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My weekly card making enrichment sessions were especially popular with the young people.

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During the school year 2024- 25, while I was Special Needs Teacher at another Nexus MAT school, I ran weekly enrichment sessions for students from Key Stages 4 and 5 (15 to 18 year olds). 

For the Friday Enrichment sessions I taught: dance classes; simple cake decorating classes, and in the Summer term, card making classes. The card making sessions were particularly popular with the students. 

The structured step-by-step approach that I use when teaching these sort of creative lessons works well for young people with special neeeds. My students for this year all had severe learning difficulties. Many were Autistic (some non-speaking) and others had other complex needs. 

Students really enjoy creative activities and most also love using sensory materials. Anxiety is reduced by first showing students a finished card and then demonstrating the stages of making it. 

I have found that making a video of myself demonstrating the process  and showing this to the students on the big classroom screen can be even more effective than my in person demonstration in front of  them.  This is one technique that I have used to make teaching more accessible, especially for autistic students. They are even more interested when the person in the video is their teacher or one of the classroom staff who they are already familiar with. 

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