Skittles evening strikes the right note for WADE fundraiser

People were bowled over at the WADE Day Centre skittles evening recently.

The event, at their Reading Road centre, cost visitors £7 and included a raffle, while guests were encouraged to bring along their own drinks and nibbles.

The evening was organised by Julia Isaacs and the team from Friends of WADE and raised £306 for the day centre.

Former teacher from Forest School, Nigel Rattue, made his own skittle alley which he brought along to make the evening possible.

Day centre manager, Emma Hamilton, said: “It was a great evening and very well attended. Everyone enjoyed it and although it wasn’t too competitive there was a winner.”

As well as this regular feature in the WADE social calendar, they were also selling crochet chicks holding cream eggs in preparation for Easter.

Book adds up to helping children with their maths

Awoman from Wokingham has had her first book published that aims to help children with their maths.

It took Rebecca Morgan from Emmbrook three years to put together and tweak ‘SATs Maths Support: KS2 Support’ during the Covid lockdowns. As a teaching learning assistant at a senior school in Wokingham, she was well placed to understand the dilemmas facing teenagers when struggling with maths.

“My timetable meant the majority of my time was spent in the maths department which helped my understanding of the topic leading from junior schools to senior schools.

“A friend had a child in year 5 who was really struggling so I offered to help her get through her SATs and now she is in year 8 and her favourite subject is still maths.”

After analysing SATs papers, she looked at what other support was available. While books like those by Carol Vorderman were good, she felt they were too ‘chunky’ and complicated to be of benefit to SEN children.

“If children are good at one subject it gives them confidence to be good at others. And when they are not worrying about a subject, it means they can go into senior school focusing on their friendships.”

The book can help reinforce the basics, incorporating pages to help with revision and with a glossary of words in SATs papers at the back. It works to help children improve their math skills in Key Stage 2 and also helps the parent/adult understand how to help them in each topic. Each page covers a topic that will be in the SATs tests in year

6. It really helps SEN and anxious children as it’s easy to read and each topic has one way of doing it.

Available through Amazon, comments from customers include ‘nicely laid out. Clear and easy to follow’, and ‘this book is fantastic. Well laid out, easy to follow, clear and simple. Well worth the money’.

Another added: ‘I brought this book for my son who is autistic and lives with acute anxiety. The book is easy to follow, and each task is broken down into simple-to-follow methods that didn’t overwhelm him. Highly recommended’.

Rebecca admitted she never intended to write a book. She began by putting together cards to assist children with the basic understanding. She kept updating the cards and more friends asked if she could write some for their children – and the book was born.

Helpful for dyslexic children, it has also been well received by the Autistic Society. Having been released for about two months, most sales have so far come through word of mouth, but Rebecca has contacted Wokingham Borough Council and is hoping to do some presentations in schools.

Her family and friends are rightly proud of her achievement, and she admits that her reward is simply the feeling she gets knowing it has helped one person.

“You will always find something easy if you understand it. Maths is present in every facet of life so if you can understand one subject, it means you can get excited about the next topic.”