Parallel London

On Sunday 3rd September, Hannah and I were lucky enough to be invited to Parallel London to be a part of Jo Grace's sensory tent.

Parallel London is an inclusive sporting event held at the Olympic park. The aim of the event is to provide an opportunity for disabled people to participate alongside able bodied people in a fully inclusive, positive and inspiring environment. Their slogan is everybody running #sidebyside. Everyone starts together but finishes whenever. There was no pressure or competitiveness other than the enormous amount of self determination that was felt across the whole park and support sent from the crowd.

There were runs of different distances as well as the sensory 1K devised by Jo Grace. The sensory 1k is a fun run. The participants make their way through many different sensory zones at their own pace. We intended on joining them in this race, however I was forgot to register until after it closed the day before the event. (We did find out you could register on the day but we were busy in the tent by that point).

When it was time for the race to begin we made our way to the start line. It was truly heart warming to see the diversity of the people ready to begin. People with profound and multiple learning difficulties, physical disabilities, autism, sensory impairment and so many more alongside able bodied people. All #sidebyside and included TOGETHER. The compare was highlighting some of the participants, why they were doing it and their personal goals and also helping the participants to get warmed up.

Once the race was underway, Hannah and I rushed around the outside of the course to find as many sensory stations as we could from the sidelines. The first station we saw was the parachute area. The fabulous participants journeyed through a visual and proprioceptive experience as they watched the colourful parachutes float up and down sending gusts of wind around their bodies. We then got to the smell tunnel decorated with plants. We could not tell what the smell was from the outside, but there were lots of happy faces venturing through. Jo added a vestibular section this year, creatively using the markings on the ground to encourage people to weave and spin around. We also saw bubbles floating through the sky from the other side of the event. Other stations we could not get to included wind chimes, a light tunnel, and a ribbon canopy.

The biggest highlight of the day for us was standing at the finishing line. We were so touched to see the proud faces passing over the finishing line and the amount of empty wheelchairs as lots of determined people battled against their barriers to step over the finishing line. We were quite emotional watching these special people with their families and friends achieving something so great and amongst one of the most supportive crowds we have ever been a part of. 

After the race, we had half an hour to wander around the free festival. The festival featured many information tents about clubs, equipment, holidays, inclusive events, charities and much more. There were also many workshop and activity stands including inclusive technology, sensory spectacle, yoga, music, story telling, burlexercise, sport, bikes and Jo's The Sensory Project tent.

The main stage was busy throughout the day offering entertainment and celebrating the talents of many people with disabilities. There were many highlights including Wildcats theatre school from Stamford, Lincolnshire who are actually quite local to us, which is lovely. DM collaborate, a group of professional classically trained musicians. Include choir, whose performance of let's go fly a kite really touched us and electric umbrella. 

Sadly, after Parallel, electric umbrella, a fantastic inclusive theatre company had a road accident. They have set up a Just Giving page to help them re-build their little yellow theatre and get their show back on the road. If you can help them, please do.

We were trilled to be part of The Sensory Project's tent with so many other wonderful people. Jo had planned for visitors to experience seven different sensory experiences with an additional challenge. Hannah and I rocked up with our brand new business cards, t-shirts and bunting, we have now decided we also need a pull up banner stand thing too! Our experience involved a piece of stretchy lyrca. Visitors stretched against or through the material, or even felt the wind as we waved it over them. We were overwhelmed when we were visited by a visually impaired gentleman and his carer. He got so much from the proprioceptive experience, he laughed at the feeling against his hands. His carer was patient and an incredible communicator signing on the gentleman's hand. They had the most incredible relationship to witness, full of trust, respect and laughter. It was definitely a highlight of our day. We met lots of other wonderful sensory beings too!

The inspirational gentleman with a visual impairment enjoying sound experiences with the Sound Tracks ladies.

The other activities in the tent included lots of great sensory items from nature brought to the tent by Dr Nina Ockendon-Powell. Nina runs a blog, Wild Happy Well about the science behind why nature is good for us and how we can all benefit from nature.

