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>hi >can any one help me i would like to get my collage to set up a buddie >system. > >could any one tel me hoe they did it. >and where to start > >many thanks >emma gibson Emma I'd start with any member of staff who is involved with supporting Students learning needs and their disabilities. Do you have an induction day / week at the start of the year, where all the information is provided about everything? That's a good moment to make contact with new students. At Oxford Brookes University - we started it as a self help scheme with the aid of Student Services. With their help we identified a few dyslexic students who were prepared to be "Buddies" to New students - 6 people in all. A member of Staff from the councelling team gave us a talk on How to listen, and How not to taken on board all your Buddies problems but to point them at the right expert when you could not provide the answer. Who is the supervisor / co-ordinator, when do you go to them? Student Services run a workshop in the first week of term and this was where we told people that Buddies were available. They were to meet in each of the first 3 weeks of term and the 6th week when our workload goes mad! appart from that they could meet when and where they liked. There are lots of choices: Do your Buddies support on a 1:1 basis? Should you all meet up together and be introduced to your Buddy or meet your buddy and then brave a group meeting? Do you only need buddies at the start of the year, in the first term, or when you find out you are dyslexic ...? Do you want Buddies to be in the same field and able to give knowledge about the course OR is it better to make contacts with people in other fields and other interests. We also tried a Student Union society to improve awareness of dyslexia and to generally have fun, and it has certainly been a very good laugh when we have got together. There are problems with workloads, stress and apathy. Not everyone is confident enough to expose their problems to support others, even the extroverts! Getting people involved is hard work. Keeping them involved in worse but regular use of e-mail helps. GOOD LUCK Mary ELD Final Year Student (Educational Studies and Intelligent systems) Oxford Brookes University P.S. any more questions be quick I'm only here a few more weeks. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%