Mayfield Sensory Studio

ITV Region: Border  /  Year: 2010

Categories: Young people, Accessibility, Education, Arts

Winner!

Moresby Road
Hensingham
WHITEHAVEN
Cumbria
CA28 8TU

Website: http://mayfield.cumbria.sch.uk

The project will create a multi-purpose sensory studio in Mayfield School, Whitehaven. The studio will have walls of colour, sound and special effects, allowing the beneficiaries to participate in activities that will enhance their sensory awareness. Mayfield is a community special school and its pupils will be the principle users of the studio that will open up a range of new experiences. It will also be used by the wider community as a drama studio or arts space.

PRESS RELEASE
MAYFIELD SCHOOL

Sensory Studio Project – Peoples Millions

Mayfield School is a Special School in Whitehaven for the whole of West Cumbria. The pupils are aged between 3 and 19 and have a wide range of special needs.

The school is a very good school and it achieved recognition for this when it was granted Specialist School Status for Physical and Sensory Impairments in September 2009. This provided extra funding to allow the school to build additional facilities and to improve access to the school. The schools vision is to “be the best for every child, young person and their families”.

The school currently has a very small sensory room which one or two pupils can use, but it is very outdated and limited in how it can be used.

The sensory studio would be a new concept for the school, offering new and exciting opportunities for the pupils both in school time and after school with their families and friends.

It will be a multipurpose room which will have the latest technology to create exciting new opportunities. Gillian Temple, Deputy Headteacher explains how it will work.

Multi Sensory
Our pupils learn best when they can use all of their senses. The studio would bring the world into our school, for example under the sea;
• Watch films of under the sea on the giant wall screens
• Listen to the sound of the waves, change the waves by moving our bodies
• Watch the fish swim across the screens and feel that we are under the sea
• Learn about the Oceans of the World using the Internet projected on the wall
• Touch a switch to turn the room blue with lighting
• Smell the seaside using aromatherapy
• Feel the wind on our faces
• Enjoys and explore new worlds.

Multi Purpose
It will also be flexible enough to create other exciting opportunities
• Drama and Dance studio
• Wii Room
• Sports Room
• TV Room, – DVD player
• Relaxation Room
• Yoga Room
• Speech Therapy Room
• Communication Suite and much more!

Accessible
It will have a hoist system to move pupils and adults in and out of their wheelchair. There are new toilets, showers and changing facilities just outside the room.

Community
There will be access for the Community as an extension to our current programme which includes the Hydrotherapy pool and the multi gym.

A parent from Mayfield, Claire Sharpe describes the studio as “a dream come true”

Gillian Temple has been working on the project for over 2 years and is passionate about its potential. The estimated total cost will be over £90,000.
“Being shortlisted for the People Millions is our big chance to win £50,000 to ensure that our dream is achieved”

Fiona Armstrong from Border TV visited the school on 4th November to make a film about the project which will be shown.

Please help by watching Border TV on 22nd November from 6-6.30pm and then make that call!

The voting lines are open from 9am – until midnight on the 22nd. The telephone number needed to vote for us will be released on the website, printed in the Daily Mirror newspaper and be part of the border TV television broadcast on the day.