A Stitch in Time: the quilters turn map-makers

The Quilt Academy has settled nicely into Bell House. The free Thursday drop-in sessions are a hive of activity where experienced and welcoming tutors share their skills in hand and machine sewing with less experienced sewers, or even complete beginners.

The Quilters have now joined forces with Sharon O’Connor, our house historian, and are hatching a plan to reproduce two images from Bell House’s history in textile form. A 1746 map of Dulwich and an 1811 lease plan of Bell House will be reproduced using a combination of quilting, patchwork and embroidery. This will produce two beautiful works of art and also add to our understanding of the geographical and historical context of Bell House. For example: fields which used to belong to Bell House are now part of Dulwich Park. The quilters are about to put their creative heads together to decide the best way of tackling this technically challenging project.

We will keep you updated with the project as it unfolds (but not unravels!). In the meantime, if you would like to join the Quilt Academy, either to acquire a practical skill, socialise with others or to make something beautiful to cherish, please pop in on a Thursday for a cup of tea and a chat, or contact us: [email protected]. Carers, translators, therapists or family support are also most welcome attend the sessions.

 ‘Over the years, we have derived much joy - and inner peace - through making quilts, bags, clothes, pillows, table linens and more. We know others can do likewise with the right mentoring within a safe and welcoming space that Bell House is keen to provide.’ The Quilt Academy

SEN Jigsaw Conference - 21st April 2018

Following hot on the heels of the BDA conference, the SEN jigsaw conference, now in its third year, had an interesting line up of speakers.  The day started with psychologist Sally Goddard-Blythe explaining the “Draw a Man” test, which enables non-verbal assessment.  Children often leave out the bits that they don’t feel so good at, such as no hands if their motor skills are weak.

Sally investigates how movement and physical activity have impact on learning.  Many young children starting school have immature neuromotor skills, and Sally explained that this can have a significant effect on their learning outcomes and behaviour.  She would like to see schools implement a daily exercise programme and physical developmental testing of children at school entry and key stages.

Later in the morning, Libby Hill spoke about the links between bad behaviour, language and communication.  She is a speech and language therapist, and works with many bright children who do not understand how to behave in social conditions.  The impact of speech, language or communication difficulties on children can have a huge negative impact on many aspects of their lives.  She demonstrated how behaviour is a not just language, but a method of communication.  We were introduced to the ABC of behaviour:

-     A for Antecedent, you need to know what was happening before

-     B for Behaviour

-     C for Consequences. 

Children who need the most help often ask for it in the least helpful way!

In the afternoon we learnt about visual stress and dyscalculia.

Bob Hext, from Crossbow Education, explained how visual stress is often associated with special learning difficulties.  It can manifest in many ways: movement of letters, blurring and fading, rainbow blobs, letters changing size or space, glare, colour and skipping lines.  But luckily there is help to hand.  Simple measures can make a huge difference, such as using rounded fonts - they create a more fluid experience, and then using colour overlays can have a magical effect by relieving the symptoms of visual stress.

Judy Hornigold finished the day by decoding dyscalculia, which is a specific learning difficulty for mathematics. While many people and children struggle with maths, they are not necessarily dyscalculic.  If you have dyscalculia you cannot understand whether 9 is larger or smaller than 6, you cannot assess if there are four apples on the plate without counting them one by one (subitising), you cannot spot patterns, you may have left/right confusion, and an inability to understand the passage of time.

There are strategies that can help; creating patterns with Cuisenaire rods can allow a child to explore and develop understanding. Diagrams can also be invaluable, as they encourage visualisation and a way to ‘model’ the maths.

Several of the speakers from the SEN Jigsaw conference will be coming to Bell House over the next few months, bringing their insights to Dulwich. We can’t wait to welcome many of them to our inaugural Dyslexia Fair on 22nd September – stay tuned for more info!

If you’d like to see what dyslexia support Bell House has been offering in the last few months, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, where we post the highlights of our most useful talks: 

The Bell House medlar tree

In the garden at Bell House is a magnificent old medlar tree, lending its shade to the gate leading to the walled garden. It’s certainly an ancient tree and may even have been planted by the Wrights, who built Bell House in 1767. Its gnarled branches extend out from the shelter of the garden wall and the trunk leans precariously, requiring a sturdy pole to prop it up.

By rights our medlar tree should be in the kitchen garden, from where it is planted, as its fruit is edible. Medlars need bletting (maturing and softening) before they can be eaten or cooked but once bletted, it has a flavour that’s been likened to both an apple-pear and a super-charged date and can be eaten raw or preserved. The Elizabethans valued its sweetness as a winter food in the days before the arrival of sugar and medlar jelly was popular with the Victorians and Edwardians as a Christmas conserve.

Put some medlars into an earthenware jar, stand it in a saucepan with boiling water nearly to the top and keep it boiling gently over a slow fire. When the medlars are quite soft, pass them through a fine hair sieve, and weigh the pulp, and for every pound allow one and a half breakfast cups of coarsely crushed loaf sugar and half a teaspoonful of allspice. Put all the ingredients together in the preserving pan and stir them over the fire with a wooden spoon until thickly reduced, skimming occasionally. Turn the cheese into moulds and keep them in a cold place.
When ready to serve, turn the cheeses out of themoulds on to a dish.
(The Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery by Theodore Garrett, 1891).

