A spectacular week of interactive experiences to inform, educate and celebrate opportunities for young people with SEND

Popular comedian, TV personality and SEND ambassador, Rosie Jones and ‘The Greatest Dancer’ star, Andrew Self got Woodlands Meed’s virtual careers fair off to a dynamic start this week as they appeared on screen across classrooms.

More inspirational talks followed throughout the week from Robert White, Autistic comedian from Britain’s Got Talent, Luke Stephenson, a comedian with Tourettes, Joe James, world renowned Autistic Photographer and Chris Bonnello, Autistic author of The Underdogs books and Autisticnotweird.com website.

The event is Woodlands Meed’s first virtual careers fair and offered students the chance to hear from a range of inspirational speakers about how they have coped with the challenges of SEND to be able to find the careers they now enjoy. One of the key messages repeated by all the speakers was

“Don’t let anything hold you back”

Rosie Jones, talked about her career to date and her new children’s book ‘The Amazing Edie Eckhart’. She told students about her time at school and how she enjoyed English the most because her teacher always told her she could do better and she wanted to prove him right! Rosie also gave an excellent insight into the comedy circuit. Her advice to students was not to think of the future as a whole because it could be overwhelming, but just focus on the next step. She said after the event

“I loved speaking at the virtual careers fair. It was the most perfect start to my week. I just hope next time we can do it in person! “

Andrew Self, a dancer and model with Down Syndrome answered the pupil’s questions about dance and gave a performance which all the students really enjoyed. His message was simple

“If you enjoy something just go for it!”

Autistic Photographer, Joe James talked about photography and his job as a security guard. His key message to the students was - don’t let anyone hold your back or tell you your worth.

Actor, Luke Stephenson who has Tourettes, talked about his acting career and the misconceptions around Tourettes that it’s not just swearing. He told the students to

“Always believe in yourself! Go out and smash it! “

Chris Bonnello, Autistic author of the Under Dogs series of books, encouraged students to keep their career options open. He also gave them tips on how to prepare for interviews and how to talk about autism in a positive way. He advised the students to 'play to their strengths' and 'to recognise what they are good at'.

Britain’s Got Talent contestant, Robert White an Autistic comedian, writer and musician spoke about his diagnosis, and created some short musical numbers for the pupils live online and answered questions about Britain’s Got Talent.

Additionally, the week long event also connected the students with local businesses and employers with a series of engaging talks. The students had a chance to hear from a range of local employers about job opportunities and potential career paths available to them as well as ask questions.

Local businesses Albion in the Community, Places for People, Kanwish Designs, Sharpe Cat Printing, Dozy Pheasant Brewing Co, Mother Goose Swim School, Lipstick & Barrel and Nails by Vivienne all took part giving students a broad view of workplaces and what future careers and employment might look like.

Across the UK only 6% of people with SEND are currently employed and in Sussex the statistic is even more shocking with only 2% employed, with over 70% of those who are able wanting to work.

Adam Rowland, Head teacher and his team are passionate about changing this statistic for their students

“We are really excited to offer our students the chance to take part in our first virtual careers fair. Being able to connect with employers, local businesses and to hear inspirational stories from some well known faces like Rosie Jones and Andrew Self has been a unique opportunity to give our students an insight into what the future could hold and hear from speakers who have dealt with some of the challenges our students face. It is a great start in helping to encourage our young people to feel inspired about their own transition and career paths”.

 “The week has been a fantastic opportunity for us to work collaboratively with local businesses and our SEND advocates to inspire and support our students to think about their future and we will build on this week’s success to grow and develop our support of SEND employment opportunities.”

The students also heard from some Woodlands Meed Alumni. Carl Morgan, an ex-pupil, spoke about how despite his struggles with reading and writing has set up his own business - Sussex Prestige Cars which is thriving. His key message to the students was it doesn’t always have to matter about qualifications, work the hardest you can, go the extra mile and be the best at what you can do.

