EDUCATION AND LEARNING SERVICES

Education and Learning Services Our Impact:

30,000+

Supported education hours 20,000

Visitors to Easter Anguston Farm 9,600

Qualified Teaching Hours

950

950 face to face curricular teaching hours during COVID lockdown 400+

Hours of community based sport activities (pre-COVID) 200+

Dedicated speech and language therapy hours

26

Children and young adults supported at Linn Moor Residential School and Campus 15

Adult Trainees with learning difficulties supported at Easter Anguston Farm

Easter Anguston Farm

Easter Anguston Farm (EAF) is an operational farm and local community resource which serves as a training facility for adults with learning difficulties and other additional support needs.

Situated in Peterculter, it has 70 acres of arable land used as a working farm, plus 20 acres of woodland, which attracted over 20,000 visitors from across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and beyond during 2019.

The farm provides meaningful and individualised training placements for 15 adult trainees who are supported by a skilled staff team to learn and develop their knowledge and understanding of working in an agricultural and retail setting whilst gaining certified SVQ qualifications. A strong emphasis is placed on developing personal, social, vocational and land-based skills that can be useful in preparing for future employment whilst also increasing their contribution to the local community.

The farm and its associated woodland, conservation and education areas also provide a vital community resource that is invaluable. As a charity we do not charge any entry fee for the community to access this resource, instead, we rely on voluntary donations to enable us to provide free access for all.

EAF provides unique experiences to those that grow up in areas of deprivation across Aberdeen, sparking an early interest in the land-based sector. Education is a key pillar upon which the farm is built, and we continue to invest in our educational resources. Last year we constructed a new educational classroom to host school groups in the hope of teaching children about where their food comes from alongside animal care.

Through our free entry we open our doors to everyone, regardless of wealth or background; offering outdoor learning activities, conservation good practice and an insight into farming.

VSA’s EAF operates many volunteer days, bringing various groups together and forging new relationships within the community. This is an excellent springboard to get local people interested and engaged with the service, teaching them about the complex learning needs of our adult trainees as well as the countryside. Our volunteers have been essential during the EAF wood transformation, which connects people with disabilities to nature. This new mixed broadleaf woodland replaces a conifer plantation as part of a sensory development trail for children with additional support needs, allowing them to safely explore nature through free play.

The farm is accessed by children and adults from areas of high deprivation/ regeneration areas from across the city. For many children it is the first time they have ever experienced a family day out, nature, seen animals up close or had an opportunity to enjoy the fresh air and play parks that EAF can offer. We also have many sensory areas across the farm for children with additional support needs and have developed our woodland walks to incorporate disabled access enabling children or adults with disabilities to access woodland and connect with nature.

During 2019 we continued to further enhance our farm environment and introduced ‘The Stick Man Trail’, based on the popular children’s book, to encourage children to learn more about the outdoors in a fun and interactive way.

Linn Moor Campus

The education and learning services at our Linn Moor campus provide outcomedriven care and tuition that is responsive to the individual needs and requirements of the children and young people within our setting, who have a diagnosis of autism and other additional support needs. We benefit from an enthusiastic, dedicated, and highly-skilled staff team across the campus, all of whom are supported and trained to deliver best practice.

The students at Linn Moor Campus continue to amaze us with their resilience and flexibility in the face of the many challenges that 2019-20 has presented. The campus provides residential space for 21 children and young people, with a further 5 tenants also supported on-site at our Linn Moor adult service accommodation at Rowanlea House and Rowanlea Cottage.

VSA continues to invest in staff training to support the team at Linn Moor in delivering best practice care and support to the students who have a diagnosis of autism and other additional support needs. There are currently 21 staff across both Children’s and Adult’s services at Linn Moor Campus who are undertaking HNC and SVQ Awards. Our Modern Apprenticeship scheme is also fully operational with three staff currently on the programme.

Over the last twelve months, VSA has benefited from volunteering hours and funding from a number of corporate organisations across Aberdeen to enable enhancements to the environment at Linn Moor Campus and we are enormously grateful for their support. Notable projects completed include the redevelopment of the camp site area, providing an exceptional environment for outdoor learning opportunities for the students, and the completion of the fruit and vegetable garden at Rowanlea House which provides meaningful activities and sensory experiences for the tenants.

Linn Moor Residential School

Linn Moor Residential School provides students with a breadth of outcome-focused learning opportunities, utilising the wealth of resources available on the campus and a variety of accessible activities in the local community.

All of our students have access to the education workshop and classroom at Easter Anguston Farm, with our qualified teachers working collaboratively with our professional Support Workers to provide the assistance and encouragement to support them towards the development of life skills and SQA qualifications.

Throughout 2019 our varied curriculum continued to focus on the students’ ability to access the community and on a weekly basis they had the opportunity to participate in activities such as horse riding, rock-wall climbing, swimming, and trampoline sessions in a structured environment. They have also been supported to build upon classroom learning in areas such as numeracy and literacy through the use of public transport, visits to local shops and other opportunities beyond Linn Moor Campus. A wide range of learning styles and abilities are evident across Linn Moor School and our teaching staff provide diverse and stimulating activities for them to enjoy in line with the national GIRFEC Framework and Curriculum for Excellence. The opportunities afforded to our students are augmented by our external therapy sessions in drama, music and speech and language whilst our in-house Occupational Therapist provides further professional expertise to aid their development.

Throughout the challenges posed by the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the team at Linn Moor have worked diligently and professionally to ensure both the safety of the students and the continuation of a rounded education package that combines outdoor experiences with curricular objectives, in line with their individual needs and interests.

Rowanlea Adult Service

Linn Moor Campus continues to provide tenancies for five young adults across accommodation at Rowanlea House and Rowanlea Cottage.

The service aims to provide an intensive Housing with Support package which focuses on the development of skills that will allow the tenants to be part of the wider community and involved in a broad range of meaningful and enjoyable activities.

Tenants are supported through programmes which empower them to enhance their individual skill sets in domestic, personal, social and community areas. This aims to promote greater personal independence, informed choice-making and understanding of their wider environment. unprecedented “lockdown.” For the students, whose autism means that they see, hear and feel the world differently, the change to their daily routines overnight had the potential to be extremely difficult. As the government guidance on managing the pandemic evolved, the students required to adapt to these changes and they responded to the situation admirably. With restrictions on their movement from Linn Moor and limits in terms of visits to the campus, the students have shown great resilience in coping with this challenging situation. At VSA the safety of all those within our care is of paramount importance and with that clear focus, the decision was taken to temporarily re-purpose the school building during the During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tenants have had significant changes to their weekly schedules, including being unable to access public transport which is a regular feature in some of their lives. All of the tenants have adapted extremely well and have enjoyed accessing other resources instead, with one of the tenants planting sunflowers and another involved in

Linn Moor in Lockdown

As the world came to terms with the global outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, along with the rest of society Linn Moor Campus and the residents were faced with an

feeding the birds in the garden every day. pandemic in order to best protect those children and young people with underlying health conditions. Almost overnight the school building was transformed into a residential unit for three of our students offering them the best protection possible from the virus at the height of the pandemic. Our teachers and support staff worked tirelessly to deliver educational provision in an innovative manner within the residential units, ensuring their learning opportunities were sustained albeit in an alternative format. Despite the trials posed by the pandemic, the whole campus has risen to the challenge and remains focused on ensuring the best of lives for those being cared for.