Oakwood SILC School

Inclusive Education

Oakwood SILC is a part of the East Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre in Leeds that support children between the ages of 3 and 19 with complex learning difficulties. The school contacted us as they wished to refurbish and create a selection of inclusive sensory spaces to support and enrich the school’s students and their learning journeys.

Project Requirements:

• Refurbish and renew their existing Soft Play Room into a clean, bright and safe space for sensory integration sessions.
• Create a brand new Multi-Sensory Room for students to relax and explore their senses.
• Make sure all areas are accessible for everyone, especially wheelchair users.

Accessible Soft Sensory Fun

Our sensory install team was quick to get to work, starting with Oakwood’s original Soft Play Room refurbishment. We started by covering the room’s floors and walls with bright blue, easy to clean, safety padding, ensuring the space was safe for students to explore their senses excitedly and providing the teaching staff with the perfect space for sensory integration classes.

Next were large soft play blocks and a slide, perfect for climbing, jumping, tumbling and developing key Gross Motor and Proprioceptive skills. A hoist system was installed along the ceiling lining up with the room’s impressive ball pool filled with hundreds of rainbow-coloured balls, making the pools wonderful tactile and full-body proprioceptive stimulation accessible for everybody.

Multi-Sensory Magic

Alongside Soft Play Room refurbishment, our sensory team designed and installed some brand new multi-sensory spaces. Take a peek inside one of the new interactive multi-sensory rooms;

• Sensory lighting: To create a wonderful, visually stimulating space, we added a host of sensory lighting effects that every student could enjoy. A Solar Projector creates playful portals to imaginative worlds; an Interactive Bubble Tube brings endless hours of bubbling fun, and an Infinity Tunnel provides curiously mesmerising optical illusions.
  
• Glowing with greatness: This multi-sensory room can also quickly turn into an impressive Dark Room with the simple flick of a light switch. The room’s floor is covered in a funky UV Carpet and dotted with fascinating UV Liquid Sensory Tiles, bathing the room in a bright sensory glow. The visual stimulation it creates is perfect for distracting students from their worries and getting them to focus on their senses and the physical space around them.
• A chill-out space: Soft mood lighting, cosy beanbags and safety padding make for an excellent chilled out area for the school community, away from busy classrooms and hectic playgrounds.