Shanly Foundation donation helps fund a new approach to learning

We are delighted to have recently received a donation from the Shanly Foundation toward our appeal to raise funds to recruit a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) teacher.

The Shanly Foundation, financed by the Shanly Group of companies, supports causes that help individuals and benefit local communities across London and the South East.

Our appeal to recruit a SEND teacher will help us to continue to achieve our goal, which is to enable our clients to develop the skills and confidence to lead independent and fulfilling lives.

Many clients have come to live with us from residential colleges, where they were, to a large extend, sheltered from many everyday experiences. Coming to Field Lane, where they are living as part of a community in the adult world, is a huge leap. They may even attend mainstream college and/or day centres and must adapt to a whole new world not only where they live but where they study and learn new skills. For our clients to succeed at college and at the day centres, to build up and retain news skills, these must be consistently and constantly reinforced, to become part of a regular routine, which becomes as familiar as eating breakfast every morning. Our clients need certainty and consistency, any change to routine can be very extremely stressful, creating anxiety and can even impact behaviour.

Over the past two years the nationwide restrictions imposed during the pandemic led to a major interruption to our clients’ opportunities for study, learning and developing new skills. This has been extremely challenging and stressful for our clients, who risk falling behind on the progress they were making prior to the national lockdown.

We need to create our own buffer to ensure the certainty and continuity so important for our clients. To do this, we launched an appeal to fund the recruitment of our own SEND teacher, to work across our projects with individuals and groups of clients. This new approach to maintaining skills development will ensure resilience, continuity, and enable us to sustain our clients’ progress as they continue to build vital skills and confidence.

To donate to our appeal, please visit the donate page of our website.