Helping Henry to Settle In

'Transition' is a word we use a lot at Chailey Heritage, and it means different things – there is a transition to adult services that a young person will go through when they leave school, and there is a transition between classes within a school department.

Henry experienced a transition from the Seymour department to Hanbury recently, at the start of the new school year, and is now spending his school days in Hanbury. Henry started at Chailey Heritage School in 2014. He lives with many challenges; he is a wheelchair user, with limited ability to communicate verbally, and he has autism. He is working hard to develop his skills in using a VOCA (Voice Output Communication Aid), and his understanding of the Foundation’s symbol system is coming along well.

The respective class teams in Seymour and Hanbury had worked together wonderfully well in the summer term to help Henry prepare for the move. A new environment takes some getting used to for everyone, but even more so for Henry, who can find unfamiliar places and people especially challenging. Along with the other barriers to learning and development that he must contend with, emotional regulation is hard for him. His support team work with him sensitively to keep him calm and help him to manage his own feelings and responses. Hanbury teacher Jacob Gorrell worked closely with Laura Parrini, Henry’s teacher in Seymour, in the weeks before the summer break, sharing insights and knowledge of Henry beyond the written reports. They arranged for Henry to visit the Hanbury department and the new classroom so that Henry could gain a sense of the place where he would move to.

Henry’s team felt he needed more support to join in with learning activities, as they were finding that participating was proving to be an ongoing challenge for him. Young people develop in different ways and at different paces. Jacob contacted the Social Care team and arranged for Henry’s familiar support workers from Brambles bungalow to come to school to help support him in school sessions. What a brilliant example of joint working between school and social care teams! Colleagues from Brambles will join Henry in music, the tech room, and drama to help him come out of his chair and onto the mats.