Sound Tracks filled the tent with sound from their array of instruments and other inclusive sound making devices and their fabulous sensory song!

Katie from The Best Medicine was also there letting everyone know about the benefits of laughter therapy.

Holly Easton was also in the tent with 3 different playdoughs for us all to explore. Hannah and I of course couldn't resist. Holly has written a book with Becky Lyddon from Sensory Spectacle full of sensory play ideas you can fine it here.

In the tent, there was also a great dark den featuring many visual experiences which was brought along by a sensory designer from Falmouth University.



Hannah and I have made activity cards designed for people with profound and multiple learning difficulties. They could also be used with people with ASD, dementia, sensory processing disorder, toddlers. We have 2 packs filled with simple ideas to develop sensory awareness and communication. The packs come with an accompanying booklet to explain how the cards can be used to support development in a number of ways. They are available to order by messaging us on Facebook. £5 for 1 pack, £9 for 2 packs and £1 for postage. We were thrilled they were so popular at Parallel. There is limited availability as all packs are hand made when we get a chance between teaching and blogging!

We had the most amazing day and met some truly wonderful people and was topped off by finding ourselves at the Krisy Kreme stand in Westfields! We hope to be there again next year!



Some of the photos featured in this blog post were taken by Jo Grace. You can view her full album and many others on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009285343907


http://www.parallellondon.com/

Best of British Special Educational Needs Forum

In March of this year we were EXTREMELY lucky to have been invited by Flo Longhorn to present at the Best of British Special Educational Needs Forum in memory of the late, great Penny Lacey. By 'Best of British', it truly was, the names of presenters were authors of books we have read and creators of programmes we know of and then there was us… Hannah Underwood and Lucy Allen, practitioners really new to the world of PMLD. It was beyond an honour, it is something I’m not sure we will ever top!

This blog post will be a journey through our experience, briefly talking about the other presenters we had the pleasure of listening to but it will more be about the learning curve for us. We will write further blog posts next month to share what we learnt in more detail. There were many wonderful speakers who we will be writing about including Dr Jean Ware, Andrew Colley, Peter Imray, Chailey Heritage School, Castlewood School, Hilary Wainer (founder of TACPAC), Carol Allen, and the amazing Professor Barry Carpenter CBE who took us under his wing.

On Wednesday evening Hannah and I rushed to leave school hoping we had organised everything for our teams whilst we were away. We frantically got ourselves to Peterborough train station for the journey down to London. However, nothing is ever that simple for Hannah and I. We walked for a good half an hour to our hotel, dragging along our suitcases, and me not wearing sensible shoes, to find that our hotel had changed its name and was in fact another half an hours walk. Well it was time to call an Uber! We eventually arrived at our hotel just gone 11 o’clock at night and were hungry. We contemplated ordering take away to the hotel room but weren’t sure if we’d get away with that, so we ventured down the road. But nowhere was open. We hopped back in an Uber to kings cross to eat at Prezzo’s – familiar territory.

The morning of the forum came and we couldn’t contain our excitement. We wanted to get there early to see if we could help out in anyway. On arrival we were asked to sign in and told the lady we were presenting so we collected our presenter badges. We sat at the back of the room extremely overwhelmed by all of these faces and names we recognised, too nervous to speak to anybody. We were relieved to find Jo Grace, a familiar face who managed to reassure us! Then Flo who greeted us with a great big hug.

The first day was incredible, Hannah’s hands ached from the notes she was writing and my fingers ached from all of my tweeting. Jo Grace and I were tweeting using the hashtag BOBSEN to keep those who couldn’t be there up to date. The first presenter was Yvonne McCall, the head teacher of Castlewood school in Coventry, the school Penny worked with. Hannah and I had extensively read through the curriculum models on Castlewood’s website as they were our original inspiration for our curriculum model. It was a real privilege to listen to Yvonne speak of her schools journey with such passion. Yvonne invited Hannah and I to Castlewood. During the Easter holidays this year, Hannah and I went on a road trip to visit schools across the country and were overwhelmed by the hospitality and support we received by the staff at Castlewood, it truly is a fantastic school. But importantly we felt it was a school with a heart which is sometimes rare to find in a current climate with increasing pressure on school outcomes and performance. Casltewood is also a teaching school, delivering courses and offering bespoke packages. You can find more information on their website. 

