This ‘News from the Base’ has fallen off the radar a bit. Our Twitter Feed is much more regularly updated and worth a follow. Search @autismprovision on Twitter to see our latest photos and news.
The ‘Old News’ will still give you a taste of what goes on here so do have a look!
Old News – 2016 – 2017
The Tiny Farm – At the end of last term we had the official opening of The Tiny Farm. The funding came from the Tesco Bags of Help Scheme so we invited our local Tesco Community Champions to do the honours. The rain came down, after a lovely week (typical), but lots of friends came to visit the farm and share in our celebrations. We plan to grow fruit and vegetables to donate to the Food Bank, the Sunlite Cafe and to use in our own Home Economics classes.
Annual Residential – This year we chose to stay closer to Stirling for our adventure. This meant that we were able to take more of our young folk along with us and that it was a more manageable prospect for some of our less confident pupils. We stayed at the Trossachs Tryst Hostel, just outside Callander, which is run by FABB (Facilitating Access, Breaking Barriers) and which was perfect for our group. FABB also supported us out cycling through their organisation Blazing Saddles, which provides accessible bikes and trikes. The weather was mixed but we were planning to get very wet anyway, gorge walking and kayaking, with Active Stirling, so we didn’t care. Our last day was spent at Blair Drummond Safari Park where we were stranded for half an hour in the new Monkey Enclosure while 3 or 4 of the cheeky things ran around fighting on the roof of the minibus – all very exciting and a fitting end to a very successful trip.
In the Garden – We’ve been working in the garden but on a rainy day recently we did some planting up indoors – in an old African drum. We’re big fans of the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra here!
Blairdrummond Safari Park – We recently invited some safari park staff to visit us at school. They brought some very interesting items with them and our pupils thoroughly enjoyed their class.
School trip to Krakow – One of our own pupils joined the recent school trip to Krakow where they had a very moving and informative visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The pupils all behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school and their families.
Our Annual Burn’ Supper – We held another rollicking good Burns’ Supper with good food, music and dancing in January. We were very pleased to welcome our guests and all enjoyed our afternoon.
Blazing Saddles – We were really pleased to welcome Blazing Saddles, an off-shoot of FABB (Facilitating Access, Breaking Barriers) into school recently. Our pupils enjoyed cycling around in the winter sun on quite a variety of interesting bikes.
Christmas at Bannockburn House – We enjoyed our visit last week to Bannockburn House. Santa had taken time out of his very busy schedule to pop in and we were very pleased to see him. Bannockburn Community Trust hope to purchase and develop the house and grounds for the community and this lovely event allowed people access to the house and raised awareness for the Trust. We appreciated the opportunity and want to thank the volunteers for making the visit so memorable.
Tiny Farm Plan – We were all very excited to be successful in our application to the Tesco Bags of Help Fund. Our plan, ‘Growing Together’, aims to work with local schools’ Additional Support Departments to create a tiny farm. Eventually we will donate our produce to Start Up Stirling and The Sunlite Café.
Voting is now closed and we’d like to thank everyone who voted for us. Fingers crossed!
EXCITING UPDATE! Thank you to everyone who voted for us – there were so many of you that we won! We will soon be in receipt of £12,000 to start developing our Tiny Farm and our Growing Together project will hopefully be making its first fruit and vegetable donations within the year. Exciting times ahead but we couldn’t have done it without your votes so thank you all again and keep following us on Twitter (@autismprovision) or here on the school website for updates and photos.
Rebound Therapy – A couple of our pupils enjoyed a wee taster session of Rebound Therapy. (I think the staff enjoyed it too!) A valuable sensory activity which also keeps you fit!
FVDS – Our pupils did well at the Cross Country event at Lornshill Academy recently, even winning a Gold Medal! The weather cheered up just in time and everyone enjoyed the outing.
Our Big London Adventure – On the 20th June 25 of us, 17 pupils and 8 staff, left school and headed off for the train to London. On the evening of the 23rd 25 of us arrived back – a very successful trip!
We all had a great time and came home completely exhausted. Some highlights included Harry Potter, Madame Tussaud’s and London Zoo and we all enjoyed our magnificent hotel breakfasts.
Public Services Afternoon – Members of the Police, Army, Fire Service and others visited the school recently and our first years enjoyed meeting some of them and having a go with some of their kit!
