Disability Awareness Day.

Today, many of our KS2 children took part in a range of activities where all of their learning was linked to awarenss of disability. The aim was to have an understanding of the additional challenges some people face in their everyday lives.

We began with a visit from a lady who trains guide dogs. She explained the very first training the puppy goes through long before it becomes a fully qualified guide dog. The children were fascinated to learn about some of the sounds and situations the dogs need to be comfortable with to go on to additional training.

During the day activities planned involved the children learning about hearing and sight loss as well as physical diabilities. Amongst other things, we had a go at decoding some braille, paying for items when we are unable to see the coins we have in our purse, communicating information without words, carrying out simple day to day tasks when we have a physical disability and manouvering a wheelchair around a short route.

By the end of the day we had a much better understanding of how challenging some everyday tasks can be for others. This was very well summed up by Lily who said, 'I learnt that people with disabilities are just the same as us' and Evie who added, 'they can do the same things as us but just a little bit differently sometimes.