Interest Link

Roxburgh

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Victorian Picnic

Project

April - June 2019

Contents

Introduction

Who was involved?

Victorian Food

Toys & Games

The Picnic

Conclusion

Introduction

Interest Link Roxburgh Children’s Group meets every second

Monday in Hawick. The aim of the group is to work with children and

young people with learning disabilities and support them to:

- Make more friends

- Feel happier

- Feel more confident

- Have better self-esteem

- Have better social skills

This is achieved through running a variety of projects with service

users (young people with a learning disability) and peer mentors (young

people of a similar age, who do not have a learning disability). From April

to June 2019, the project was to learn about and cook Victorian style

foods; to learn about and make wooden Victorian style toys; and to host

a Victorian inspired picnic for parents and families. The group met at

Wild Woods campsite for the all five sessions, and used the site as the

venue for the picnic on the final session of the academic year on Monday

24th June.

Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, July 2019

Who was involved?

Service Users

Kacey Paula

Blair Liam

Gemma Katie

Matthew Staff

Val

Rebecca

Peer Mentors

Millie Emily

Josh Luke

Max Sessional Workers

Sarah Leanne James Anna

Volunteers

Lynn

Alison

Service Users

Blair Kacey

Paula Liam

Gemma Katie

Matthew

Victorian Food

Leanne, who has worked with us on previous projects, joined us as a

sessional worker and taught us about Victorian foods. We got to try

making mini Victoria sponges, jam tarts, open sandwiches and

ploughman’s lunchboxes among other things. Leanne joined us most

weeks so that we could split each session between learning about

Victorian food and learning about Victorian toys and games.

Above left: Leanne shows Liam, Lynn and Alison how to make up ploughman’s lunchboxes

Above right: Leanne works with Kacey, Millie, Gemma, Josh and Paula making mini Victorian sponges

The foods we made each time Leanne worked with us were served for our

snack during session. Sometimes Val also bought vintage sweets for us to

try. Some food we liked, such as the mini Victoria sponges and the jam

tarts…

…and some foods we really didn’t like, such as dolly mixtures and the

potted meat included in the ploughman’s lunchboxes.

Left: Josh, Emily, Paula, Millie, Katie,

Sarah, Blair, Gemma, Rebecca, Kacey,

Matthew and Anna enjoying their

homemade mini Victoria sponges

Right: Anna, Leanne, Liam, Max and

Paula try the potted meat (Anna was

the only one who enjoyed it!)

Toys & Games

Two sessional workers joined us for this part of the project: James to

teach us how to make our own toys, and Anna to lead different games.

On the very first session, James showed us how to make our own

skipping ropes and brought along wooden skittles he had made for us

which we then decorated with felt pens.

Above left: James works with Josh and Paula to make their skipping ropes

Above right: Paula shows off her finished skipping rope (Liam, Sarah and Katie are watching a game of cricket

in the background)

Above: Val, Matthew, Max, Liam, Blair and Gemma play tag

Anna taught us how to play loads of different games. Our favourites were

Pine Cone Toss (where you throw pinecones and score different points

depending on which bucket they land in), Ring on the String (where a

circle of people pass a ring from person to person around a loop of string

whilst the person in the middle tries to guess where the ring is) and the

Vegetable and Spoon Race (like an egg and spoon race but using onions

and potatoes instead of eggs).

Left: Anna explains the rules

of a game to Matthew,

Gemma, Liam and Kacey

James also brought in a cricket set for us to use and Wild Woods – the

campsite which we used as the venue for this project – had some games

and equipment which they kindly leant us during some of our sessions.

Above left: Kacey, Gemma and Matthew watch Josh prepare to take his turn batting

Above right: Val bowls to Matthew (Kacey, Anna and Emily field in the background)

Above: Millie and Emily help Katie try her hand at croquet

The Picnic

Unfortunately after a run of lovely weather during our sessions, it was

cold and drizzly on the night of our picnic. Wild Woods have a large

three sided building filled with picnic benches and equipped with an

open fire, so we decided to host our picnic in this space, rather than on

the grass as originally planned. Val and Rebecca arrived early in the

afternoon to arrange the picnic tables, get the fire lit and set out a picnic

box for each service users’ family. An additional table was set up with

spare picnic boxes for teachers who had been invited from Hawick High

School and Wilton Primary School, who we work with throughout the

academic year.

Left: Liam’s picnic box,

which he decorated with

trains and other Victorian

toys. Next to the box is an

end of year questionnaire to

find out how Liam enjoys

coming to Interest Link

When the service users and volunteers arrived, it was all hands on deck to

get the food made and into the picnic boxes before parents, families and

teachers arrived at half past six.

Above left: Leanne and Val help Gemma, Katie, Liam, Kacey and Blair to prepare the picnic food

Above right: Mini Victoria sponges in the making

Our sessional workers James, Leanna and Anna joined the picnic, along

with family members for almost all of the service users, and three

members of staff from the two schools. Graham, who is in the process of

helping us to do a piece of evaluation work for Interest Link Roxburgh,

was also able to attend the picnic and use the time to chat to service

users and families about their experiences with the group.

