Back to School
29 September 2021
This September, we were thrilled to welcome back our pupils as the school re-opened for a brand new academic year. This last year has undoubtedly been extremely challenging logistically to accommodate different bubbles and social distancing. Although some of those measures are still in place for our most vulnerable children, we are all extremely pleased to see that almost everything is back to “normal” at the school! We are also excited to welcome five new pupils to Chailey Heritage School this term.
Pupils have already started exploring and enjoying their new topics of learning, with St Martins and Seymour departments focusing on outer space with their ‘Infinity and Beyond’ topic. All the teachers have interpreted this topic quite differently depending on the needs of their class. For example, class S1 have been doing activities around the book ‘Aliens Love Underpants’, as well as a sensory massage story ‘Journey to the Moon’ and various sensory, cooking and craft activities around the space theme.
Hanbury department have been busy with classes starting to prepare for the Hanbury Panto, where students are being supported to communicate which kind of character they would like to play, and what they would like to show off in the panto. Young people are also helped to communicate any specific requests about costumes or music. Also in Hanbury there are some Halloween preparations taking place and the young people have also put together their own ‘Happy Boxes’ with personalised items for Mindfulness, and are working on Personal Stories where they communicate to their SEA (Specialist Education Assistant) about something they’d like to tell the group. They then work on choosing sensory items to illustrate their story.
Throughout the school, classes have been visiting Patchwork Farm, and some pupils have also gone on trips, including to the exciting Tide Mills Project exploring the history of the site of the old Chailey Heritage Marine Hospital. Young people have enjoyed restarting Hippotherapy, Hydrotherapy and Rebound sessions as well as music, art and drama classes to name a few. The pupils can now also make the most of the Dream Centre’s Immersive Space for a number of experiences like Sensory Yoga.
The Leisure and Skills centre, which has offered a continued service throughout the summer, has also seen a very encouraging increase in the bookings for the wide variety of activities and sevices that they have on offer. From cooking classes, spa facilities, gym, art and even sports games, to gardening projects as part of the activities at the Hub, there is something for everyone!
The children and young people have been extremely busy since the beginning of the month and we have so much more planned for them in the coming months, as classes look forward to starting Halloween and Christmas activities later on in the term.
