Visiting the School

10/06/2016

Liberty managed to get us an appointment today to meet up with the Deputy Headteacher today at 10am at the school, Redgate. We met up at 9am near East Croydon Station and made our way to school. 8/10 of us showed up which was good but inconvenient as we were meeting the headteacher and it would've been preferred if she met all 10 of us.

We prepared questions to ask before getting there while we waited in Cafe Nero for latecomers:
1) What we can and can't do?
2) How long are the session(s)?
3) How many classes will we be working with? 
4) Rotating workshops or specific workshops for the classroom?
5) What time of day would we do the workshops?
6) What's the best date?
7) Anything we need to consider?
8) What do the students enjoy?
9) What kinds of learning difficulties?
10) How could we communicate best with the students?
11) Has she got any concerns or ideas?
12) Extra information from meeting

We then met up with Melissa, the headteacher and the head of the art department/activities but I can't remember her name. The meeting lasted for about half an hour and we got to walk through the school a little bit and it's really nice and huge, the size I wasn't expecting. After the meeting, a lot of the questions asked were answered which is good. Here are the answers: 

What we can and can't do?
- we aren't limited so we can do a lot and are free what most ideas we will just have to run it through and check that it will be okay with the school.  

How long are the session(s)?
- longest half an hour 

How many classes will we be working with? 
- in pairs so around 4 classes in the middle school department I think she said years 3 and 4

Rotating workshops or specific workshops for the classroom?
- decided on each pair sticking with one class through the whole thing and working with one class, so that means when we find out the different abilities of the pupils we can revolve our workshops on what kind of thing they are able to do.

What time of day would we do the workshops?
-Melissa did say any part of the day but the best thing to do is the morning so that we are there when they start and don't disrupt their day as routine is very important.

What's the best date?
- they were very flexible with dates except school trips but our next visit is Tuesday 14th June where we will just observe the lesson, see how they work and get to know the students.

Anything we need to consider?
- as the pupils have special needs they can kick, punch and bite.

What do the student enjoy?
- they are very visual and also would involve lots of movement.

What kinds of learning difficulties?
- autism, all round severe learning difficulties in general, meaning their cognitive developing age is around 3months - 2 years old but their actual ages are around 7-9 years old.

How could we communicate best with the students?
-many students are non-verbal so lots of pictures and signs and also simple sign language which I can't remember what it was called.

Has she got any concerns or ideas?
- same with the things we need to consider really, just to be aware and also said about movement!

Extra information from meeting:
- we can do more that one session if we wanted to as we might need to do more as each session is only half an hour.
- 8 children in each class same age but different abilities which she will send an email to us for which we should consider our activities as there will be a range.
- is we need any signs or symbols printed out we can email them to her and she will sort it out for us.
- if we use any equipment, it needs to be non-toxic as they like to put everything in their mouths
- it is more about the process and experience the children have with doing art rather than the outcome. 

After the meeting, we sat in a park and decided on pairs for each class:

• Mia and Ellie
• Florrie and Liberty
• Me(Jamila) and Maisie 
• Dwayne and Josh

As Alyssa and Anna didn't turn up, I assume they'll be a pair, I'm not too sure what will happen with them or the arrangements of classes with them. Other than that, I think the meeting went really well. The school seem really interested and excited to work with us and the feeling is mutual. I am really excited to work with the kids, although it will be difficult as a lot of the students are non verbal and working at low abilities, it will be difficult but I'm really looking forward to it. I feel it'll be a humbling experience.

On Tuesday, we are going back to Redgate to observe a class to see how the students work and to monitor their abilities to help us base workshops around their skills and attention spans etc.