Over the past 200 years, the Seashell Trust in Cheshire has gone from a deaf school to turning profoundly disabled youngsters into valuable members of society.
The charity, which is based in Handforth and Cheadle, has achieved this by providing the young people with a range of educational and residential care which cannot be met by their own local authorities.
They have now been joined by Wilmslow Dean Rotary who have been assisting the Seashell Trust with a number of projects
Please click the following link to read a statement for all the fantastic supporters of Seashell Trust: https://t.co/Uc97vuoznV ✨ pic.twitter.com/TnP3CLQ9Ou
— Seashell (@seashelltrust) March 20, 2020
One of these is to build a new special school. “Once the planning application has been approved, the Seashell Trust will embark on the most ambitious building and fund-raising programme since it moved to Cheadle Hulme in the 1950s,” explained Rotarian, Marianne Martyn.
“This will involve the building of a brand new special school, an early years’ assessment facility of babies and infants, a community hub, sports facilities and other infrastructure projects. The charity aspires to become a national centre for inclusive sports.”
The Seashell Trust will embark on the most ambitious building and fund-raising programme since it moved to Cheadle Hulme in the 1950s,”
Children and young people aged between four-years-old and 25 with profound and complex needs, including severe learning and communication issues, are cared for at the Ofsted ‘outstanding’ school, which is a specialist college and has 17 residential homes and short-break facilities.
Wilmslow Dean has been directly involved with one of the Seashell Trust’s initiatives – the ‘Hack Back’ Owl project, which is a therapy for students with anxiety issues.
This has been such a positive treatment that two further sessions are proposed. “At an individual session, with the carer in attendance, the children are introduced to the owl and eventually reach the stage where they have the ow on their arm and they are able to stroke it,” explained Marianne.
In addition, teams of Rotarians have assisted at major fund-raising events for the Trust, such as the Summer Fair and Seashell Sportive for cyclists, which raised £22,000. They also raised £5,000 from a Christmas Toy Fair.
“Further projects are under consideration to continue with the previous work undertaken by Gatley Rotary, who installed a large sensory garden, an apple orchard and a considerable number of trees,” added Marianne.
