The young adults at Ecclesbourne Lodge took part in National Growing for Wellbeing Week. They thoroughly enjoyed the activity and all of them got involved. They will now all tend and grow their own plants and vegetables
Growing for Wellbeing Week is a national event that took place on the 7th – 13th June 2021. The week is a celebration of the magic that growing your own produce can do for your wellbeing, both physically and mentally.
Approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience mental ill-health each year. There is strong evidence highlighting the health benefits of gardening and ‘grow your own in particular, including improved confidence, communication, concentration and ultimately self-belief.
Gardening improves mental health, enables better physical health, provides an opportunity to connect with others, acquire new skills and enjoy the great outdoors.
After all, It’s not what you grow, it’s how YOU grow.
Students and Staff from Maple View School found the amazing SENAD Group Ram, Pirate Sheepmate this morning on their first visit to the Derby Ram Trail. They are going to do the trial along with their classmates over the coming weeks. Along with the SENAD ram, there are 29 other rams located throughout Derby City Centre, all sponsored by local businesses. Visitors can follow the ram trail by purchasing a map from the museum or by downloading the Derby Ram Trail app which is free and downloadable through the App Store and Google Play.
Donna Webb, a Physiotherapy Assistant at Bladon House School celebrated her 30th work anniversary on the 1st of May 2021. Donna was heavily involved in powerlifting and she became a British Champion at the age of 16! She represented Great Britain during 3 world championships in Australia – Adelaide, USA – Hawaii and UK –Birmingham. Donna came 3 in all of them! Unfortunately, Donna was forced to stop her spectacular sport career due to the injury.
When Donna started working at Bladon House School she quickly recognised that working with people with special needs is very rewarding. Donna worked in the care department for 10 years and she progressed from a student support worker to a team leader position. Then she moved to Education and worked as a teaching assistant, PE assistant and Sports Leader. After 13 years in Education, Donna moved to the therapy department to work as a Physiotherapy Assistant. Donna provides physiotherapy, sensory–motor sessions and sensory diets written by the school’s physiotherapist. She uses her sport and work experience to deliver high-quality therapy sessions.
Over the years Donna has been working in various school departments and she has obtained lots of experience and understanding of people with special needs. Donna is an important part of Bladon’s team. She is full of positivity and smile and always ready to help and support.
Over the past couple of weeks, some of the young people at Bladon House School have spent time during their Forest school lesson doing Easter themed activities. One of the favourites was making and toasting Hot Cross Buns.
We are very proud to have celebrated fantastic achievements with D this term, who attended the North Yorkshire Virtual School Graduation ceremony (via Zoom of course!) She was chosen to attend this glittering event, to recognise her amazing progression both academically and personally. D joined Bladon House School in April 2018 and has gone from strength to strength every single day. Her greatest achievement being her maths progression, having hated this subject initially, she is now a maths convert and it’s now her favourite subject by far! D always works extremely hard, with a positive learning attitude and a strong work ethic, and a keenness to learn. Having recently achieved the Aim Award Extended Certificate at Entry Level 3 which encompasses elements of maths, English, science PSHE, IT, food technology, and PE, she is currently working towards the Entry Level 3 Diploma alongside a dual qualification of a Level One Extended Award in maths, which is truly amazing! D is our first Head Girl here at Bladon, which is an enormous accolade, and a role she takes very seriously. She is involved in staff interviews, meeting Ofsted inspectors and greeting visitors onsite, meeting potential new students on Zoom, to give them a taste of life at Bladon, to name a few of her duties. She is also a NAPPI trainer which carries a lot of responsibility, helping staff to understand amber scales and develop their practice further in supporting young people. D also works hard in the Blue Room sessions and has started a fantastic initiative in a series of “Dear D” videos as the Bladon Agony Aunt, to help other young people onsite who may be having problems, by providing possible solutions. It was amazing that one of D videos was shared at the event to encourage everyone to stay positive in these Covid times. Having celebrated in style, D is now looking forward to her next steps and moving onto college in the autumn term.
Everyone had lots of fun joining in with World Book Day at Bladon House School!
All around the school, many different characters could be spotted walking about site, attending lessons and queuing for their dinner! Students and staff had all worked really hard on their costumes and everyone looked fabulous!
The fancy dress parade included Harry Potter, Where’s Wally, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and many more. As well as the costume competition, students completed World Book Day activities in class such as colouring in pictures of their favourite characters, listening to poems, and role-playing scenes from famous stories.
This year’s World Book Day was another great success and lots of laughter and smiles were had by all!
