Castledon School

Project Info:

Location: Wickford, Essex

Age Range: 5 - 14 Year Olds

Budget: £125,000

Sector: SEND

Key Outcomes

The children now have a range of activities to stimulate all the different sensory systems.
A calming space encouraging children to be more focused on their learning after spending time outside.
Bright and vibrant space that not only looks amazing but also supports their children’s regulation and arousal levels.
Behaviour has shown a significant positive change. The children are now calmer, happier and interacting more with each other. There have also been improvements in their patience and turn taking. As well as greater conversations happening as they are more alert.
Staff have increased opportunity to interact with the children.

Customer Feedback

“Thank you so much for your innovative interventions and bespoke pieces of equipment designed just for us. The staff at Fawns were very patient and worked so hard to get this just right for our setting. Our children and staff are totally loving spending time in this transformed happy, bright colourful and purposeful area. It has made such an improvement to everyone’s wellbeing, increased the amount of physical activity children are doing as well as and an increased amount of interaction and purposeful conversations happening. The children are now showing more interaction with the world around them due to engaging and exploring our enhanced stimulating sensory playground. This area is utilised all day long for individuals who need sensory breaks to support their self-regulation and meet their sensory diet needs as well as for group play at scheduled break times.”

L. Holmes, Occupational Therapist

SENSORY SYSTEMS ACHIEVED

Tactile achieved with the sandpit, water play, and different textures of the floor, pathways and equipment.
Vestibular achieved with swings, spinning items, hammock, sunken trampolines and sensory pathway.
Visual achieved with the rainbow tunnel and canopy which create colour reflections on the floor.
Auditory achieved with chime bells, drummer tree and spinner.
Proprioceptive achieved with digging in mud kitchen buckets, pumping water for the water channels, sunken trampolines and the pulley in the sandpit.

BACKGROUND

Nestled in the green town of Wickford, Essex, Castledon School serves students aged 5 to 19 with moderate learning difficulties and complex needs. As a community special school, they are dedicated to unlocking potential, guided by their core values of Belonging, Opportunity, and Achievement.

PROJECT BRIEF

The Occupational Therapist, Laura (The Great Little OT Practice), identified the need to develop their outside area so the children could play whilst also getting the sensory stimulation; helping them regulate their emotions and arousal levels. It was recognised that some children required a calming space whilst others needed a space to alert their senses. Castledon School knew this could be achieved through stimulating different senses in their bodies in different ways. Therefore, they were looking for the appropriate equipment and activities that would meet their sensory needs.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

Castledon School had identified they needed a complete playground re-design and were recommended Fawns by the Director of Estates at the Zenith Multi Academy Trust. The school drew upon some existing funds as well as actively fundraising to achieve the remaining funds. Joel, the Fawns Outdoor Play Consultant met with Laura who had the knowledge and understanding of the various and diverse sensory systems that would need to be achieved in the new play space.

Taking into consideration the specific sensory requirements of the children, Joel created a bespoke playground design. The school were very impressed by Fawns’ ability to accommodate their specific needs, especially the creation of bespoke elements.

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