Donations totalling over £15,000 from The St James’s Place Charitable Foundation and Somerset Community Foundation have enabled a room at The Mendip School in Shepton Mallet to be transformed into a stimulating and exciting sensory space. The room provides a fully cushioned and accessible space with tactile media including lighting tubes, UV responsive areas and colour and sound projection. It is already really popular with the children and young people who use it as a chill out space, for small group work and to provide a contained and stimulating area.
“This amazing new resource will encourage the development of motor and communications skills, movement, engagement, relaxation, regulation and play,” explained Head Teacher, Natalie Hanna. “It adds another amazing resource for us to personalise the education for all our young people with special needs.”
The Mendip School caters for children from 4 to 19 with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Speech Language and Communication Needs. The aim is for young people to be successful and prepared for their lives beyond school.
The sensory room will encourage physical mobility and communication development, allowing physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy to take place without it feeling like a medicalised or rigid process that the children might resist. It also makes the process fun and play led.
Kirsty Campbell, Programmes Manager at Somerset Community Foundation, said, “It is so great to see what a difference this funding has made to school. A small space which is well equipped can make such a massive difference to the students and staff. We could all benefit from some time in spaces like the sensory room!”
Rhiannon Gogh, Governor, parent and St James Place Chartered Financial Adviser, added, “St James’s Place Charitable Foundation is so pleased to support such an amazing space. The opportunities a sensory room brings for all areas education and therapy are immense and it was wonderful to see the young people enjoying it today.”
The room will be well used in school time and with holiday playschemes, after school clubs and for local support groups. The Mendip School continue to seek support for other fundraising projects – please do contact Lucy Beattie if you would like to fundraise in any way at email hidden; JavaScript is required