Introduction:

Hi, my name is Joanne, and I am the Chief Operating Officer for the ZootAlore! Community Foundation CIC. We are currently working on a new and exciting website designed to assist Learners with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities into employment and/or training as well as supporting with independent living arrangements. It’s a fantastic job which allows me to work in an area which I am very passionate about.

What I have been up to:

Over the past few months I have been very busy making contacts with various organisations, government representatives including some at the DfE, and a number of charities to spread the word of the work which we are doing and also to allow learners to register and use the facilities we offer.

Introduction:

Greetings, I’m Zoot. Let’s be honest, you already knew that…didn’t you? Basically, I run the show at ZootAlore. I have been travelling the galaxies for the last 106 years, and I have finally found a nice set of colleagues with great ideas; great ethics and not-so-ugly faces.

What I have been up to:

This week, I have been organising the staff Christmas party. Sadly, I don’t think that the ZootAlore! employees would be able to keep up with ‘Party Zoot’, so we will be heading out for a meal mid-December, and behaving ourselves.

We’ve also been organising everything ready for an exhibition that we’re off to in London. It’s called Opening Doors and it’s going to be huge. We’ve got two stands there, one for The Big Academy and one for the ZootAlore! Group. I’m heading down too, as it’s based at Tottenham Hotspurs’ football ground and I haven’t seen my old pal Harry Redknapp since my trial last year.

Introduction:

Greetings, I’m Zoot. Let’s be honest, you already knew that…didn’t you? Basically, I run the show at ZootAlore!. I have been travelling the galaxies for the last 106 years, and I have finally found a nice set of colleagues with great ideas; great ethics and not-so-ugly faces.

What I have been up to:

This week, I have been making sure that we have everything in place for our upcoming trip to the Opening Doors exhibition. This involved making sure that everybody is ready, organising the trip, ensuring we have the right promotional stuff and drinking lots of tea. I like tea.

I also went along to one of our Employment Leaders’ wedding. Congratulations Gemma, it’s just a shame that you wouldn’t let me in and I had to watch through a window.

The Chief Operating Officer of ‘MyLife’; a ZootAlore! group website dedicated to helping people with disabilities and special educational needs, has slammed a comedian for his recent comments on a social networking site.

Comedian Ricky Gervais, best known for his shows The Office and An Idiot Abroad, has been blasted over his repeated use of the word "mong" on Twitter.

Defending his actions, Gervais said: "Just to clarify for uptight people stuck in the past. The word mong means Down's Syndrome about as much as the word gay means happy. I never use the word mong to mean anything to do with Downs Syndrome."