On Wednesday 11th May, 39 students and 12 staff travelled to Crawley, to The K2 for the annual Parallel Youth Games.  It is one of the highlights of our year so everyone arrived at the event full of excitement to compete in a range of sports including boccia, new age Kurling, street football, cricket, golf, swimming and tennis.  A group of our students also represented Woodlands Meed in ‘Dance’ where they learnt and practised a dance routine with students from other schools which they would then perform to everyone during The Closing Ceremony.

We were treated to an inspiring speech before The Parallel Youth Games started from Olympian Montelle Douglas who is the only British athlete to have represented team GB at both the summer and winter Olympics in sprinting and bobsleigh respectively.  This inspiring speech set the tone for the whole day as students absolutely rose to the occasion; trying harder, running faster, throwing further, swimming quicker, and executing skills with greater accuracy and all the while with massive smiles on their faces!

There was success all round with medals won in the pool, in boccia, new age kurling and (for the first time in our history) on the tennis court!  Our golfers also did us proud, finishing a very respectable fifth and only a few points outside of a bronze medal position, and similar can be said of our cricket team who finished fourth.  Whilst there was initially heartbreak during the street football competition with us missing out on a bronze medal during a sudden death penalty shoot-out (an English team going out on penalties? I think we’ve been here before!), all five of our boys should be immensely proud of how they have played in a very tough and talented competition. 

Lastly, our dancers, who had spent the day learning and rehearsing a fantastic routine to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar!’, performed amazingly during the closing ceremony to a hall packed of competitors!  It really was a fitting end to an amazing day of competition.  Like I say, The Parallel Youth Games is one of the highlights of our academic year and for me personally is the event that I look forward to most.  It is a brilliantly inclusive day that completely epitomises what sport should be about.  Many never thought it possible that they would represent their school at such a big event, but every day our students continue to surprise us as they grow in to these increasingly confident, always inspiring young people that we have the pleasure of working with. 

It is days like today that remind me that I have the best job in the world!

Pen Gittins

Woodlands Meed HLTA PE Specialist

Woodlands Meed’s Careers and Transition Fair was held this month at The Kings Church in Burgess Hill. The Meed’s Job Club (MJC), which delivers Woodlands Meed’s Career Programme, organised and ran the event as part of their program of initiatives to help get and prepare their students and young people into work placements along with developing and delivering a progressive and meaningful programme of learning, working with employers and external partners.

The event brought together local employers, day and transitional services and further education providers. All the exhibitors were passionate about recognising the potential of people with SEND in the world of work and the value of giving young people an opportunity to make a valued contribution to society. 

Woodlands Meed students from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 5 visited throughout the day, along with SEND students from other local School including St Pauls, Warden Park, Burgess Hill Academy and St Mary’s School & 6th Form College in Bexhill. Parents and staff were invited to visit the event in the afternoon along with other young people with SEND from different provisions locally to share the positive impact of this event beyond just those at Woodlands Meed.

The feedback from those who attended described the event as a great success and incredibly valuable in giving young people a chance to gain a detailed insight into work possibilities and of the future opportunities available. The businesses who attended felt it also provided them with an insight into working with young people with SEND. One exhibitor commented, ‘the students were great and many were very curious, it was great to be able to inspire young minds’. The students also provided positive feedback ‘it was good and I got to see how many options there were for me’.

The MJC wants to support local businesses to become more inclusive whilst enabling students to reach their full potential. We are keen to talk with any businesses who may be interested in providing a small group of students with work experience opportunities such as a visit to their premises/workshop for a tour, coming to college to talk about your job/business or offering formal work experience.

To find out more, meet the Woodlands Meed team and other like-minded businesses looking to become more inclusive and diverse - Mims Davis, MP and DWP Youth Employment Minister will be opening the next MJC Business Networking event held at Woodlands Meed College in May, to find out more or attend this event please email careers@woodlandsmeed.co.uk 

There were celebrations this week as the Profound and Multiply Learning Disabilities (PMLD) new outside play area was opened by the Kirkdale family.

The Kirkdale family donated towards the funds needed to create the outside area and opened the new facility in memory of their brother Francis.

Francis sadly passed away in 2019, but he had attended Newick House School in the 1970’s.  Newick House School merged with Court Meadow School to form Woodlands Meed in 2012.  The plaque to remember Francis reads ‘The support you received here as a pupil shaped so much of the man you became....’ and it was because of this the family wished to support Woodlands Meed and the pupils who are benefiting from the specialized support they received today.

