and reindeer.
With just a few supplies, they were able to transform their toilet paper rolls into amazing Christmas characters. What fabulous imaginations the children displayed during the activity. They showed perseverance and listened so well to instructions with the help of the lovely BSL communicator.”
Arty fingers crossed we will see you in the next event for another paintastic day!
Baking with Daisy – Spooky Fingers November 2020
Mum Olimpia and daughter Lottie tell us what fun they had.
“What is one to do, during a raining Saturday afternoon in lockdown 2.0? Bake of course! Luckily, this time, there was no shortage of flour and we had a full Zoom screen of very keen bakers-in-training attending!
Everyone had their ingredients ready and listened carefully to Daisy’s instructions. As soon as something was not clear, they were quick to ask questions. In all that excitement, somehow, we all forgot to add the salt.. which, it turns out, was not such a big mishap anyway!
The only one I was starting to feel sorry for was Ben, our BSL facilitator, thinking he will have to watch us eat our biscuits on screen! Fortunately for him, Daisy said we needed to chill the dough for one hour before baking. I cannot comment on everyone’s result but ours were frightfully delicious!
It was great seeing everyone, and I still cannot go over the fact of how much the children have grown!
Thank you to the NLDS committee for organising and to Daisy for hosting us.
Spooky fingers crossed we will see you all in a not too distant future!”
August 2020
The results of the NLDCS Art Competition – Being Me are in! Judging has taken place by professional deaf artist Ruaridh Lever Hogg who thought the entries were brilliant and his comments on the winning entries are below. Winners were notified by email. See the art and the winners here
Freya, Thomas, Ryan, Toma, Ethan, Adam, Bobby and their brothers, sisters and parents joined us for a special NLDCS meet up at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden on Sunday 1st March 2020.After the ball games and races, we all shared a wonderful buffet tea with food provided by all.
The Agenda included the formal voting for committee officers – Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and the other members of the committee.
This year there were two changes to the committee.
Esther stepped down as Chair after 11 years in the role, though she is remaining on the committee to manage the communications and website. Andrea retired from the committee entirely after being both secretary and newsletter editor for many years. They were both thanked for their contributions to the NLDCS and presented with gifts of appreciation.
Your NLDCS committee for 2020 consists:
Sharon Web (interim chair), Donna Apparicio (treasurer) Kam Makram (secretary), Linda Sells, Esther Conway, Denis Coelho, Lauren Rapacioli, Sharon Webb, Suki Gill, Barbara Kasperska, Rayan Basma and Zibiah Loakthar.
Halloween Fun & Games
24 families got together for a spooktastic Halloween Fancy Dress party at Martin Primary School in October. There were plenty of “fangtastic” crafts and “boo-tiful” games followed by a Fancy Dress Parade with prizes for the most creative costumes.
Monkey Business – Go Ape September 2019
A day very well spent at the latest NLDCS event in Go Ape. Ten very brave, deaf children (ages ranging from 4-9 years old) were given the fantastic opportunity to get in touch with their inner Tarzan. They succeeded doing so at almost 40 ft high, braving the treetop trek involving intricate crossings, wobbly bridges and brilliant zip wires finales. It was an exhilarating experience not only for the children but also for some of the parents who took part in the treetop challenge.
Make a Pizza
Tomato, cheese and olives (with the odd red onion and mushrooms for the more adventurous) were the flavours of the day at the pizza making and eating event in Mill Hill.
Thank you to Pizza Express for facilitating a language rich event which was a real treat for the kids.
Easter Party
Easter is a time for bonnets and eggs and at the NLDCS party we went one further with our first ever Easter Eggmobile Race! 24 families turned up and 12 eggmobiles competed for the egg mobile which travels the greatest distance, the most beautifully decorated and the most original design. And then it was time for tea!
AGM
The NLDCS held its AGM in January to report on happenings and accounts in 2018. We welcomed Rayan Basma to the committee and said goodbye to Maggie O’Regan whose family and work commitments mean she had to stand down. You can find out more and read the report of our 2018 activities here.
Please contact us if you would like to see our detailed accounts.
