Rockinghorse receives £10,000 grant to support the creation of a new sensory room at Downs View School.
The award, from the Openwork Foundation, will go towards funding the equipment for a brand-new sensory room for young people at Downs View School in Woodingdean, Brighton.
Downs View provides specialist education to children with severe learning difficulties and autism aged 4-16-years-old. The school works incredibly hard to ensure each pupil has their individual educational needs met alongside support from parents and carers.
The Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) focused sensory room will benefit around 155 children on the main school site and the space will help students to develop their communication and interaction abilities, in a dedicated area away from other distractions.
The sensory room will provide Downs View School with a much-needed education and intervention space which can support the most complex children. The room will include calming lights and music, switch-enabled toys, a magic carpet, and play equipment.
The ASC sensory room will also offer many benefits to children and families outside of school hours, and will be accessed after school, at weekends, and in school holidays.
Sharon Gearing, the Trusts Fundraising Manager at Rockinghorse, explains more about the process of applying for grants like this; “My role is to research and apply for help from a range of charitable trusts for funding towards our projects. Each application we make explains exactly which project the funding will go towards and this helps us explain the importance of the funding and helps the trusts see exactly how they will be supporting us.
The Openwork Foundation have been incredibly generous in awarding us this grant. It means that we can help fund the sensory room which will make such a huge difference to the children at Downs View. We can’t wait to go along and see it in action once it’s up and ready!”
Downs View are hoping to have the room ready later this year. The school is currently being expanded and this expansion will help them create the space for the sensory room.
