Sensory Intervention Base (S.I.B) and Mentoring

In 2017, Lansbury Bridge opened the doors to our Sensory Intervention Base (S.I.B). Led by our Specialist Learning Mentor and Youth Mental Health First Aider, Linda Fishwick, it is a valuable resource for our pupils.

The Senior Leadership Team and Governing Body confidently invested in the new multi-purpose resource for our school.

The S.I.B. is a large and well resourced room, where we encourage the nurturing and care of our children's holistic developmental needs and additional needs. The provisions and resources within the room are there to address any identified barriers to our children and young peoples learning, not just their academic learning but also their engagement in life. All approaches consider where the children and young people are in their developmental milestones and how their ASC may have affected them reaching these milestones. The emotional wellbeing, mental health, social skills, communication, behavioural support and sensory input is nurtured in this environment. These skills are then transferable to class and the wider world.

Our Specialist Learning Mentor/Youth Mental Health First Aider, is able to use her knowledge and experience to provide bespoke advice and practical input to our staff. We have extended our provision further through the introduction of our outreach work. This was achievable by being creative and using insight into what we needed to support ourselves through Mrs Fishwicks in-house training, bespoke advice and transfering this knowledge to multiple settings by mentoring other professionals internally and externally to Lansbury Bridge. By sharing our provision with other professionals and multi-agencies, it gives children and young people from other settings the same opportunities as we deliver to our own children and young people.

We see our provision as a pathway for any child or young person, through the adults who are currently supporting them seeking our support therefore benefitting the wider community also.

As for the future of our provision, we will continue to carry on doing what we do, but will also learn what the children and young people need through our observations and the feedback they give us, both verbally and through other forms of communication. This will enable us to continually develop our own practises and in turn support our pupils.

We don't expect our pupils to fit into our school, we fit around them. We look at ourselves and the current and changing needs of our young people. We adapt to them in our approaches and provisions. This is how we started and how we will continue to grow in the future.

Mrs Linda Fishwick

Specialist Learning Mentor/Youth Mental Health First Aider