2:00pm Thursday 18th April 2013
By Catherine Bolado
A WEYMOUTH school is on the MOVE having received an excellence award.
Wyvern Academy has been given the MOVE Quality Mark, making them one of only seventeen schools across Europe to receive the status and one of the first to receive the ‘excellent’ mark.
The MOVE partnership is a small UK charity aiming to provide severely disabled children with the opportunity of independent movement.
The award measures the quality of provision by an organisation using the MOVE programme to help pupils increase their movement.
The activity-based programme uses teamwork between the child’s school and family to help them become active participants in their own lives, by teaching them skills including sitting, standing and walking.
Each child works towards their own personal goals, whether it is to lift their head independently for 30 seconds, or to walk a short distance, with only a hand held for support to allow them to join their friends to play.
Special walkers are used to support children, who would normally use a wheelchair, as they walk around.
Director of development and training at MOVE, Dianne Rickard, said: “The MOVE programme aims to get children moving around in different ways, thereby reducing health problems.
“Improvements are also seen in communication and social skills as the children gain the ability to interact with the world around them.”
Student Mitchell Harvey is on the MOVE programme and uses a walker to support him in getting around.
He said it allowed him to do more things and he used it around the playground.
His mum Tina said: “It basically gives him the opportunity to spend time out of the wheelchair in an upright position.”
MOVE coordinator and trainer at Wyvern, Sue Marshall said the programme opened up huge potential and was about improving quality of life.
She said: “To be mobile and independent is a great boost to your self esteem.”
Staff and students were presented with a plaque commemorating their new Quality Mark at a meeting in the school hall before everyone enjoyed a cake made especially for the occasion.
© Copyright 2001-2013 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/trade_directory/