A Christmas Carol
The NLDCS annual Christmas event at the Chickenshed was one of the best attended events. This year 23 children and their families (totalling 43 altogether) shared in the enchanting adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol”. With over 200 young performers this was one of Chickenshed’s most impressive productions to date and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Party Time
Magician David Weeks was the entertainment for our autumn party who enthralled us all with his sleight of hand and illusions. The children came in their fancy dress costumes to celebrate approaching halloween and everyone shared a delicious tea.
Festival of Treasures
September saw the NLDCS involved in the Festival of Treasures Family Day at the British Library. This annual event organised by Camden Family Learning in partnership with Frank Barnes School and the British Library, saw fully deaf accessible activities being run by a variety of organisations, including contributions from the October Gallery, Science Museum, Francis Crick Institute, Royal Institute for the Deaf, the Postal Museum and many more!
Families from all over the world dropped by to take part in the activities, at our table they were making treasure boxes, and according to the registration, over 48 families attended who identified at least one deaf member of the family.
Lee Valley 2018
Our summer activities this year included two events in the Lee Valley Regional Park. The first was our incredibly successful outing to the Lee Valley VeloPark where 10 families took part in our cycling extravaganza. The very young children, aged 2 and up, had a chance at using balance bikes and the under 7s had a go at pedalling. We were all really chuffed when one of the youngsters, Marisa aged 6, rode a pedal bike, unaided for the very first time! While all of this was going on, the older kids had the chance to ride the outside mountain bike track, taking on the narrow and twisty paths around the site.
For the second visit to the Lee Valley, a group of young people, aged ten and over, braved the white water rafting legacy course at the Lee Valley White Water Centre. Fully kitted up in wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets, the intrepid team along with Ben, the interpreter had a brilliant time!
We have both the Lee Valley Community Fund and the National Deaf Children Society to thank for making these activities possible.
Fire Station visit 29th April 2018
13 families attended Mill Hill Fire Station on a chilly day to meet the firemen and learn about their job and fire safety. The children were invited to explore the fire engine and much to their delight, take a turn on the hose.
‘My boys were over the moon to join the trip to Mill Hill Fire station organised by NLDCS,’ says Denitsa, a mum. ‘In preparation, we’d been acting out the fire fighters’ job at home. My elder son, Toma who is proudly deaf, was excited to meet new deaf friends and see a friend from his own school. He was extremely inquisitive to find out how things work in the fire engine and the firefighters were happy to answer his questions. Overall we had a great time and I am looking forward to attending the next event with NLDCS. Thank you once again for making us part of it.’
And a big thank you to the London Fire Brigade team, especially Fire Officer Matt Load, at Mill Hill for making everyone feel very welcome.
Pottery painting on 24th March
‘A great turn out for the latest NLDCS event at Fired Treasures in Mill Hill,’ says mum Sharon. ‘In total 21 children attended and chose a variety of pottery items to paint including plates, bowls, cups and tea pots, to name but a few. Even some parents couldn’t resist having a go and it was lovely to see some new members join in the fun. Special thanks to Ben for being our BSL communicator on the day who was a big hit with the children and parents alike.’
NLDCS request all members on the mailing list to opt-in
As the law is changing, the NLDCS need to confirm that you are still happy to hear from them. It will only take a moment and you can change your mind at any time. An email was sent to members on 14th April 2018.
If you don’t respond by 25 May 2018, you will no longer receive any communications from the North London Deaf Children’s Society.
If you have missed the email or you are not yet a member. Please contact us.
Hollywood Bowl – Finchley
The Finchley Hollywood Bowl have chosen the North London Deaf Children’s Society as their charity of the year! A special event will be held in September 2018 to raise awareness for our charity. Read more
National Deaf Children’s Society extend deadline of London Multi Activity Weekend
The NLDCS held its Annual General Meeting on 12th March 2018.
NLDCS Disco Party
At our first event of 2018 much fun was had with the entertainment provided by DNA Kids parties. There was dancing, bubbles, foam and hilarious races along with our creative tables for some time out. Kids of all ages (even the teenagers!) were joined by parents for the dancing, making it one of our most memorable parties.
North London Deaf Children's Society 