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

On Monday the 11th November, Fox Class travelled to The Triangle Leisure Centre in Burgess Hill to compete against other schools in the annual Boccia and NAK competition. 

Our students were put into two teams, with all students having the opportunity to play in both the Boccia and Kurling competitions.  Each of our teams played four matches, competing against schools such as Harlands, Blackthorns, Handcross and Lindfield.

For many of our students, it was their first competitive competition and they all did the school proud!

Our students were truly amazing; showing great determination and progress throughout the morning’s competition.

Each school were asked to name one student as the winner of their ‘Magic Moment’.  This was to be awarded to the student who tried their best, showed great sportsmanship and fully embraced the ‘Spirit of the School Games’.  Although we were truly inspired by each of our amazing young people, this award was given to Zak for his enthusiasm and support of his peers.  His friends reciprocated this appreciation; cheering proudly when Zak received his award!

Well done Fox Class; you are all AMAZING!!!

On Monday the 7th October, a squad of year 9 students travelled to The Triangle in Burgess Hill for the years 9, 10 and 11 Albion Cup.  This annual football competition is one of the highlights of the sporting calendar and this year's competition well and truly lived up to all the hype.  In what proved to be an extremely physical tournament, our year 9s more than held their own, and played some superb football throughout. 

The years 9s were given a tough group and faced a very strong St Mary’s in their opening match but only lost by a very respectable 1-0 score line.  They then found their shooting boots, winning three of the next five matches, the highlight of which was coming from 2-0 down to beat Saxon Mount 3-2. 

The day then finished with our School and College sites competing in a ‘friendly’ match with the bragging rights on this occasion going to The College Site in a 3-0 win which can only be described as a very frenetic match!

The Results:

WM 0-1 ST Marys

WM 3-1 Angmering

WM 1-4 Cookmere House

WM 0-0 Muntham House

WM 3-2 Saxon Mount

WM 1-0 Oakgrove

WM School 0-3 WM College

Every single player in the year 9 squad did themselves proud and played their part in what was a very successful tournament:

Harvey and Ethan shared the eight goals between them in what can be only described as some of the best attacking play I have ever seen from a Woodlands Meed Team. 

Oscar made some truly unbelievable saves and was a great leader throughout.

Emma was our tenacious tackler, showing great energy to dispossess players who were up to two years older than her!

Luke demonstrated some great passing to keep the attacking moves progressing up the pitch.

Alfie lived up to his name of ’The Wall’ as he continually stopped the opposition’ attacks with blocks and tackles galore. 

Alan was calmness personified as he showed great composure on the ball to link play between our midfielders and strikers. 

Skeff was the dribbling maestro, protecting the ball and not giving up possession cheaply.

Craig was our engine room; demonstrating great speed and endurance to cover every blade (well splinter) of ‘grass’. 

A fantastic team effort that has only made us even prouder of our amazing students.  A special mention to Harvey Fuller who received the Fair Play Award for his sportsmanship, team ethos and positive approach to the games.  Well done to all involved!!!