The feedback and comments from the students was testimony to what many had taken away from the week,

“Rosie’s disability hasn't stopped her. I feel like nothing is going to stop me. “

“You can do anything if you put your mind to it “

“You can still succeed even with a disability”

“The way he decided to talk about the way he has autism and that he had challenges to overcome. “

“He was funny and told us funny stories and inspired us to be ourselves and no matter how far our dreams are we can reach it. “

“I learnt that you should never give up if you are being bullied or being called ‘not good enough’. Joe James didn’t give up, he got up and became more confident in life.”

This event is part of Woodlands Meed’s focus on supporting young people on their journey to employment and offer a broad range of ideas and success stories of those with SEND who have bucked the trend and built a successful career doing something they enjoy.

To find out more about supporting people with SEND in the workplace, sharing your careers experience with our students or how we can help support your business with SEND work placements please contact careers@woodlandsmeed.co.uk

Woodlands Meed Teaching Assistant, Sarah Smith and her family have been busy collecting and coordinating some feel good food hamper deliveries for local families in need over the past few months.

After hearing how a Woodlands Meed family was struggling to provide treat and snack type items for their child with special needs, Sarah wanted to help out. 

‘I know how much difference a treat can make to a child with special and sensory needs and it’s really hard for some families if they find themselves unable to provide them.  Food items like wafer biscuits and crisps are often liked for their sensory texture and flavours but aren’t often included in parcels from the food bank.  I just wanted to help this family with a bag of treat items to complement the food they were receiving from the foodbank.  Not being able to enjoy an occasional treat during lockdown because of the circumstances you’re in just didn’t seem very fair ’

What started out as a kind gesture of one bag of treats has snowballed into Sarah and her family collecting and organising dozens of bags and become a community wide effort.

Food donations have been received from kind friends and neighbours who wanted to get involved to help.  Sarah has also received some generous donations so she has been able to buy what items she needs to make up a variety of bags to suit the needs of the local families they she is helping.

Head teacher at Woodlands Meed, Adam Rowland said

‘Many families have been struggling during the Coronavirus lockdown and have found themselves in difficult situations through the loss of loved ones, losing jobs, being unable to leave the house and many other reasons.  Sarah and her fellow helpers have done an amazing job in not just helping Woodlands Meed families but lots of other families in need in our local community.  Through their efforts Sarah has been able to bring a little bit of happiness to families who really appreciate it during these difficult times.’

Thanks to everyone at Burgess Hill Bonfire Society for their generous donation of £600 to Woodlands Meed from last year’s procession. Friends of Woodlands Meed Committee Member Inga Herlihy was invited to join BHBS for their celebrations on Saturday and was presented with the amazing cheque!

 

We are very excited to announce that after the highly successful pilot scheme last year, GOSketch is back with a BANG! Thanks to Neil and his team at JOLF, our current year 9s will access this amazing opportunity which incorporates two of our most popular subjects; art and sport!

Our students will be provided with a 10 week programme which focusses on communication, fine and gross motor skills, and most importantly teamwork.  Our students will work in two teams to design and create a character, persona and colour scheme which, once finalised, will be used to produce some chosen pieces of merchandise that the students will be allowed to keep!  These could include t-shirts, baseball caps and putting clubs, all complete with THEIR character and colour scheme...how exciting is that?! 

We will keep you updated on their progress and look forward to presenting our students’ final designs!

#watchthisspace #getcreative #littleapprentices

 Our students have thoroughly enjoyed their first half of GoSketch sessions. They have had the opportunity to receive some coaching from the Neil; tackling a number of putting challenges with great enthusiasm and success!

Furthermore, the students have also worked really hard on the art and design elements of this project.  They were put into two teams, each with an allocated team captain.  Their first challenge was to come up with a team name that they all agreed on, and after a lot of discussions, we now have our two teams:

1. The Whisperers

2. The Gull-Actic Golfers

Students have been working hard on their logos and characters for their team, which when finalised will be revealed to the rest of the school!

 

Woodlands Meed held its first Careers and Transition Fair on 14 January at The Kings Church in Burgess Hill. 

The event brought together local employers, day services, transitional services and further education settings with a passion for recognising the potential of people with SEND in the world of work and the value of giving them an opportunity to make a valued contribution to society.

Woodlands Meed is a generic special needs school and college in West Sussex. The students have a very broad range of special needs and disabilities. Many of the students find new and unfamiliar environments and people challenging and the SEND Careers and Transition Fair helped provide a highly supportive space to experience meaningful encounters with employers and transitional organisations to engage and inspire.