The costume competition was divided into student and staff entries and prizes were given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Pegasus School have had their soft play area replaced with new equipment and some great new additional functional features. The school onsite Occupational Therapist Wilbur Serra worked with the soft play supplier to enhance the experience for the young people by adding a hiding tunnel, higher elevation, an Alexa and sensory lights.
The soft play area offers huge functional benefits to the young people at the school:
It features a selection of high-quality soft blocks, landing mats, hiding tunnel, soft climbing steps, peanut ball and more.
It provides various types of sensory input including tactile, visual, proprioceptive and vestibular which in turn helps students achieve a sense of calmness.
It helps students develop and improve their gross motor skills and muscle coordination, as well as increasing muscle tone and providing calming alert stimulation.
It helps young people to develop self-play, develops their problem-solving skills while navigating obstacles, increases self- confidence, generates positive interaction and the overall development of sensory self-regulation.
The added feature of higher platform elevation stimulates vestibular sense which help them understand their body movement and their position in space.
Yoga provides an effective therapeutic alternative for children with learning disabilities. Yogic breathing exercises (pranayama) stimulate the central nervous system and strengthen the immune system.
The aim is to develop the children’s skills in communication, social interaction and play using tried and tested methods. Yoga practice with Autistic children has demonstrated that through the use of movement and body awareness yoga has allowed people to develop and build friendships, interact and engage emotionally and help trust in others and confidence in self.
However, for our students it’s more of being in the moment, ‘right here right now’, to learn how to breath, relax, let go and to calm, to learn it’s ok to let go and to breath and to manage what you are feeling at that moment in time. Yoga can help both with calming you down when you feel angry in the moment and with managing anger in the longterm.
Yoga reduces anxiety
Shallow breathing, poor posture and tense muscles are both results and causes of anxiety. If you’ve been stuck in an anxiety cycle for a long period of time, it’s likely that your body has almost learned to protect itself by remaining tense, physically closed off and with very short, sharp breaths. The mind and body are so closely interlinked, that physically deepening the breath, improving posture and relaxing the muscles in a safe space can all help reduce anxiety.
Basic Breath Awareness:
This gentle introduction to diaphragmatic breathing teaches you how to breathe more fully and consciously.
Benefits:
Quiets and calms the entire nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety and improving self-awareness.
Try It:
At least once a day, at any time.
How To:
Lie comfortably on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor about hip-distance apart. Place a palm on your abdomen and breathe comfortably for a few moments, noticing the quality of your breath. Does the breath feel tense? strained? uneven? shallow? Simply observe the breath without any judgment. Then gradually begin to make your breathing as relaxed and smooth as possible, introducing a slight pause after each inbreath and outbreath.
Enabling young people to access education underpins all the work at Alderwasley Hall School and Sixth Form. Due to the pandemic staff at the school have been introducing the students to home learning so they are prepared, just in case.
The primary department including Teachers, Therapists & Learning Support Assistants simulated what it would be like to work from home, should they have to self isolate.
Learning from home is a completely new skill but the children soon got used to it and are much better prepared, just in case.
Children follow individualised curriculum pathways, either semi-formal or subject-specific, according to ability, with EHCP Outcomes and preparation for life after Maple View at the core of their pathway.
The multi-disciplinary teams work together to support development and learning through the establishment and tracking of Learning Intentions.
Children engage in classroom-based learning, including daily literacy, numeracy and PSHE activities. In the afternoons they can access horticulture and small animal care, cooking, Forest School and community-based activities and have the opportunity to work with children from other classes. There is a strong focus on creativity and well-being, with music at the start of the day and yoga to close. A half-termly book, accessible to all, is the focus of whole-school cross-curricular planning, encompassing the areas of music, art, literacy, science and the humanities.
Individual and group therapy sessions take place within the classroom, within therapy rooms, outdoors or in the community throughout the school day, with communication and sensory-regulation at the heart of the programmes.
Personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) is at the heart of the curriculum, and intertwined into daily activities, with a focus on social development and equipping children with the skills and resilience required to safely and effectively participate within a range of communities. We belong to the ‘Kindness School’ programme and daily acts of kindness are encouraged and celebrated.
Progress is measured, using MAPP (Mapping andAssessing Personal Progress) in four key areas:
¨ Independence: from dependent to independent
¨ Fluency: from approximate to accurate
¨ Maintenance: from inconsistent to consistent
¨ Generalisation: from single context to many contexts
At the end of spring half term we have been able to celebrate the success of our children’s progress during their Review of Assessment & Planning (RAP) Meeting.
