Neurodiversity Week

From Monday 13th - Friday 17th March we celebrated Neurodiversity Week 2023; a worldwide initiative that is all about celebrating our differences, understanding ourselves and each other, and recognising and valuing individual strengths. It was a great week filled with important conversations about the way we all think and learn.

The focus of our whole-school assembly was recognising that we can see and hear the same information but experience it differently. We looked at the picture of the infamous blue and black (or is it?) dress, which caused great surprise and debate amongst children and staff! Children from across Prep embraced a LEGO challenge where they were all given one minute to build a fish. Although they had all been given the same instruction and resources, the models were wonderfully different with their own individual strengths.

The children in EYFS focused on colourful stories and activities – the world is full of different colours which makes it beautiful! Little Upton made a beautiful patchwork elephant out of tissue paper after reading Elmer.

Some of the older Prep children engaged in thoughtful discussions about what it means to think differently and how we can use this knowledge to better understand each other. We will sometimes hear words that are used to help us understand different thinking styles. Greta Thunberg, for example, is autistic. Is that the only word we would use to describe her? Of course not! The children were quick to come up with all sorts of other words – brave, ambitious, passionate, determined, inspirational. If only Greta could have been there to hear them…