A visit from Flo

On the 1^st November 2016, the sensory sensation Flo Longhorn arrived at our little Lincolnshire school. The buzz quickly travelled around the whole school.

Flo spent the afternoon in Hannah’s class before preparing to deliver a training session to our staff. She had covered her table with sensory goodies galore the room was ‘ooing’ and ‘ahing’ at what she had in store. Flo had many wonderful and humorous stories to share of her years working with so many children and young people with PMLD far and wide across the globe. She showed off her wonder boxes and her magical sensory umbrellas (a favourite of ours). Flo briefly discussed the Rochford review which we were eagerly anticipating at this time. She spoke passionately of the need for change and a personalised approach to learning for our youngsters. This is something we are both extremely passionate about and have spent many months prior to and since Flo’s visit researching curriculum models (there will be posts on curriculum at a later date).

When Flo had finished her training session we presented her with £210 we had raised by making Halloween sensory packs that our parents purchased. They included many sensory goodies and activities including guess the Halloween smell, sensory balloons, a Halloween eye spy bottle, coloured and scented rice, coloured spaghetti, make your own skeleton and slimy purple tapioca pearls. Our packs were differentiated to the needs of the child. I’m sure our parents loved us when their houses were covered in rice and spaghetti! But we know the messier the better! The money went toward an orphanage in Kathmandu that Flo supports. We received a lovely email from Flo recently to inform us that she had bought them a cow, a calf and 120 chickens as well as helping them rebuild their sensory room which was destroyed in the Nepal earthquake.

After this it was our turn! Why on earth we signed up to deliver our training session after the legend that is Flo Longhorn I will never know!

We delivered training on the theory behind the senses and why our children perceive the world in a sensory way. We demonstrated this using a range of interactive activities. We touched on sensory stories inspired by Jo Grace and Lucy delivered her own sensory story ‘Bruce the bear and the very busy bees’ to demonstrate the short sentences and how these stories can be used for a range of communication and to build anticipation. One of the sensory tools in the story was a sensory umbrella with bright yellow and black pompoms hanging from it. We gave our staff half an hour to rummage through our giant box of bits and bobs to create their own sensory story umbrella in teams to create a sensory library in school. Everybody loved this activity. They went home following an evening of learning, fun and laughter having been inspired by one of their heroes, Flo Longhorn and having made a bank of resources for the children.

 A little snippet of the training we delivered...

We were so nervous at presenting this training in front of Flo as it was our first time delivering formal training. Flo congratulated us and invited us to present at her forum in London- The Best of British Special Educational Needs Forum in memory of the late, great Penny Lacey. We were beyond honoured and couldn’t quite believe it. To have your work and practice acknowledged by such an incredible woman is something that will stay with us. If ever we are having a bad day this reminds us to have confidence in ourselves and always strive to push ourselves professionally to be the best we can for the children we are privileged enough to work with.

We invited Flo out for dinner with some of our colleagues and had an incredible evening with one of our idols. We will always remember it.