Up next was Peter Imray who discussed the recent Rochford review. He discussed the opportunity for schools to look beyond the National Curriculum’s subject specific learning and think more about having a clear pedagogy that meets the needs of their pupils. It was great to listen to Peter having read his book on 'Curricula for Teaching Children and Young People with Severe or Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties' which we filled with post it notes. We were going through the process of proposing a new curriculum model to our management at the time which wasn't being well received. He gave us hope and reassurance that we were on the right path. Peter has written a book with Andrew Colley from the University of East London. Colley presented on the second day and posed many thought provoking questions about the true meaning of inclusion. He debated the impact of 'full inclusion', why we strive for it and how it is often not full inclusion at all. Their book is called 'Inclusion is dead: Long live inclusion' and is available from amazon. We have it here waiting for a chance to read it. We will post our thoughts on the book hopefully by October half term. It's bound to be a good read as another of Colley's books is full of our post it notes too. 

Jo Grace explored the area of sensory stories in her earlier session. It was interesting to hear her discuss personal stories we are told and how they can form our identity. We have the opportunity to share such stories with our pupils and sensory stories are a great way to make them accessible. She also explored the 7 senses (though she did add that some suggest there are as many as 33 senses!) and how to incorporate them into stories. Jo’s later workshop session was focused on the particularly pertinent topic of mental health and wellbeing. This is often overlooked for those with learning disabilities but is no less applicable, in fact recent research into this put prevalence rates as higher in those with learning disabilities than those from the wider population. 

Jo spoke very movingly about how an individual with profound and multiple learning disabilities (Jo uses the term Sensory beings) may not have the ability to lift one’s head to look at the world around them or the words to interact with it and those in it despite being able to hear the melee of its goings on. She explained how this may lead an individual to become disconnected from the world around them and begin to feel that it is not something for them to experience; their world is reduced to the area from the small space between their face and the grey tray attached to their wheelchair. 

Jo had a wealth of resources to share with us that would show those special ‘Sensory beings’ that we work with that, “this world is for you- you may not be able to get to it but I will bring it to you” (Jo Grace’s own words at the BoB SEN forum 2nd March 2017). These included existing affordable resources that are easily attainable such as wrist bells together with some creative original ideas such as smell tubes (created by using a Pringles tube with holes in the lid, tumbles dried ball and dried herbs). Resources such as these allow independent exploration and allow the sensory beings we work with to begin to understand that they can effect change and something is different because they are there. 

If you would like to learn more about this I highly recommend that you attend one of Jo’s training sessions where she speaks in much greater detail and offers numerous resource ideas. I am also currently reading Jo’s new book ‘Sensory-Being for Sensory Beings: Creating Entrancing Sensory Experiences’ which offers greater detail about these topics together with resource ideas and is a great read for parents and practitioners alike.

At lunch time, as well as the very enjoyable lunch provided, we were fortunate to be presented with an array of chocolate sensory experiences by the Willows Sensory Service. Of course being PMLD teaches we got stuck in playing with the chocolate squirty cream (we were really disappointed when Sainsbury’s didn’t sell it when we looked that evening), chocolate playdough and even chocolate smash. Sarah was lovely and runs sessions with people with PMLD such as sensory drama, aromatherapy, reflexology and has her own sensory room. She also delivers training. You can find her on Facebook or email her at sarah.hall73@virgin.net for more information.

Another incredible speaker on day 1 was Dr Jean Ware the creator of routes for learning. Jean discussed how routes for learning came about and the purpose of it. She had some great videos for us to analyse and assess to highlight the true meaning of some of the more ambiguous milestones. We found this presentation really helpful as we have only ever explored the route-map for ourselves and it is often quite difficult to decipher without direction.

