St Crispin's School

Project Background

St Crispin’s is a special school in Edinburgh that supports the learning of pupils aged between 4-18 with complex learning disabilities and autism. The school’s community had outgrown their old building, and Edinburgh Council were keen to create a bigger and better space that could help to nurture the students learning and development.

In early 2018, Edinburgh Council contacted us as they’d just secured £12m funding for a brand-new site for St Crispin’s. They wanted to know if our sensory team could design and specify three therapeutic spaces – and of course we said yes!

Over the next couple of years, we worked closely with the council and contractors McLaughlin & Harvey to develop, design and install the new sensory spaces on time, on plan and on budget.

The school was due to open in September 2021, but due to delays stemming from Covid-19, the site was finally opened in February 2022 with a very warm welcome.

Soft Play Room

A bright and colourful spot for students to run around, climb, jump, roll and let off steam – safely.

The Soft Play room is lined with made to measure padding to create a safe canvas for play, and filled with exciting and physically challenging resources, including platforms, tunnels, slides and a big, bright ball pool, to support students’ physical development.

Alongside the motor resources, we added a mix of therapeutic elements to balance the active play space. For example, students can lean back against the Vibrating Bumpas and stimulate their proprioceptive senses. Or they can build and develop cognitive and motor skills as they creatively construct dens, obstacle courses and towers with the colourful Soft Play Construction Set.

Soft Play Room: Wall & Floor Padding, Vibrating Bumpas, Ball Pool, Platform with Tunnels, Stairs.

Sensory Room Studio

Designed to inspire imaginations, shape senses, and offer a space for accessible, inclusive learning – St Crispin’s immersive Sensory Room Studio is a special place for students to escape reality and discover themselves.

A multi-projector set-up decorates the room’s walls and floor with interactive images and videos, immersing users in a dreamy, imaginative space. Using an iPad, users can easily change the room’s theme, whether that’s diving into the deep blue sea or hopping from flower to flower with a busy bee.

It’s a modern sensory space that’s perfect for engaging children’s minds, bodies and senses.

Sensory Room Studio Features: Sensory Projectors, MSE Room Control, Bubble Wall, Slab Beanbags, LED Wall Wash.

Interactive Sensory Room

This classic sensory room was created so that students at St Crispin’s could have a calming space to come to if they are ever feeling stressed, anxious or if their senses are out of balance.

Filled with bubbling bubble tubes, twinkling fibre optics, and lined with cosy soft, safety padding, users have the opportunity and space to sit back and relax.

Designed for individual sensory sessions, all of the equipment is switch controlled for accessibility. Users can choose to sit and enjoy the room’s calming stimulation passively or actively explore their senses, using the colour controller cube to interact with various resources around the room.

Interactive Sensory Room Features: Bubble Tube & Podium, Slab Beanbags, Fibre Optics, Line Lite Mirror, Fibre Optic Curtain, Colour Controller Cube, Sound & Light Panel, Infinity Tunnel, Laser Stars Projector, Solar Projector.