Members of the Winslow Court Staff Team visited Pencombe Women’s Institute to give a presentation about Winslow Court and how we fit into the local community.
The presentation included a brief history of Winslow Court and how it had developed over the years, information on our staffing, explaining that we are the local areas largest employer. It also included information about Autism and how this affects our residents.
They showed some wonderful slides of Art produced by residents with Dave Symons support (Artist) and also talked about our quality assurance and how we work with closely with our regulators, the Care Quality Commission.
The event was a great success, lots of questions asked and we were made to feel very welcome. A nice cup of coffee afterwards gave us more opportunity to chat and answer questions.
We were offered payment for our time but refused this. We did invite them to attend our summer fete and encourage other members of the local community to come too.
Since the beginning of the Year, Jasmine Wardle–Peck, Residential Support Worker at Alderwasley Hall School has started a stretch class for the residential students. The yoga class take place on a Tuesday evening.
Jasmine has done a lot of yoga in her own personal time and felt it would help the young people relax during the evenings and help them get settled ready to sleep. A lot of the young people struggle to get to sleep due to their minds being so alert and awake. The yoga is also a good way for young people to develop their core stability and muscle tone.
Jasmine consults with the schools Occupational Therapy department to generate some exercises that suit young people with lower muscle tone. The Occupational Therapists also provided guided relaxation CDs which a couple of students now use to help them fall asleep. The sessions last between 30 and 45 minutes and involve stretching, strengthening, yoga poses, cool down and 10 minutes guided relaxation in a dark room.
This has also been beneficial for staff members. They join in with the young person they are supporting during the evening. It helps to release all the tension that has built up during the day, giving a sense of grounding. It also gives staff time to reflect on their day.
On Thursday 24th November, the Winslow Court Speech and Language Therapy team held a ‘Communication Coffee morning’ to highlight communication strategies such as signing and using photo/symbol support, to enhance residents’ ability to make choices and use a greater range of communication skills.
The team created symbol/photo choice boards: the choice to make a request through pointing at a single photo or to extend this request into a phrase e.g. “I want + chocolate + cake”; “I like + cake”; “I want + more”. One of our residents, who does not use speech, ate a marshmallow and pointed to the symbol for ‘like’ to comment that he liked it! Another resident, who would normally just use a single word, pointed to 3 symbols in a row to say “I want cake”. We also had a nice moment when one resident pointed at the photo of the cake he wanted but when given it, he pushed it away and then pointed at a different photo; when asked “you want this one instead?”… he then signed for “yes”.
We also put all useful signs on the wall behind the table (with cakes and drinks on), so everyone could practise their signing… this worked well and all staff tried their best to attempt to sign all morning. Lots of questions were asked e.g. how do you sign different? What’s the sign for green?; so we hope we taught everyone some new signs as well as refreshing some common ones.
We also set up a table with examples of visual supports that could be used within our residents’ homes and got some nice feedback about how they could be used.
Thanks everyone for a successful morning – we hope to do it again in the New Year! Remember – communication matters.
For more information about Speech and Language Therapy click here
Aran Hall School have just had their latest piece of research published … Pritchard et al (2016) Multi-component behavioural intervention reduces harmful SHB in a 17-year-old male with autism spectrum disorder. Read the full report here.
Staff member Josefina Sarto has worked tirelessly over the last two months to organise theme nights. September’s theme night was based upon the Hindu religion and culture. Josefina planned the theme night with a resident’s family member and they prepared three delicious curries with the service users at OneNineFive. Josefina hopes to continue to run the theme nights and is currently planning the theme night for October.
Support Workers from the SENAD Community East Midlands Team were thanked for their hard work on a particularly complex package with a meal out and a certificate of achievement. Well Done Team!
On 23rd September a team of practitioners from Alderwasley Hall School participated in a conference hosted by our Academy Alliance partners (Ash Field Teaching Academy). The topic for the day was improving the mental wellbeing of young people and was attended by colleagues from a range of schools (SEN and Mainstream) from across the Leicestershire area
A team from Alderwasley were instrumental in planning the conference from the very start and have been working within the project for many months prior to its execution. We worked alongside one of the Hospital Schools in Leicester and a residential school for young people with Emotional Social Behavioural Disorder profiles to put together a programme of key note presentations on the current state of mental wellbeing in our region’s school coupled with workshops offering practical ideas to support colleagues working with young people with needs within the mental wellbeing area and a presentation of artwork produced by young people at our school.
It is fair to say that our exceptional skills, specialisms and expertise in this area of Educational work shone through from outset of the project and this resulted in our team leading on three quarters of the presentations offered on the day. The feedback on the presentations was incredibly positive from the audience and our thanks go to the team of:
Simon Blundell
Todd Hinds
Emma Illingworth
Natalie Mills
Stacie Needham
for, once again, illustrating the impressive work and vast range of skills our team have.
Bladon House staff members, plus a colleague from Pegasus, have been studying towards a Masters in Education (SEND), through Derby University, since January. Two modules, Masterly Academic Practice and Specific Learning Disabilities, have been successfully completed and the group are now studying Foundations of Emotional Education.
At the end of the summer term members of the group were invited to attend the University of Derby MA Education Works! Conference where Ruby French, Kev Moore and Scott Rhodes had their Masterly Academic Practice Module academic posters displayed with Scott winning the prize for the best in the category. (Presumably because he managed to get a photograph of Professor Dumbledore into his work). The cohort have been asked to present a seminar session at next year’s conference, specifically around areas of special educational needs.
The lectures invariably led to heated and interesting debates and the group have learned a lot about each other and the different challenges faced with each of our students. Whilst there are still four modules and an independent study to complete, the impact of this outstanding professional development opportunity is already evident
We had a really positive and happy coffee morning on the 22nd September, with homemade cakes and refreshments. Residents got involved from Winslow Court and the other community based homes.
It was a really nice relaxed event and everyone had smiles. We are now looking forward to planning our next event which we hope will be as successful.