Flo came to talk to us at the end of the day and asked us if we’d brought any of our sensory goodies along that she’d seen us use in our training at school. A bit flummoxed, Hannah and I looked at each other and replied yes. Our topic for the forum was ‘Planning a PMLD Curriculum’. When Hannah and I received it, we thought, well this is a serious topic, we will need case studies and facts and figures.

That evening after the forum Hannah and I dashed out into Camden, not a clue where we were going to redesign our whole presentation. First, of course we went to Tiger and bought half of the shop. We then used our google maps to find a supermarket! We found Sainsbury’s to our relief. We filled our baskets with shaving foam, smash instant mash, corn flour, food colouring and mouldable soap foam.

(a couple of my purchases from Tiger, not for the training but because I got a little over excited filling my basket. I have since used them a lot with my SLD group doing my version of tricky words rapping based on Shonette Bason-Wood)

The time ran away with us and it was time to meet some lovely amazing people for dinner. 

Unfortunately, we hadn’t had time to go back to our hotel to change or leave our shopping. We went to meet up with Flo, Roger, Jo, Carol Allen, Sarah Hall and Professor Barry Carpenter CBE OBE looking very hot and flustered with 3 huge bags of shopping and 2 giant umbrellas! Well we were rather embarrassed. But I can say we had a truly amazing evening. The food was great but the conversation was even better. We had the chance to discuss the engagement scales we had read about with the man who created them. There were many great debates that evening and Hannah and I felt like we had an incredibly special, probably once in a life time evening sat amongst our heroes.

We had to excuse ourselves early to get back to our hotel, after all we had a presentation to re-write! There we were at 1 in the morning making pink instant smash in the kettle covering the  bathroom in cornflour (we realised how suspicious that could have looked after we checked out that morning!) and re-writing our PowerPoint.

Morning quickly came. We ventured down stairs for breakfast, neither of us hungry (not at all like us), contemplating why on earth we signed ourselves up to stand up and speak in front of so many people! 

We will discuss our presentation in our next blog post.

We will leave you with our favourite quotes from the Forum:

Children look into your eyes and search for empathetic connection. Teaching is a relationship based profession - Carpenter

The world is for you, you may not be able to get to it but i will bring it to you - Jo Grace

We need dynamic curriculum models and flexible teaching that goes where the child needs you to go - Carpenter

Initiatives to include all have largely failed to include those with complex needs - Carpenter

Many people who favour full inclusion have exclusion clauses - Andrew Colley

We're talking about 50,000 young people, working with them is a very significant job - Andrew Colley

All children should experience the outdoors - Yvonne McCall

We need to enable children to realise they are effecting change - Jo Grace

If somebody touches you then can send you a whole host of emotions - Dr Maria Robinson

Penny wasn't in it to make a name for herself she did it for you the teachers and the learners - Dr Jean ware

Insisting that all children must follow the steps in the same order is a barrier to learners with PMLD - Ware

Waiting for communication initiation is a good thing not a waste of time - Dr Lila Kossyvaki

I worry about how much time you spend on assessment and how much time you spend being a great teacher - Imray

We're all performers at the end of the day to engage our learners, we need to have energy - Imray about the time we spend on assessment

Assessment is not just to pass Ofsted, it needs to give useful information - Imray

It is not possible to say what is acceptable progress. If Rochford can't work it out how the hell can we? - Imray

I've not met a child with SLD or PMLD in 20 years that succeeded with the National Curriculum - Imray

Does learning have to take place around a table? - Yvonne McCall

I want my students to have fun. I want my staff to have fun - Yvonne McCall

Our focus is putting life in the days of pupils with PMLD - Jo Grace 

http://www.peterimray.co.uk/ - Peter Imray 

http://flopublications.com/index.php - Flo Longhorn 

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/addysg/Staffpages/Jeanware.php.en - Dr Jean Ware

https://barrycarpentereducation.com/ - Professor Barry Carpenter OBE CBE

http://www.castlewood.coventry.sch.uk/ - Castlewood School

https://www.facebook.com/WillowsSensory/ - Willows Sensory Service

http://www.thesensoryprojects.co.uk/home - Joanna Grace. There is currently a sale on Jo's sensory stories