Our Animal Well being officers brought the new guineas back to school and set  a cosy new home for them with nest boxes and plenty of hay to nibble on. The children will be responsible for their daily feeding, health checks and cuddles! In time they will also be responsible for teaching our younger learners how to handle the guineas and care for them- what wonderful advocates for our school.

Animal Therapy at Brierley

  

Animal therapy has a huge amount of research into the benefits for all our ment health and well being. We have already seen what a difference our animals make in supporting communication and regulation for our learners of all ages. As well as our Animal Well being officers, we also have 1:1 sessions with our guineas and on Friday with Mowgli, our school dog, to support children in building their confiden and learning how to be calm and assertive in their interactions. 

Animals live ‘in the moment’, they don’t judge and don’t hold a grudge but they do respond to our communication and body language. Therefore we use the Zones of Regulation in the sessions to teach our children how their body language impacts on the behaviour of the animal- staying calm and assertive in the GREEN Zone shows the animal they are safe and secure.

 

Brierley Best Learning!

   

 

Another wonderful 

week of Brierley 

Best learning from 

some VERY messy 

sensory play to 

‘freeze frame’ 

drama in our 

Literacy learning.

 

 

Communication for Learning 

Our staff had training this week to further develop Zones of Regulation across our Pathways. This is a language and visual communication we all use to name our emotions and the feelings of others and recognise what we need to feel regulated. Every classroom has a Zones display and these are used interactively, along with resources such as trampolines, fidgets, ear defenders and sometimes a guinea pig! Some of our children are able to acce the Zones independently and say what ‘I need’ to be in the GREEN zone, whilst others may need an adult to recognise their zone and what may help. All the emotions are valid and listened to by staff in school so that children understand that it is normal and natural to feel a range of emotions. This is also a really useful communication strategy for pre-verbal learners who are not able to tell us how they are feeling but can show us. As part of our Zones work, we are building our children’s understanding of others by observing which zone our guinea pigs are in and how our body language and behaviour can keep them in the green zone. Some guineas are in the Yellow zone when handled and we use calm breathing and assertive body language to keep them in the green zone. 

Makaton Sign of the Week: 

https://makaton.org/TMC/News_Stories/SOTW/SOTW_Moon.aspx