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Annual Report 2003-4

As usual, Children's World undertook three six-week Special Needs tours during the year:
[Autumn 2003] [Spring 2004] [Summer 2004].

"Tony's Taxi Tour"

Autumn Term 2003

for children with Severe Learning Difficulties and Complex Difficulties

This was a 6-week Drama/Creative Play Tour delivering six weekly 90-minute sessions to 20 children a time, in 7 different special schools.

Each week's session started with a familiar "My name is...." song, and started and ended with a "journey", with sound effects and music, in the "Taxi", with Tony (played by Paddy Hill, our Chief Workshop Leader).

Over the 6 weeks of the Tour the children met

a Supervisor
a Farmer
a Doctor
a Postman
a Scientist
a Clown

all played by Charlie Miller, our other main Workshop Leader.

The familiarity of this set routine works very well, and the children enjoyed the sessions enormously. Much curricular material was introduced in the sessions such as

basic arithmetic
map-plotting,
measuring
sorting by size, shape, colour, weight, etc.

as well as

simple scientific facts
predicting
estimating
testing
analysing

in the "Scientist" session. Each character taught the children a song about his profession - and a CD with all the songs, the taxi journey music and sound effects, was given to each school. Schools' staff are using their CD's regularly with their pupils for recap and recall.

Special schools staff rated this Tour very highly, and thought that it provided many benefits to their pupils, including the learning of curricular knowledge in an enjoyable and relaxed way and the boosting of their self-confidence and self-esteem.

"The feedback from all the classes involved in the workshops was very positive. The sessions always had the correct balance of fun, with a variety of curriculum areas being covered as the weeks progressed. The "Science Workshop" covered a whole range of concepts which were wonderfully applicable to the varying ages and abilities within the school."

Class Teacher, Selworthy Special School, Taunton.

Drama/Video Tour on "Bevaviour"

Spring Term 2004

for children with Moderate Learning Difficulties and Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

Extent of the tour
Twenty children in six different special schools each received six weekly 90-minute workshop sessions during this Tour.

The Object
The object of the workshops was for the children to create a series of video films.

The Method
The first video was about what the pupils saw as "Bad Behaviour" or "Behaviour that got them into Trouble". Examples were given, and the students were encouraged to explore all the possible reasons that might lead to this behaviour, as well as try to realistically predict the consequences of it - then they looked at whether they could work out ways of altering that behaviour, so that there might be a happier outcome. The results of these discussions were then improvised, filmed and edited, with various questions being highlighted on the screen, to encourage further thought about the subject.

The Outcome
Edited videos were presented to each group and used for recap and recall, and as a Personal, Social and Health Education tool for other groups in the school. We also used mask-work regularly as a way to explore expressions and feelings.

"As usual the activities were appropriate for the pupils and were delivered with a sense of fun and humour. The leaders, Paddy and Charlie, related very well to all the pupils, quickly establishing relationships with them and developing an understanding of their wide-ranging and varied needs. The pupils found the workshops interesting and stimulating, and were able to continue with follow-up work in the classroom in preparation for each following week. The atmosphere of enjoyment and enthusiasm permeated all the activities, and each session was anticipated with excitement. The pupils became so involved that they could be found discussing and planning suggestions for the video scenarios during breaks before the sessions. The activities and video topics were appropriate to the experiences and social problems faced by the pupils, and the solutions found during the workshops have been a valuable development tool for the participating pupils, as well as the video being a very useful resource within the PSHE teaching programme with other classes and year groups."

- Class Teacher, Culverhill Special School, Yate.

Puppetry and Integration Workshop Weeks

Summer Term 2004

Where we worked
This 6-week Tour delivered a whole Workshop Week in 6 different towns -

Bath
Weston-super-Mare
Frome
Radstock
Street
Bridgwater

In each town 60 mixed-ability children participated:

15 with severe learning difficulties
15 with moderate learning difficulties
30 children from a neighbouring mainstream school

in a full week of workshops.

Our aim
The aim of this annual Workshop Weeks Tour is to allow children of mixed abilities ranging from very complex needs to "able" mainstream children) to work together on a single project - the creation and performance of a large scale puppetry and drama show to an invited audience. It is a unique opportunity for children with special needs to work, create and play with their mainstream peers. A great deal of curricular material is covered (Speaking and Listening, Design and Technology, etc.), but the main point is the happy, easy and comfortable integration of children of mixed ability children working on a common project.

What was achieved
Thanks to the excitement and involvement of the children and the schools' staff, the five Children's World workers and our excellent sound and lighting and special effects, the final performances with wonderful puppets, props, special effects and music, were always a triumph for the children, and they all experienced considerably increased self-esteem and self-confidence.

Long-term effects
The Workshop Weeks really help children to embrace diversity and we are delighted to find that mainstream children always leave the project with far more positive ideas about "disability". Extremely useful links are forged between special schools and their neighbouring mainstream schools, which almost always continue after our departure.

Other Projects

The Liverpool tour
Apart from the 6-week Somerset/Avon Tour, we were commissioned to take an Integration Workshop to two special schools and a mainstream school in Liverpool for the second time. This also went tremendously well and we are being commissioned to undertake a further week in June 2005.

"We at Summer-field have been involved with Children's World for many years. Each year we can always guarantee that the workshops will prove to be exciting and stimulating for all involved. All the children taking part develop friendships, confidence and self-esteem, and achieve things they themselves never thought possible, thanks to the dedication and sheer hard work of the fantastic Children's World team. It is a privilege to be able to work with them."

- Class Teacher, Summerfield Special School, Bath.

Science Days
We were so pleased with how the "Science Week" went in the SLD/PMLD Tour, that we have now enlarged and improved this session, so that we can offer one-off "SCIENCE DAYS" to special schools and also to younger children at mainstream primary schools. A very successful visit to Selworthy Special School took place as a try-out and we intend to take Science Days out on tour when time allows in the future.

"I have just joined in with the Children's World Science Workshop, featuring Professors Cheese and Onion, and I feel compelled to write to you all and congratulate you on the show. I have known Children's World on and off for some 15 years, and I marvel at how you have developed in that time. The Science Workshop I am referring to was a real educational experience for all of my students (aged 14-16 with severe learning difficulties) and backed up my own work on friction, measuring and floating and sinking. I was particularly impressed by how the Children's World team encouraged the students to experiment, predict and estimate in such a practical yet fun situation."

Class Teacher, Selworthy Special School, Taunton.

Profound Difficulties
We were commissioned by SCOPE to run 2 days of activities and care for children with profound difficulties and very complex needs, while their parents attended various consulations with professionals, and these were a great success.

"One parent noted on their evaluation form that she had doubted her son would stay with you, as he had never left her side before. This is a tribute to the sense of safeness and wellbeing your service gave to the children placed in your care."

- Community Fieldworker, Scope.

More work and play
We were also commissioned by Social Services to undertake various out-of-school workshops, including a music for young people with disabilities and a workshop for Young Carers.

The SENSORY DOME AND THE SOFT PLAY INFLATABLE were taken for several day-long outings to special schools and were very much enjoyed, as well as being used by many schools as a means of improving behaviour.

"The visit of the inflatable was a superb Assertive Discipline reward opportunity and was much enjoyed by all."

Class Teacher, Culverhill Special School, Yate.