Monday, July 30, 2018
Autistic Students Celebrate End Of Term By Performing At Summer Fair
Students with autism at LVS Hassocks school celebrated the end of the academic school year with their traditional summer sharing party on Friday 6th July. The summer fair, attended by families and guests, allowed the students to demonstrate their increasing confidence and skills development by performing and managing stalls.
A number of students at the school for 11 to 19 year olds with autism took to the stage with Theo Franks from Rok Skool to provide musical entertainment and demonstrate the skills they have learned throughout the year, along with the confidence to play in front of an audience. Finn Doyle said: “It was a fantastic experience, I loved taking part. Summer sharing is one of my favourite days of the year as I love getting the chance to play the drums at it”.
Other students took charge of stalls, practicing eye contact, talking to people and handling money, whilst others just enjoyed the games. The Burgess Hill District Lions Club was present at summer sharing, presenting prizes of Amazon gift cards totalling £140 to eight students who had won the Lions’ Peace Competition that involved them creating their own pieces of artwork with a theme of world peace. Secretary of the Burgess Hill Lions Tony Parris said: It was another excellent event and it was great to see the joy and excitement on so many young and happy faces, especially the winners of prizes. Burgess Hill District Lions have been involved with the school from the start and it is so rewarding to see the excellent way it is moving forward”.
As usual one of the highlights of summer sharing was the opportunity to soak the staff, with a number of staff including Deputy Head Jen Weeks gaining a cooling off thanks to buckets of water and sponges thrown by students.
The summer sharing event was preceded by sports day in the morning. Despite the hot weather, students continued to thrive on the outdoor education opportunities that LVS Hassocks provides, and enjoyed a wide range of events at sports day. The different activities, such as javelin, athletics and tug of war, allowed them to try different things, practice working as a team and gain confidence and reward for effort and impressive performances.