LOCAL children will benefit from the addition of new sensory rooms at Knockevin School in Downpatrick.
The school held a grand opening ribbon cutting for its new sensory rooms on Friday morning.
“We wanted to celebrate this,” Sara Liddell, principal of Knockevin, said.
Miss Liddell said she is glad that the school has been able to get these new spaces to meet the needs of her pupils.
“It’s literally transformational,” she said.
“It’s very much going to support brain development and learning.”
At the Downpatrick campus of the school, which has pupils from P5 age up to 19, three new rooms officially opened on Friday.
There is a sensory room with a variety of lights and sensory features, a soft playroom with a swing, stairs to climb, a trampoline and stepping stones, and a room for individualised one-to-one interactions.
Work is also nearing completion on a fourth room that uses a special projector system to turn the floor into a large computer touch screen that the children can interact with in a variety of ways for puzzles and interactive games and learning about different subjects, by stepping, hopping or rolling their wheelchairs over the screen.
Miss Liddell said there are hundreds of programmes for the children to try out, which will help support their learning on various topics.
This room will also feature a sound plinth where the children can feel the vibrations from different sound effects when they sit or lay on it.
Miss Liddell said that this room will help support the children’s visual skills and coordination.
“It’s a fabulous resource for us,” she said.
She explained that the four sensory spaces are designed to be multipurpose, so they can be used by all of the children at the school.
She said that the rooms also promote socialisation between the pupils and with their teachers and support staff.
“It has so many functions. It’s incredible.”
Knockevin vice-principal Aaron Davis, who works at the Downpatrick campus, said that these rooms will be used daily by the Knockevin students, as time in the sensory rooms will be incorporated into their schedules each week.
“This will be a life-changing feature for the children to have this space for themselves,” he said. “We’re delighted to have this.”
“It’s not just for recreation. It’s active structured learning time as well,” he said.
Mr Davis said that Knockevin is a “rights respecting school” and that being able to provide these types of sensory activities for the students, including those with complex needs, is one way to make it inclusive for all of them.
The school previously had a type of sensory room, but these new ones incorporate technology and additional functions to help the children get the most out of their time in the facilities.
Read the full article in the current issue of the Mourne Observer.
