Friday Night Fred Talks

Bel Whitwam recently retired from the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group where she advised farmers about the intersection of farming and the environment.  Over the years she has seen this role change from providing advise about habitats and food for wildlife around the edge of the farm towards providing support on transition towards sustainable or regenerative farming practises based on improving then maintaining soil health and water quality.  A 'win win' for the environment and the farm business.

The title of her talk -  'Is soil a dirty word?'

Debby Watson has spent many years researching with disabled people, particularly children with profound and multiple disabilities. Between 2010 and 2014 she carried out a doctoral study on playfulness and profoundly disabled children. She is involved with Bournstream, the playsite for disabled children in Wotton-under-Edge and regularly plays with her grandchildren!

'Pathways to Playfulness: Lessons from profoundly disabled children'. Playfulness is a difficult concept to pin down, but we generally know it when we see or feel it. When thinking about playfulness and profoundly disabled children, we need to look again: How can we encourage it? What circumstances make it more likely to thrive? Why is it important to nurture it? In studying children with profound impairments closely, we can learn much about what playfulness might mean in our own lives and how we can make sure it doesn't get lost in busy and demand-filled days.

Tying in with the Japanese end of WWII commemorations, Merilyn Brason talks about her mother’s remarkable experiences creating a family life and surviving years of deprivation as a prisoner of war in the Philippines.