Wednesday 12 April 2017

Meet Zoe Wood latest meember of the SLDNN Student Subgroup from ENU!

Zoe is currently a first year student at Edinburgh Napier University. Since finishing college in 2010, Zoe has been working with people who have additional support needs in a variety of settings and this has mainly been with children and young people. Her last job was working in a special school in Edinburgh and through this Zoe has learned that her interests lie with communication and it’s connection with challenging behaviour. Even thought at the moment, the prospect of completing a degree is a scary thought, she is excited to see what the next three years have in store!

Meet Jennifer Hamilton latest member of the SLDNN Student Subgroup from GCU!

Jennifer started the undergraduate BSC Nursing studies (learning Disability) as part of the 2015/16 cohort and was introduced to the SLDNN student forum at Christmas in that year by Sian Pearson.
Jennifer previously worked with Strathclyde Regional council social work department working with and caring for adults and children with learning disabilities however family commitment forced her to resign. She then began campaigning to establish affordable childcare within her local area and was able to help establish both pre-5 and 5 to 14 out of school services with funding from the Scottish Office urban programme budget.
Whilst recruiting and managing staff within these projects, Jennifer completed a BA in Human Resource Management however she always hoped that the skills she learned could be transferred to working with people with learning disabilities again.

The final catalyst to return to university was the birth of her grandson in 2011, he developed early onset GBS within 12hours of birth and was gravely ill. He has since been diagnosed with a learning disability, Autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, he is non-verbal but a gorgeous wee boy.