Spotlight on award-winning Oaklands School

Oaklands School moved to Ferry Road about 7 years ago, and the number of pupils that it can now teach increased at the same time. The ‘new’ school is a purpose-built one storey building set in a beautifully spacious area, and the children have access to the outdoors as well as enjoying the indoor facilities.

One room has dimmed lights for children to experience the beauty of fairy lights, and sensory play is clearly an important part of the daily routine, but another very important part of the routine is access to the wheelchair swing…

We went along with Andrew to see for ourselves what it entails, and to witness how much he loves it.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXLp-XTohoU]

Maureen Mathieson, head teacher at Oaklands explained:-“All the children love the swing. It is booked up in advance and they all know when they are going on as they all have some kind of signifier that tells them when it is their turn whether it is an object signifier or a song, it is all part of that experience and they all love it!”

The school recently won an award from the Council Leader, Andrew Burns principally for their MOVE curriculum which has as its primary aim the goal of getting every child to walk independently. This swing forms a part of that curriculum. Councillor Burns assured the recent council meeting on 21 November that he will visit the school soon to see firsthand the work that the head teacher and staff do there. He said:-“It was not an easy task to pick a winner, but I was delighted to give the award to Oaklands and will be happy to visit the school. I briefly visited the school in 2006 when I was the Education Convener just at the time it was opening so it will be good for me to go back and see how it is doing now.”