The Hollies Special School

Inclusive Sensory Classrooms For Special Students

Our Install Team began 2021 to a bright sensory start as they travelled down to The Hollies School in Cardiff to create two new Sensory Integration Rooms for their special school community.

We were first contacted by Rachel o’Keefe, an ALN (Additional Learning Needs) teacher, via our website. She was keen to launch an inclusive project that would integrate sensory into everyday school life, creating spaces for pupils to relax, develop and explore their senses.

With a target to complete the project before Welsh schools reopening on the 12^th of April, our Sensory Design and Installation Team were excited to get to work.

Our Design Solution:

Inspired by The Hollies’ school values, we designed the new Sensory Integration Rooms as inclusive spaces that students could use to explore and discover, play and interact, and engage and learn.

Explore & Discover: Sensory Integration Room 1

Includes: Swing and O Frame, Climbing Wall, Tactile Wall & Soft Play Trampoline

Designed as an antidote to frustrating classroom environments, the first Sensory Integration Room is filled with active sensory resources perfect for letting loose, expelling energy, and discovering how your body moves.

• The swing is excellent for therapeutic relaxation and developing users’ proprioceptive systems.
• Students can improve their focus and build fine and gross motor skills on the adventurous climbing wall.
• Bouncing, hopping, jumping, twirling, and swirling are all great methods of releasing anxious or angry energy and boosting students’ moods on the trampoline.
• Whilst the tactile wall is a peaceful area where students can use their hands to explore the wall’s oddly interesting textures and develop their tactile senses.

Play & Interact: Sensory Integration Room 2

Includes: Soft Play Trail, Soft Play Shape Kit, Vibrating Walls, Interactive Room Lights & Colour Cube.

The second sensory room was designed as a soft, safe, interactive play space, where students could create, interact and explore their senses in a way that works for them.

• Whether that’s crawling, climbing, rolling and jumping across the soft play set, putting their gross motor skills to the test.
• Building the tallest tower, learning about balance, puzzles and developing their inner master builder with a collection of tactile Soft Play Shapes.
• Experiencing interesting stimulation across their bodies with Vibrating Walls.
• Or relaxing under a changing rainbow of mood lights, controlled by a handy colour cube.

Pupils in this room have the control and freedom to turn it into a personalised sensory space, enhancing their mood and wellbeing and developing key skills such as self-control and self-awareness.

Engage & Learn: Portable Sensory Resources

Alongside the Sensory Integration Rooms, we also supplied The Hollies with three of our portable Sensory Voyagers, giving the schools sensory team flexibility if covid restrictions meant the main sensory rooms needed to close.

Gliding from classroom to classroom, the Sensory Voyager’s sensory lighting and tactile distractions are great for helping anxious students feel more comfortable in busy classroom environments.

They’re a great resource for creating inclusive learning environments and keeping kids in the classroom instead of removing them and taking them into a separate space.

Supporting Learning, Play & Development

This was another fantastic sensory project that we have been proud to work on. Helping to make a special school even more special by adapting their current classroom settings into truly inclusive learning environments for every pupil in The Hollies community.