Work is continuing apace to create a new Woodlands Meed College for children in Burgess Hill with special educational needs and disabilities.

Construction of the new college building has been ongoing for ten months.

With all the foundation work fully completed, the main building is now taking shape.

A design change to the North Core lift during construction has unfortunately caused a delay of two weeks to the building programme. This has created a need to push back the timings for moving pupils into the new building, and for demolishing the old buildings ready for construction of the new entrance, parking area and all-weather pitch.

The situation has been carefully reviewed by Woodlands Meed, West Sussex County Council and the contractor ISG, and all practical options have been considered. 

All have agreed to wait to move children into the new building until after the summer holidays to minimise disruption to lessons and the school day as much as possible. As a result, the demolition work will take place during the summer holidays, when the school is empty. Pupils will then start the new 2023 Autumn Term in their new building, instead of moving during the May half-term as originally planned.  

Marion Wilcock, Chair of Governors at Woodlands Meed, said “Of course we are all disappointed as everyone, without exception, would like to occupy the new building just as soon as possible.  However, it was almost inevitable that with construction on this tight site in this current construction climate that there would be a delay in the programme at some point. We have all taken the view that the interests of pupils must come first at all times. This extension will also mean that pupils will be undisturbed during the exam period and will have more transition and familiarisation time.” 

Nigel Jupp, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills said: “Everyone involved is fully committed to prioritising the needs of our pupils and finishing the new College building as quickly as possible. We have worked with the College and ISG to find a solution which is in the best interests of Woodlands Meed pupils and staff. Any delay is of course disappointing, but what this does mean is that pupils will have the opportunity to visit and be guided around their new facilities during the second half of the 2023 summer term so they can acclimatise to their new college before they make the move.”

Talented pupils at Woodlands Meed took part in Haywards Heath’s first ever Arts Festival in July. The festival took part in various locations across the town offering a variety of events provided by local people as well as nationally recognised artists. The festival was sponsored by ‘It’s Magic’ and raised money for Ukraine through donations and ticket sales for the activities.

Woodlands Meed artists were delighted to be asked to take part and worked hard on some creative pieces which they displayed as part of the art installation in Haywards Heath Baptist Church, as well as putting together the display itself and hanging the art work.

Allan Mayes from Woodlands Meed said ‘Art is accessible for all students at Woodlands Meed. We provide opportunities for everyone to experiment using a wide range of media and techniques, to experience different processes and create pieces of art with confidence and enjoyment in a safe and stimulating environment. We hope you enjoyed our display.’

It’s been a busy term of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) at Woodlands Meed, which has seen pupils of all ages participate in some exciting, challenging and creative activities on and off site. 

As part of Mid Sussex Science week on the 17th June, Woodlands Meed students were invited by Burgess Hill Business Park Association to The Kings Church in Burgess Hill to take part in a fantastic collaboration between local schools and local companies to enthuse the next generation of Engineers and Scientists. Other schools from the Burgess Hill area also attended. Each school was partnered with a local business to develop a project based upon science, technology, engineering and maths. The goal of the event is to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths among ten year olds. Research shows that interest often drops off after this age in STEM subjects. The aim is to show how interesting and what fun STEM subjects can be.

On the 30th June a BigBang@Schools event funded by Engineering UK and supported by The STEM Hub was facilitated at Woodlands Meed for KS3 and primary pupils to participate in. This included the exciting Science Magic; Magic Science Show presented by Ian B and AI and Colour Change workshops facilitated by The STEM HUB. The Big Bang event provided the Woodlands Meed pupils with inspiring opportunities to engage with Science and with STEM professionals. The pupils really engaged with the activities and it certainly brought the world of STEM to life. 

Other STEM activities that have happened this term include a trip to Gatwick Airport to learn about the different roles there are at Gatwick. The trip was organized by Louisa and Dave from Gatwick who have been leading our science enrichment club at Woodlands Meed and it was fantastic that pupils got to visit them at Gatwick. Pupils found out about the different roles there are at Gatwick and the highlight of the visit was being allowed to spray water from the fire engines!