The Bell House medlar tree is very attractive particularly in winter when its intricate twisting stems are highly distinctive. Simple white flowers and glossy green leaves in spring give way to its unusual fruit in autumn. Medlar trees are self-fertile, so you only need one and it is fairly disease and pest resistant, certainly the Bell House medlar is a healthy specimen despite its age. In the autumn we hope to make medlar jelly from the Bell House tree, we’ll keep you posted.

If you are interested in Bell House's beautiful Georgian garden you might like to join our lovely garden volunteers. Just turn up on Saturday mornings from 9.30-11.30. Novices, experts and all ages welcome, coffee, croissants and friendly co-workers provided.

Why should we bother about sleep? Dr Fran Knight at Bell House

Most of us love sleeping but we also believe that we don't get enough sleep. Despite this we'll probably sleep for the equivalent of about 25-30 years across our lives. Plenty of experiments show that the sleep quality and quantity affects our memory, our cognition and our behaviour.  This is so much so that some researchers even say that how well young people sleep is the main predictor of their academic performance. 

No surprise, then, that the Bell House speaker, Dr Frances Knight, is a huge fan of good sleep. She is based at the UCL Institute of Education researching the effects of good and bad sleep, and looks at ways to improve our sleep - especially in children. Fran has studied the different types of sleep that are needed such as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and SWS (Slow Wave Sleep), and how long we sleep in each of these cycles as we age.

Fran Knight's "good sleep guide" suggests that the most important steps for parents are:

- Establish a routine and stick to it

- Arrange the bedroom so that it is a "sleep haven"

- Keep the bedroom media-free

- Avoid exciting video games in the hour before bedtime

- Beware sugary or caffeinated drinks 

- Make sure your child exercises regularly but not just before bedtime

Good sleep appears to have a number of important functions including memory consolidation, helping with recovery from injuries, clearing waste and promoting growth.  In contrast, bad sleep leads to impaired attitudes and poor cognitive functioning; it can lead to challenging behaviour and emotional problems. Fran Knight described some experiments where people take tests before and after sleep and they consistently performed better in the morning, after a good night of sleep. 

One way to help children improve their sleep is an app that UCL are developing called Mobero Intervention which promotes healthy sleep, especially targeted at children and teenagers with ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder). This app helps cement a good routine that both parents and children can be involved in, with a rewards-based system for good behaviour. Fran also considered the idea that certain foods may help - such as almond nuts and brazil nuts - and some music may help such as theta wave and delta wave music.

As usual with Bell House talks there was, after the talk, a lot of discussion with the speaker and between members of the audience.  One woman told me about how her 9 year-old son has built up anxiety about sleep and refuses to go to sleep without her sleeping with him.  Fran suggested a technique called "phasing" where you can progressively, over a few days, get your child to sleep - initially staying with them in bed until they are asleep and then staying with them in bed until they are almost asleep, then staying seated in the room until they are asleep and finally leaving them to sleep alone.  It was widely agreed that apart from being a possible short term solution, sleeping pills tend to be very disruptive to sleep patterns in the medium and long run. 

Watch our film HELPING CHILDREN SLEEP  Highlights of a talk given by Dr. Frances Knight at Bell House, about ways to help your child sleep. 

James Lackington's trading token

Local currencies like the Brixton pound or the Totnes pound are nothing new. In the 18th century London merchants issued their own currency too, and James Lackington, an associate of Thomas Wright, the man who built Bell House, took the opportunity to issue his own currency and to advertise his business at the same time. If Thomas Wright did likewise sadly no tokens have survived. However, at Bell House we do have a Lackington token, which Thomas Wright would have known and may have used.

When the price of copper rose steeply following the wars of the eighteenth century, copper coins became more valuable due to their metallic content. Counterfeiters began melting down the coins and replacing them with ones containing less copper. Minting more coins would have encouraged the counterfeiters so the government simply closed the Royal Mint, creating a coin shortage. Enter James Lackington.

James Lackington was the Jeff Bezos of his day, a bookseller who revolutionised the British bookselling trade. He honed his salesmanship selling pies in the street but he always said his first love was books so he became a bookseller, almost certainly selling Thomas Wright’s bibles and prayer books. The story went that on arriving in London with his wife, Lackington spent their last half-crown on a book of poems called Night Thoughts, explaining ‘for had I bought a dinner, we should have eaten it to-morrow, and the pleasure would have been soon over, but should we live fifty years longer, we shall have the Night Thoughts to feast upon’.

'Cheapest booksellers in the world.'

Lackington opened a huge bookstore in Finsbury Square, called the ‘Temple of the Muses’, said to be so big that a coach-and-four could be driven round it. He went up and down the country buying whole libraries and remaindered books, which he then sold as cheaply as he could, though he did not spare any expense in fitting out his ‘Temple’.

Lackington tokens had to be spent in his shop, cleverly ensuring shoppers had to return. He also used the tokens to advertise the shop and himself: it is his portrait on the obverse and on the reverse it says ‘Lackington, Allen & Co. Cheapest booksellers in the world’.

Lackington’s talent for publicity showed in other ways too. He flew a flag above the Temple of the Muses to let customers know when he was in the shop and when he was travelling around London (and possibly Dulwich?) his carriage was inscribed with his motto: Small profits do great things.

If you are interested in local history, Ian McInnes is leading a walk around Georgian Dulwich on Sunday 13 May 2018, as part of the Dulwich Festival. Click here for details.