So this week has been an incredibly important week in our calendar, as we have been celebrating Autism Acceptance Week!
The aim of Autism Acceptance Week (formerly known as Autism Awareness Week) is to help more people understand what autism is. Autism Acceptance Week is also a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness and acceptance of autism in our school.
It is something that is extremely close to our hearts as families and staff. We do everything we can to make sure that these children have the best possible understanding and opportunities to grow and mature in the right ways.
There have been activities and tasks that the whole school have been participating in to help everyone have a better understanding of what autism is and what people can do to help and support those with autism. In our classes, the children have been decorating jigsaw pieces. This was to represent and show the children how each one of us are unique and each have our own special qualities that make you, you.
On Friday, we celebrated the end of this important week by inviting staff and children to wear blue, which is the official colour for autism, and it was a non-uniform day for the children.
To include the parents and families this week, we sent home a hand template for them to decorate. The families at home were asked to write down why they are proud of their child/ children on each hand. We then asked the families to bring the decorated hands in to school, where boards were set up at the ARP entrance for them to pin their decorated hands up onto with their children. So many hands were brought in and pinned up, which was a really heart-warming sight to see.
We also understood that some children come to school by transport. So, to accommodate this, we asked those families to send a picture of themselves and their children via email. These pictures were then printed off and pinned up by the teachers to ensure every child and family had the opportunity to participate in this end of the week presentation.
Attached below are pictures of the children in the ARP and some classes from the mainstream school taking part in Autism Acceptance Week activities within their classes. It is really nice to see how everyone has taken part in activities, and having discussions surrounding this particular week.
