John Fielding Special School meets the unique needs of all of pupils ranging in age from 2 -19 Years. All pupils have severe learning difficulties, some also have an autistic spectrum disorder, epilepsy, a physical disability, sensory impairment, medical needs and/or a communication difficulty.
The school have been making improvements to their communication provision for pupils and Teachers and TA’s have attended workshops on:
- Picture Exchange Communication (PECS);
- Using signs and symbols in the classroom;
- Core communication training with a Speech and Language Therapist; and
- Makaton.
While the school has made excellent progress regarding staff skills, we were lacking communication equipment for our pupils.
With a target of £6,000 to purchase new and engaging resources such as switch adapted toys, the school embarked on a fundraising challenge.
Switches serve a variety of purposes allowing pupils to make choices and interact during lessons (i.e. turn the pages of a digital book). Story Sequencers enable pupils to follow stories and link characters and images to the plot.
Richard Gamman, Headteacher, said:
“We have been overwhelmed with the support received. The Boshier-Hinton Foundation kindly donated £2,000, parents and member of the public made donations totalling £430. And this week we received a £10,000 donation from the Medlock Trust.
It is with huge thanks to them all that we can now move forward and complete the project, providing our pupils with switch adapted resources to help improve our pupil’s communication skills. Parents will also benefit as we create closer parent-school engagement, using Audio Diaries.”
