In their distinctive white helmets, Royal Marines Bands are renowned throughout the world for the quality of their music, visual splendour and precision drill.  On the concert platform they enjoy a similar reputation ensuring their continuing popularity with concert audiences.  The Band’s concert repertoire embraces all kinds of music including popular classics, music of the Big Band era, exciting contemporary works and amusing solo features which all combine to produce programmes that are both entertaining and spectacular.  The inclusion of the Corps of Drums brings movement, colour and a flavour of the Ceremonial and State occasions of which Royal Marines Bands are such an integral part.  This ensures that the grand spectacle of the traditional Finale is presented as a fitting climax to the concert with appropriate pomp and drama. The Band of HM Royal Marines Scotland is based at HMS CALEDONIA, Rosyth, Fife.

The Band presents a Christmas spectacular at the Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline on Wednesday 16th December.  The concert will feature the choir of St Johns Primary School, Rosyth and will include Christmas music and carols to get you in the festive mood.
Tickets, which are available from the Alhambra box office and from Ticketmaster on-line, will cost £10.

On this occasion, the Band is directing proceeds towards local charities and Fife Action on Autism will share in this.

Have a great night out and see the spectacle which is the Royal Marines Bands on display!

The concert will start at 7.30pm with doors opening at 7.00pm.

When Graeme Wilson ran in the BUPA Great North Run in September, not only was it his fifth time of participation, it was the third time that he had run with sponsorship from friends to raise funds for Fife Action on Autism. Such was his support that he was able to count on £7 for every minute that he ran during the race. Graeme raised the amazing sum of £919 – which with the addition of Gift Aid-returned tax from a significant number of the sponsors, brings the total raised to £1,093. The money will go to Fife Action on Autism’s work in the community, especially their Asperger project work. Graeme undertakes publicity work for FAoA – and was happy to raise awareness of the group’s existence while running the 13.1 miles of the Great North Run.

 Among the friends and family supporting the effort were Graeme’s colleagues at Fife Council Education Service’s Auchterderran Centre, members of the Fife Youth Orchestra, Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society, the Avison String Ensemble, Fife Festival of Music, Graeme’s wife Ella’s colleagues at Balwearie High School and members of the Scottish Association for Music Education.

 The photo shows Graeme with Cathy Scott of Fife Action on Autism.

One of our two ‘Education’ meetings of the year.  This time we will be hearing from the Education Service about their new Guidelines for Teachers and Parents.

Tracy McCallum and Vikki Brisland are two brave souls who are taking part in a school refurbishment programme in Namibia for a fortnight next October.  In order to take part in this they have to raise enough funds to pay for their travel and accommodation – but they are also expected to raise a similar amount for a local charity.  We are very fortunate that they have chosen Fife Action on Autism.

Tracy and Vikki will be letting us know about all their plans for their fundraising activities and how we can help them reach their target.  The more they raise, the more we get!  This will be a very different meeting from the usual, but we hope everyone can come along and pledge their support to Tracy and Vikki.

Refreshments will be available as usual

Paul Baillie from Supporting People will be our speaker this month.

The next meeting of Fife Action on Autism will be at the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes and will be an opportunity for families and professionals to share experiences and advice and get to know one another.  This has always been a popular meeting for families and we hope as many as possible will come along.  Non-members are welcome.  There will be tea, coffee and biscuits.

This meeting will be our AGM.  Members and non-members are welcome – although only members will be able to vote.  We are actively encouraging new committee members and will take nominations and volunteers on the night.

We are expecting that the ‘business’ part of the evening will be over relatively quickly and have therefore invited a speaker from the Fife Carer’s Centre to fill the remaining time.

The Education Service’s Autism Support and Information Team (ASIST) will be our guests at the April meeting.  Although they have regularly been in attendance at education meetings it is quite a while since we heard from the team themselves, so this will be a chance for us to catch up with their work to date and their plans for the future.

As usual the meeting will be held at the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, starting at 7.30pm.  Everyone welcome.

Our next meeting will be held on March 26th at 7.30pm at the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes when the speaker will be Rachel Webb, the new Fife and Tayside Area Manager of The Scottish Society for Autism.  The Society now provides children’s services as well as the adult services they have provided in Fife since 1996, so an update is due and it will be a good opportunity to meet Rachel, who previously worked for the Care Commission in Fife, the body which inspects care services.

Our first meeting of the year will be held at 7.30pm on Thursday 29th January at the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes.  As usual for January this will be an informal ’sharing of experiences’ meeting with no speaker.  Come along with your questions or your experiences and see if you can help or be helped!