Key Stage 3 students attended in the morning followed by with Key Stages 4 and 5 in the afternoon.  Parents and staff were invited to visit the event from 3- 5pm 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 some of the future opportunities available.  The businesses who attended felt it also provided local employers with an insight into working with young people with SEND.

 

The Careers team at Woodlands Meed are already planning next year’s event, if you’re a local business who would like to know more please email careers@woodlandsmeed.co.uk

A ground-breaking table cricket league for children and young adults with complex physical disabilities was launched in Sussex on Friday.

The joint project between Sussex Cricket Foundation and Chailey Heritage Foundation is based in Chailey Heritage’s brand-new Dream Centre in North Chailey, near Lewes.

Students from Sussex Cricket’s network of special educational needs school and colleges are competing in the league using adapted equipment built by engineer Dr Martin Langner from Chailey Heritage that allows those with the most complex needs to operate batting and bowling devices independently.

In Friday’s first fixture, Chailey Heritage School took on Woodlands Meed School. The two-innings match ended in a thrilling tie, with both teams’ making a combined total of 357.

Further rounds of the competition will take place each half-term between now and the summer of 2020 when the eventual winner will be crowned.

Sussex Cricket Foundation coaches have been funded by the Lord’s Taverners charity to support the teams taking part and officiate the matches.

Opening up the game to other special educational needs schools and colleges in the county, the league builds on the success of weekly table cricket sessions for Chailey Heritage School pupils that have been delivered by Sussex Cricket Foundation over the last two years.

Aroop Tanna, Sussex Cricket’s disability cricket manager said: “We’re thrilled to be launching this new competition with our friends at Chailey Heritage. I remember our conversation 12 months ago when we discussed how amazing it would be to get young people with the most complex disabilities playing table cricket matches independently.

“It is fantastic that with the support of Lord's Taverners, this collaboration is able to bring young people together from different schools and colleges to access competitive sport in such a spectacular environment.

“The new league is another example of Sussex Cricket Foundation’s aim to grow disability cricket and make the game more accessible to the wider community.”

Al Carter, School Sports Development Officer for Chailey Heritage School said:  “We are thrilled to be enabling young people with complex disabilities to access sport thanks to these devices.

“This group have never had the opportunity to participate like this, but through our innovation and partnership with Sussex Cricket Foundation and Lord’s Taverners, they now can take part in meaningful inter-school competition.”

Baz Baron, a teacher at Woodlands Meed School, added: “A huge thanks to Penny at Woodlands Meed, Al from Chailey Heritage and Aroop at Sussex Cricket for creating this exciting bond our schools now have.

“Hedgehog class are honoured to represent Woodlands Meed and we have all been very excited about the fixture at Chailey Heritage. Our children have taken to table cricket with keeness and thoroughly enjoy playing. It's great to see how far they have come in their skills in such a short space of time. We don't like cricket. We love it!”

How does a game of table cricket work?

The game is played on a table-tennis table or similar, with boundary fences set up around three edges.

Teams are made up of six players and each team bats once.

Every team member bats and bowls for one over each.

The ball is delivered down a ramp and the batsmen use a mini cricket bat to attempt to hit the ball.

The members of the fielding side who aren’t bowling surround the three edges of the table using a sliding board to try and intercept the ball once it has been hit by the batsman.

Runs are scored if the batsman hits the ball into the boundary without it being intercepted by the fielders. The number of runs scored depends on which part of the boundary the ball hits.

If the fielder manages to intercept the ball and it hits the white part of their board, then no runs are scored. If the fielder intercepts the ball and it hits the red central part of their board then the batsman is caught out.

The batsman can also be out bowled if he misses the ball, LBW if he misses the ball and it hits his body and caught behind if he edges the ball behind.

If a batsman is dismissed, five runs are deducted from his team’s total.

The team with the most runs after both sides have batted is the winner!

Check out these handy video guides from the Lord's Taverners for more information...

https://sussexcricket.co.uk/news/foundation-helps-launch-ground-breaking-cricket-league-young-people-complex-physical