Anna led a few games of Pine Cone Toss and Ring on the String in

between the showers; and James and service user Matthew led some

indoor games. The bad weather meant we couldn’t play cricket or

croquet, which we’ve all started to enjoy, but it was still a fun evening. To

finish the night off, Anna brought along a few small barbeques and we

had toasted marshmallows before the taxis came to take us all home. A

lovely end to the night and to the academic year!

Above left: Our finished skittles set, which we played with on the night and then donated to Wild Woods as a

thank you for letting us use their space

Above right: Liam and Sarah enjoying the picnic

Above: Anna and Leanne oversee marshmallow toasting, surrounded by service users, peer mentors and

families

Conclusion

In relation to Interest Link aims, this project helped service users to:

- Make more friends

Paula has made friends with Katie and they will high five or

hug each other when they arrive to group. Both girls use

electronic talkers at school, but do not bring them to group.

Using facial expressions, hugs, high fives and some Signalong

(a form of sign language used in local schools), Paula and

Katie are building a friendship and beginning to work

together on activities.

Gemma and Paula have also begun to build a friendship

during this project. Paula understands when she is spoken to,

and can respond in non-verbal ways, so Gemma does a lot of

talking in the friendship, but they also use hugs and high fives

to communicate with each other. Gemma can sometimes be a

little bossy, but Paula has a stubborn streak and will let

Gemma know if she doesn’t want to do something. So far the

friendship has been very sweet, but with both girls being so

strong-willed, we will continue to keep an eye on them and

help them to communicate with each other in constructive

ways.

- Feel happier

Recently Matthew has been quite cross or moody during

group sessions. Part of this stems from being a teenager, and

part of it is due to Matthew feeling he is more grown up or

more capable than other group members. He really enjoyed

having a male role model in the group in the form of James,

and liked that he and James worked as a team to run the

games on the night of the picnic. Being given some more

responsibility and treated more like a young adult has given

Matthew’s mood a boost and made him seem happier during

this project. We will continue to find opportunities for him to

take responsibility where possible in future projects.

Blair often feels overwhelmed or overstimulated during group

activities. He has started being able to recognise this and will

ask to take some time out to go for a walk with Rebecca or

Val until he feels able to return to the activity. He will spend

the time on the walk talking about things which interest him,

and these short bursts of time focused on his interests and

hobbies seem to have made him feel happier in the group

overall. When we return The Hub in the winter term, it won’t

be so easy to leave the group to go for a walk, but we will try

to find time during sessions for Blair to do something which

interests and engages him to ensure he still feels happy

during busy activities.

- Feel more confident

Katie can be very shy in the group and often prefers to be

with Millie (who she knows outside of group) rather than

speak to new people. During this project, she has spent time

with people other than Millie, with no obvious anxiety about

being away from someone she knows well. With

encouragement, she has also tried new things – such as

playing croquet – which shows her growing confidence.

- Have better self-esteem

Liam is very quick to say “I can’t do that” when new activities

are introduced, and will often choose to watch instead of join

in activities. He likes to be good at something from the first

try and becomes disheartened very quickly if he doesn’t

immediately get the hang of something. He and Max have

built a lovely friendship, and Max will often encourage Liam

to try something and congratulate him for having a go, even

if something doesn’t go perfectly. Max is also unafraid to be

bad at things, and will happily make a fool of himself or brush

it off when something goes wrong. This seems to be having a

positive effect on Liam’s confidence

- Have better social skills

When Gemma first joined the group towards the end of our

last project, she was very loud during sessions, struggled to

wait her turn and could be very clingy with adults. Through

playing games and cooking as part of a group during this

project, Gemma has got much better at learning to take her

turn and wait patiently for others to finish. She also seems to

be less clingy with adults, though she does sometimes still

prefer adult company to spending time with her peers. We

will continue to work on these things with Gemma in future

projects.

Similarly to Gemma, Kacey can find it hard to take her turn or

speak at an appropriate volume in social situations. With

encouragement, she can wait to speak in a group or speak at

the right volume for the situation, but she finds it hard to do

this without someone reminding her. We will continue to

encourage Kacey to talk appropriately in large and small

groups and hopefully she will begin to understand and use

the social skills for herself.

Matthew and Blair often have a difficult relationship and both

seem to know just how to push the other’s buttons. Matthew

becomes very frustrated and is often rude to Blair, or to

whichever adult is trying to help them get along with each

other. This term Matthew has been making an effort to ignore

Blair or walk away from him, instead of shouting or being

rude. Val and Rebecca have praised this behaviour in the

hopes that Matthew will continue to use these skills in other

tricky situations rather than becoming angry.

Rebecca Duffell, Assistant Branch Coordinator, July 2019