News Archive

Sneak Preview of the SENAD Group Ram

The Derby Ram Trail

The SENAD Group’s sponsored Ram was brought to life this weekend by our artists from Reilly Creative. We can’t show you him yet as we’ve been asked to keep him under wraps for now, but here’s a sneak preview. As part of the trail activities students and service users across the groups schools and services will have the opportunity to create their own mini rams, as well as enjoying taking part in ram trail itself.

The Derby Ram Trail is a spectacular free discovery trail coming to Derby in the summer.
From 19 June to 28 August 2020 a flock of fabulously colourful and unique rams will take you on a trail around the beautiful city of Derby. The ram sculpture is based on the mythical Derby Ram from the 18th Century song, which according to legend was ten yards high with enormous horns and a huge flowing fleece. The story tells how people from all over came to see the huge Derby Ram, and we are excited that people will once again flock to Derby.
The Derby Ram Trail is brought to you by Derby Museums, together with Wild in Art and Presenting Partner, Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District (BID).

Chief Executive Officer Awarded Honorary Master Degree From The University of Derby

Brian Jones PC VC Chancellor

Huge congratulations go to our Chief Executive Officer, Brian Jones who was been awarded an Honorary Master Degree from Derby University, to recognise him for his work to promote and ensure the equality of education for young people.

Brian has been Chief Executive Officer for the SENAD Group since 2006. Using his significant experience in specialist education with local authorities, the voluntary sector and independent sector, he has successfully led the group in designing and operating high quality education, therapy and care services for young people and adults with autism, speech language and communication needs and mental health needs.

Brian is relentless in his dedication, determination and ambition to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our society and their families are treated with the respect, dignity and have equal opportunities to maximise their potential. He is highly respected figure within the sector and works closely with the Department for Education, educational institutions, including the University of Derby to develop policy and practice that will increase equality for all people with additional needs.

 

 

Aran Students Celebrate Their Library Project on World Book Day

Aran Hall School students took full advantage of their well stocked library as part of World Book Day. The library was opened in 2017 by Welsh author Bethan Gwanas and was put together by the young people, with the support of Eve Patten, Teacher.

The library has been stocked by raising money and asking for donations and has a student as the Library Manager who oversees the borrowing of books.

Celebrating NAPPI Success

Isabel Campbell of SENAD Community was awarded a tankard by NAPPI UK at the NAPPI Training meeting earlier this month for being one of the two longest serving NAPPI Trainers. Isabel and Wayne Price at Park House were part of the first Group of SENAD trainers trained by NAPPI UK, five years ago. Wayne received his tankard a few months ago. Both trainers remain actively involved as NAPPI Trainers and continue to promote the Psychological approach of NAPPI. They have witnessed the excellent achievements of staff through the use of the NAPPI philosophy.

The Group Health and Safety Manager, Martin Bradder said “I often sit in NAPPI Trainer Training sessions for an hour or so. It is great to see how the Trainers develop over the years. We have examples of NAPPI Trainers going on to be Registered Managers and it is my firm belief that NAPPI Trainers develop confidence through the excellent training provided by the NAPPI UK Trainers. I am immensely proud of Wayne, Isabel and the other NAPPI Trainers and I look forward to seeing what these guys will achieve over the next five years.”

Sporting Communities. Bringing Communities Together through Sport

David Walsh, Community Development Officer, Sporting Communities

The Sporting Communities Team have been busy raising awareness of their work in the local community. They provided games and sports activities at the annual Chaddesden Park, Big 1 event, which took place at the beginning of June.

The Sporting Communities’ information bus enabled them to showcase their work with local families, finding out what activities they would be interested in Sporting Communities delivering in the local area.

The SENAD Group have recently sponsored Sporting Communities, providing funding to run their project for 20 weeks. The project is being championed by Chaddesden Ward Councillor, Jonathan Smale.

Pictured is David Walsh, Sporting Communities Community Development Officer

 

Thank you to all our Catering Teams

On a weekly basis our school kitchens cook and serve over 3000 meals, with over 60 individual diet plans or special diets. The catering team produces meals based on a school by school bespoke menu – no one school has the same menu as any other. Where possible the menus are created with the help of the young people who will ultimately be enjoying them.

Meals are produced using fresh ingredients – frozen or readily prepared food forms less than 10% of the ingredients.

Having said all this working on a fixed 3 week menu cycle can be monotonous for the young people and ourselves – it is for this reason that we fully embrace working with the schools to deliver relevant theme days, for example curriculum linked events, specific school focuses, diary events such as “World Book Day”.

Here are a few theme events we have worked on in the last few months:

· Japanese Day – A school cultural day, we produced a Japanese themed menu and decorated the dining room.

· French Themed Tea

· National Pie Week – The young people helped to create the menu and even helped make some of the pies and fillings.

· Comic Relief

· Easter Lunch

When creating the menus we try to source authentic recipes and ingredients, we then encourage the young people to try new flavours and textures.

 

Maintenance Marvels at Aran Hall School

A big thank you to Sam and Mark (maintenance) who have been undertaking a lot of work here since the beginning of the year undertaking a refurbishment of Eagle House. Upstairs they have worked on three of the bedrooms for the young people, this involved taking down walls and completely refurbishing the interiors to a very high standard.

Downstairs they refurbished the kitchen into a modern more practical facility and also created a utility room for the young people to enhance their independent living skills.  Their work has been excellent and they worked around the young people causing minimal disruption in the running of the house room and young peoples routines. The young people made them feel welcome and were always keen to see what they were doing and to put the kettle on.

Feedback from the young people and staff on the improvements has been excellent. Sam and Mark are back in the summer to replace some windows.