Letter from Camphill
Easter 2010
Dear Parents and friends,
Amazing! I am actually typing this letter and the sun is shining, crocus’ are poking their way gingerly through the ground, birds are singing and it is possible to begin to imagine that snow has finally gone and that spring has arrived. But who knows what the future few weeks hold. Hopefully warm Easter holidays!
This term has of course been influenced by the snow and ice. Before Christmas the children and young people left in the snow and in January returned in the snow. Unlike other local schools our school did not close although a number of taxis were unable to get through. Snowmen, igloos and ice candles have decorated the estates.
As many of you are by now aware the Society of Friends of Camphill together with your help managed to raise about £125,000 towards the cost of the Therapy Building. Substantial donations were received from The Wooden Spoon and The Robertson Trust, and a number of others supplemented these: OurKidsToo, the Fraser Foundation, the Brown Brothers Trust, current and former parents, friends and co-workers. Many thanks to all of you. One parent is still active in her fund raising efforts:
Kilimanjaro: the peak fundraising challenge
Jane Riach, mother of one of our pupils is setting off on July 21, 2010 with two goals.
- To reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro as a "life punctuating" exercise.
- To use this challenge to raise funds for the new Therapy Centre at Camphill School Aberdeen.
Jane has set herself the target of £3,500 and, at the time of writing, she has already raised more than £2,145. You can check her progress on her JustGiving page.
Kilimanjaro is described as the world's highest free-standing mountain and Africa's biggest at 5,895 metres (19,341 feet). Climbing it takes six to seven days and, apart from the rigours of the climb, most people suffer some degree of altitude sickness.
Please help Jane with words of encouragement and donations to her challenge on JustGiving.
The building is on schedule despite the snow and we are hoping to officially open it at our Open Day on 25th September in the afternoon.
When you visit next come and take a look at the Sensory Garden on Camphill Estate. Class 11 have been busy for many months re-creating the garden and, with some financial help from the Friends of Camphill, will soon have it ready and as with the Therapy Centre many will benefit.
This weekend sees Camphill being honoured with a Civic Reception in Aberdeen as this year we celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the International Camphill Movement and the 50th Anniversary of Newton Dee Village. It was on 1st June 1940 that our work began in Camphill House.
Other activities around this date are also planned: a national conference with Dr Bruce Perry around the theme of childhood trauma, now in the Easter holidays to which you have already been invited, a conference in autumn with Dr. Olga Bogdashina who has worked extensively in the field of autism as teacher, lecturer and researcher, with a particular interest in sensory-perceptual and communication problems in autism, and a conference on research in November.
After much deliberations our new website is up and running and can be accessed on www.camphillschool.org.uk We hope it will prove to be successful in helping attract new pupils and in advancing our work. The launch also highlighted our new dvd which is available from both offices. You may notice the words ‘Social Pedagogy in Practice’ on both the website and the new dvd. This links us to the new name of the BA in Curative Education which is now the BA (Hons) in Social Pedagogy. I quote from an earlier letter: For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘social pedagogy’ it has been “used to describe a range of work straddling social work and education. Often more holistic and group-oriented than dominant forms of social work and schooling, social pedagogy (sozial pädagogik) has its roots in German progressive education - and is sometimes translated as 'community education' or 'education for sociality’” (www.infed.org.uk). As you can see it is something we have been practising for many years and hence our enthusiasm to be linked with this progressive new movement in the UK.
This term we have continued to build new relationships with Aberdeen City officials and have hosted visits from the Director of Education and her senior colleagues as well as the newly appointed Head of Children’s Services. At these meetings we have both been keen to see which services they would like us to provide as well as informing them of the many changes that have occurred in the service we offer, particularly our flexibility. They were keen to know more about the St Andrew’s Project and the Nature Nurture work which has been recognised nationally for its high quality. The Nature Nurture work also received a large investment from Go Play, a Scottish Government initiative designed to support 'free play' in the voluntary sector involving five to 13 year-olds - behaviour which is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. This funding is aimed at improving the play infrastructure in Scotland as well as the development of creative approaches that encourage free play. The investment has enabled the work to double the number of sessions it offers.
We have recently made contact with the Govan Law Centre (0141 445 1955) which ‘is Scotland’s expert legal resource providing support to the voluntary, statutory and independent sectors in relation to education law for children en and young people with additional support needs’ For any of you needing this kind of help or advice do contact them. We hope in the near future that they will run a workshop here both for ourselves and you as parents.
Although in the summer a large number of older pupils are likely to leave as they graduate from Class 12 we have been heartened by an increase in financially supported referrals and in particular by the increase in the number of new boarders. We therefore remain cautiously optimistic that we can continue to offer the quality of service despite the recession and the cut backs in local authority funds.
All our activities have not however only been turned inwards. As a community we were also touched by the human tragedies in Haiti and Chile and various initiatives took place to raise money to support the charities working in those regions including one of our co-workers running the 6 mile Sport Relief run in Perth in 42 minutes!!
With this kind of energy who needs holidays? Well, I think we all do after what has been a long term!
Wishing you a pleasant refreshing Easter Break,
Laurence Alfred