A Sensory room is something that has been a pipe dream for the staff and pupils at Buckden Academy for many years. The need for a provision for sensory integration, as well as a calming, tranquil space in school has been an ever-increasing demand and until now, we have had to make do and manage with a few resources in our classes.

However, during lockdown in 2020 this all changed, and after seeking support from our fabulous PTA, a plan emerged to transform one of our group learning spaces.

The Peace Pod was established last year, and has been in constant use since its creation. Initially used as a talking space for emotional needs, we worked with the PTA to develop a plan to fund a whole host of sensory resources for the room.

During the summer holidays of 2021, some of the staff gave up some time to create a beautiful under sea mural in the Peace Pod to help the room come alive. Various textures, shapes and patterns have been added to the walls to create our own sensory wall.

The generous funding from the PTA has secured a range of sensory resources, including the hugely popular bubble tube with a mechanism for the children to change and select colours, fibre optic tassels, a light and sound projector, lots of soft and squidgy toys, weighted blankets, sensory tents and much more.

In addition to this, we successfully applied for the Tesco’s bags of help scheme and are waiting to find out how much was raised during the token collection period. Any funds from this will go to continued resourcing of the Peace Pod as well as providing further resources for classrooms.

The Peace Pod is a space for all; at one time or another all children are likely to experience a time when they need to access the support that it can offer. At the moment, with Covid restrictions the use of the room is a little restricted, but the plan is that all children will be able to make use of it soon. Our staff are also encouraged to use the room whenever needed.

We hope that our parents will get to see the room soon, but in the meantime we thought we would share some photos with you to give you a picture of the wonderful environment we have created!