Heaton news - WB 14th September
Date: 18th Sep 2026 @ 5:55pm
Welcome Back! Highlights from a Fantastic Start to Term
What a wonderful start to the new school term! It has been an absolute joy welcoming all of our students back into school. The corridors and classrooms are once again filled with big smiles, shared laughter, and incredible moments of engagement. Our team has been hard at work setting up rich, meaningful learning experiences across every pathway, and the progress in just these first few weeks is already inspiring.
Here is a quick peak into what some of our classes have been up to recently:
Post-16 Duke of Edinburgh: Capturing the World
In Colin’s Post-16 class, students have officially launched their Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) journey! As part of their skill-development section, the group is diving into photography.
Photography provides a brilliant medium for our young adults to express their creative perspective, build independence, and develop fine motor control and technical familiarity with digital equipment. We can’t wait to display their work in the school very soon!
Sensology Sessions: Exploring the Rain
In Helen’s class, pupils have been immersing themselves in a thematic Sensology session focused on the weather—specifically, rain.
Sensology is designed to wake up the senses through intentional, structured sensory stimuli (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste).
It was fantastic to see such high levels of engagement, anticipatory reactions, and communication throughout the activity.
Visual Awareness & Colour Tents
Brydie’s class has been focusing on visual awareness skills, utilising pop-up Colour Tents to create dedicated immersive environments.
What are Colour Tents?
Colour tents—often called sensory tents or pop-up dark dens—are portable enclosed spaces lined with solid or vibrant monochromatic fabric. They serve two vital purposes in SEND learning environments:
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Minimizing Visual Distractions: By stepping inside a single-colour or dark tent, external classroom clutter, lights, and movement are filtered out. This provides a low-arousal space that allows pupils to concentrate far more easily.
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Targeted Visual Stimulation: Inside the tent, educators use specific light sources (such as fibre optics, glowing balls, high-contrast black-and-white patterns, or single-colour filters). This makes it much easier for students to practice core visual skills, including:
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Fixation (focusing on a single light or object)
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Tracking (following a moving light across their line of sight)
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Visual discrimination (distinguishing between contrasting colors and shapes)
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By controlling the sensory input inside the tent, Brydie's team can carefully tailor visual goals to each student’s individual visual impairment or sensory needs.
Thank you to all our parents, carers, and staff for making the return to school so seamless and positive. Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend, and we look forward to another action-packed week ahead!
