•Special School

•The school caters for pupils with severe/profound learning disabilities, moderate learning disabilities and for pupils with autism.

•“The aim of the Board of Management and the staff of the-----. with assistance and guidance from the Department of Education and Science and the ------Health Board, is to provide the highest quality of care and education to all the children in this service, thus enabling them to achieve their fullest potential and thereby allow them to participate as fully as possible within their local communities and society in general”

•The School was established in 70s Initially there were three classrooms, an all purpose hall, a Special Care unit and kitchen.

•There were three teachers in the school catering for the needs of pupils with moderate learning disabilities.There were 23 pupils in the school at that time. •Over the last thirty to forty years the school has undergone many changes including two extensions.

•It presently caters for over one hundred and thirty pupils and has a staff of 75 including teachers, nurses, speech and language therapist, special needs assistants,housekeepers, secretary, caretaker and bus escorts.

•7 children with varying conditions

•9-10 years old

•2 Special Needs Assistants

I sought permission from the school teachers to carry out the facilitation with a specific class within the school. It was agreed I would carry out the facilitation with 6th class ( 9 – 10 year olds). Date and times were then confirmed.

I then met with the students to gather some of their ideas for the facilitation. One of the students came up with the idea of a plant and another suggested he would like to trace the outside of his hand and stick it onto paper. After many ideas I came up with the idea of making a plant and instead of using flowers to use each of the students outline of their hands coming out from the soil in the bucket.

•To establish a sense of belonging and security among the group and to bring the group together

•To encourage communication

•.To promote creativity

•Plant bucket•Garden Soil•Stickers•3 sheets of coloured paper – green,orange and yellow•3 sheets of coloured crepe paper•Spoons•Lollypop sticks•Sellotape

•Before the facilitation, I made name stickers for each of the children so I could speak to them during the activity

•I then laid out all the materials on the desk and explained to the children the idea I had suggested.

•Next I explained the sequence in which we were going to approach the activity e.g First cutting out the hands, then filling the bucket with soil etc..

The children began by drawing the outline of their hand onto coloured paper of their choice

Some of the children decided to decorate their hand by using stickers

Next the children attached their lollypop stick onto the outline of their hand.

It was decided sellotape would be easier for the children to use

Next it was time to pass the bucket around and to allow each of the children to take turns filling the bucket with soil

After the bucket was filled with soil, the group rolled pieces of crepe paper into little balls to decorate the inside of the bucket

The children then put their balls of crepe paper into the bucket

The children then decorated the bucket with stickers

The end result

•I observed how stimulating art can be. I noticed how focused the children were and how it created a sense of partnership among them. The children also engaged in communication.

• I also noticed how important it is for children to recognise how to share with others. At several times I had make sure that each of the children took turns while taking part in the activity

•I did not realise the individual attention some of the children needed while completing the art activity. I found the activity less stressful by being helped by one of the special needs assistants

•The children enjoyed themselves and staff were pleased. They each gave each other a round of applause afterwards and I awarded them with sweets for their efforts.

•One of the children noted how colourful the bucket looked and that everybody's hands were closely together.