Mark Kirkdale said ‘We are delighted to see what a fantastic project our donation has helped create, to know that lots of pupils will benefit from this outside area for many years and what a lasting impact this will have is a lovely way to remember our brother Francis.’

The new covered and fully wheelchair accessible area enables the pupils to be outside whatever the weather and the wheelchair accessible swing provides the opportunity for  users to experience the movement of a swing and enjoy lots of fun and has been very popular so far.

As well as the generous donation from the Kirkdale family, fundraising for this area came from the result of the hard work and generosity of some Woodlands Meed parents and supporters.   Woodlands Meed parents Anna & Richard Ball organized and ran a Fundraising Ball and Cuckfield Bonfire have generously donated to Woodlands Meed for many years to projects like this.

Adam Rowland, Headteacher, thanked those responsible for the fundraising and commented ‘This just would not have been possible without the remarkable generosity of the Kirkdale family and the outstanding fundraising efforts of Anna & Richard Ball and Cuckfield Bonfire Society.  We are hugely grateful for all their considerable efforts and those who generously supported them along the way.  This outdoor area has already made a huge difference to the outdoor learning and play opportunities for our pupils and will continue to do so for many years to come’.

On the 16th February, our ks3 cricketers represented our School Site at the annual table cricket competition at The County Ground in Hove, home of Sussex Cricket.

Our students arrived at the County ground in Hove, home of Sussex County Cricket club, full of excitement and keen to do well in the day’s activities. The competition was made up of four strong teams; two from Woodlands Meed including students from KS3 and KS5, as well as two teams from Manor Green College.

Match one saw our KS3 team take on Manor Green College team A. The match was played in great spirit, with both teams encouraging one another.  This teamwork led to Woodlands Meed winning the first match, outscoring their opponents by 10 runs.

Match 2 was the battle of Woodlands Meed, seeing our school and college teams go head to head. Again both teams played with great enthusiasm and showed real respect for eachother.  The school team took the win narrowly outscoring the college by 5 runs!

 With one final match to go and knowing a win would secure the title, the school team were positive about achieving the victory they needed.

The final match was played against Manor Green colleges team B. The excellent attitude of all who took part          continued throughout the whole day, and we were treated to another excellent contest. Woodlands Meed delivered a fabulous all round team performance to win their final match by 15 runs.

With the final matches played and the results in, our school team finished the tournament unbeaten, scoring an amazing 809 runs in total for the day and were crowned champions!

 All the staff were so impressed with the students attitude, behaviour and positivity. They all demonstrated great communication, perseverance, independence and teamwork skills. We need to mention our two sports’ leaders, who were brilliant in their roles as scorers and umpires. The students can be immensely proud of themselves and we certainly are. They were a credit to the school and each other.

All going well the team will now be entered into the regional finals where if they can continue their success and win, would progress to the national finals which are held at the home of cricket Lords.

Once again I cannot speak high enough of our students they were and are fabulous!!

Three films made by pupils at Woodlands Meed have been accepted into the Oska Bright Film Festival 2022.

‘Get the Baguette’ and ‘Rosie’s Dream’ were made by a performing arts, music and media class collaboration and the other film ‘Infiltration at Bakura’ was created by Jake, who created an incredible stop motion animation from Lego.

Arts Lead Teacher Gabrielle Woerndl was delighted with her pupil’s success

‘I am so thrilled that our film maker’s effort have been rewarded by being chosen for the Oska Bright Film Festival this year.  Our students have created some brilliant work and to be part of the festival to share this with other film makers is just fantastic.  To be chosen from 600 entries is a huge achievement for all those involved’

With less than 5% of disabled people working in the UK film industry, the Oska Bright Film Festival, is driven to make change happen. Working internationally with industry partners and funded by the BFI, the BAFTA qualifying Oska Bright Film Festival, promotes accessible screenings, runs training for venues and develops skills for aspiring filmmakers.

Oska Bright Film Festival puts people with Learning Disabilities, Autism or Aspergers where they should be, on the big screen. They show bold, exciting and different work from voices you might not have heard before.

The festival is managed and delivered by a team of ten learning disabled artists, all passionate about film and exhibition. It is presented by the award winning learning disability art organisation Carousel, which brings learning disability arts to the front.

The Oska Bright Film Festival runs from 16-22 March 2022, in Brighton and across the UK and online.