Vehicles Day was another highlight of this term. Pupils had an engaging and exciting vehicles day, all the pupils worked amazingly well in groups to build a vehicle to see whose vehicle would travel the furthest. There was a wide range of creative vehicles and Dave from Gatwick joined us to support with the judging, he had a difficult task on his hands. 

We had the amazing opportunity to participate in a STEM day at Hurst where both Woodlands Meed and Hurst pupils worked together to build a structure to transport their tomatoes over 'water', whilst avoiding them becoming squashed! The collaboration and teamwork between the pupils was brilliant and our pupils really enjoyed their day at Hurst.

Another all action day was our pupil’s trip to Plumpton College. They learnt about the different courses and had the opportunity to drive a tractor simulator. They also carried out an investigation with mice and scents. The pupils then finished off the day with making sausages.

Woodlands Meed College student Mollie recently spent a morning at Lindfield Coffee Works learning about the work of a Barista, all about Coffee, as well as getting some hands on practice at growing her skills at making the perfect espresso.

Dan at the Lindfield Coffee Works spent the morning with Mollie guiding her through the fascinating world of coffee from its origins, roasting processes to how they make the perfect espresso at the Coffee Works.  Mollie said, about her taste of work experience in the popular Café and Coffee hub,   

‘I found the training really interesting. When I watch coffee being made in a coffee shop it always looks very complicated but now I have done it myself, and each process has been taught to me, the process is very logical and less chaotic than it looks!’  

Kris, owner of the Coffee Works, has supported Woodlands Meed efforts to match students with relevant work experience to give them a real idea of jobs they may like to be involved in in the future.  He commented,

‘We’ve really enjoyed working with Woodlands Meed.  We want to provide students with two things; a little knowledge around the world of coffee e.g. where it’s grown & processed and an appreciation of the challenges farmers face. We also want to provide them specific Barista skills, from preparing the coffee to steaming the milk which will enable them to include this training on their CV’s and help them stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs.  Mollie was our first student we welcomed and she was amazing.  She was very enthusiastic and willing to learn about the coffee and picked up the Barista skills very quickly!’ 

Businesses like the Coffee Works help in giving young people with SEND a chance to experience hands on work experience and learn some new skills make a huge difference to young people with SEND. 

Woodlands Meed have an ambitious Careers Programme as part of their initiatives to help prepare and get 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.  Working with local businesses like the Lindfield Coffee Works with a passion for recognising the potential of people, like Mollie, with SEND in the world of work and the value of giving young people an opportunity to make a valued contribution to society.

Wednesday 11^th May saw 39 Woodlands Meed students and 12 staff travel to The K2 in Crawley for the annual Parallel Youth Games.  The games are disability event for all  Schools across Sussex to come together and compete and try new challenges.

One of the highlights of Woodlands Meed’s sporting year - 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 students also represented Woodlands Meed in ‘Dance’ where they learnt and practiced a dance routine with students from other schools which they then performed to everyone during the closing ceremony. 

Olympian Montelle Douglas gave an inspiring speech before the Parallel Youth Games started.  Montelle Douglas is the only British athlete to have represented team GB at both the summer and winter Olympics in sprinting and bobsleigh respectively.  Her motivating speech set the tone for the whole day as students 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, Boccia, New Age Kurling and (for the first time) on the tennis court!  The golfers did Woodlands Meed proud, finishing a very respectable fifth and only a few points outside of a bronze medal position.  The Cricket team’s sterling effort saw them finish fourth.  Whilst there was initially heartbreak during the street football competition with Woodlands Meed missing out on a bronze medal during a sudden death penalty shoot-out, an English team going out on penalties - We’ve been here before! all five of the team 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!  A fitting end to an amazing day of competition. 

Penny Gittins, who organised Woodlands Meed’s participation at the games commented “The Parallel Youth Games is one of the highlights of our sporting 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!".