Features
Pupil Carl Etheridge and child care assistant Ian Wallace talk about their work at Dr John Worrall school for children with learning and emotional difficulties in Sheffield. Efforts to get pupils out and about have given them a new-found independence
The road to somewhere
“My job is to meet the needs of the pupils,” says Ian Wallace,
childcare assistant at Dr John Worrall school for children with learning
and emotional difficulties. “The needs of the education authority,
governing body, teachers and parents may all be important but they are
not my first priority.”
He also says that he sees his role in the school – constantly under
threat of closure – as getting the best out of the pupils as opposed
to the worst, which is “dead easy to do. But you need to focus on
the positives instead.”. Ian has worked at the special school for
25 years and initiated a whole series of extra curricular activities since
he’s been there.
“I have taken pupils cycling for many years. We are lucky to have
the canal towpath and the Five Weirs Walk on the River Don nearby. I regularly
take up to two pupils about 15 miles. This activity is in huge demand
and when we come back the pupils very willingly write about it –
which is no mean feat for some of them.
“One spin-off has been that many pupils now travel independently
to and from school, rather than using taxis.
“We had a girl who lived 15 miles away who learned to catch a bus
to Barnsley, then a train to Meadowhall, and a bus to school. And back.
Every day. She was so proud of herself.”
The school recently had its first day out in London. One of the participants,
15-year-old Carl Etheridge (pictured) wrote about his experience. “He
and I talked about it and I wrote down what he was saying,” says
Ian. “Then he spent four sessions typing it out on the computer.
And this is what he wrote:”
Our big day out
“Some time ago we started thinking about going to London. And Thursday
23 May 2002 was agreed as the take-off day!
“We booked our packed lunches and wrote a letter to parents to get
their permission. Lots of other kids in school started getting very interested
too. In the end we settled on Danny Marshall, Harrison, Warren Dean Patterson
and me.
“We met by WH Smiths in Sheffield station at 8.45. Carl came with
his mum and nan, Danny came with his father, Warren came with his mum,
and Harrison came on his own. But Dean stayed in bed pretending to be
poorly.
“The train set off bang on time at 09.27. We called at Chesterfield,
Derby, Leicester, and Kettering, arriving one minute late into St Pancras.
“We walked to King’s Cross station to have a look for platform
9 1/2. We asked a policeman but he couldn’t tell us, so Harry tried
his hat on. The station master came and told us that Harry Potter was
filmed on platform 5.
“We caught a tube to Westminster then walked up through Parliament
Square, past Big Ben, along Whitehall, past the top of Downing St. Downing
St has big gates which Margaret Thatcher put in to protect herself from
us!
“We sat and had our sandwiches in St James’s Park. A squirrel
ran up Harry’s leg!
“From St James’s Park we walked across the Mall, with Buckingham
Palace at the end, across Carlton Square Gardens where the Foreign Office
is. There was lots of security. Someone very important was visiting –
it was Tony Blair!
“Then we caught a number 9 bus to Kensington. As we were getting
on, a man ran off shouting that somebody had stolen his wallet. At Kensington
we went to the Natural History Museum.
“We saw a life-size model of the blue whale, which is the biggest
animal on Earth. It is as big as our school hall but not dangerous because
it only eats plankton. We had a quick look at the dinosaur exhibition,
but some of us were getting tired so we went to a café for a drink.
Danny was dehydrated.
“We caught a Tube to Piccadilly Circus to find some food for our
tea. Then Harry realised that he didn’t have his coat. Oh No! So
we had a careful think and decided that it must be back in the café
at Kensington.
“There was only one thing for it. Harry and Mr Wallace got back
on the Tube to Kensington, walked back to the café, which was just
about to close for the night, and found Harry’s coat!
“We met up back at St Pancras in good time for the 20.25 back to
Sheffield. Danny and Harry reverted to six-year-olds between Leicester
and Chesterfield. We got back on time into Sheffield, where Mr Bradley
was waiting with the mini bus to take every body home. Some of us were
a bit late into school the next day!
“It was absolutely brilliant. Danny says it was a brilliant day out. Harry says it was a fantastic day and he really liked it. Warren says it is was brilliant apart from Harry and Danny.”
Contact the article's author Helen Barron
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