About Us
Making A Difference
Ways To Give
Apply For A Grant
Professional Advisors
Foundation News
Campaigns |
 |
| Sign up to receive our e-newsletters! |
 |
 . |
“The children look forward to coming here and spend a lot of their time playing with things that they just wouldn’t have access to at home. It is essential that they have this [the out of hours club] – they thoroughly enjoy it and it gives us an opportunity to become involved directly in their playtime. We would be struggling without it.”
Villa Real School Association was set up over forty years ago as the fundraising arm of a school that caters for children aged between 2 and 19 years old who have profound multiple learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders and challenging behaviours. The Association raises funds for activities and items that fall outside the statutory remit and provide facilities outside school hours. These activities include holiday clubs, cookery classes, a sensory kitchen garden, health & hygiene classes and training for the older pupils in how to maintain and support independent living. Because some of the children have significantly severe disabilities, parents are also able to find support within the Association.
The Association currently caters for 84 children from all over the region including Stanley, Durham and Morpeth. They have 70 volunteer workers, many of them parents, and due to the severity of the behavioural problems of most of the children, the supervision ratio in most cases is 1:1.
Villa Real received £6,800 to improve the school grounds by creating a garden with a sensory area and a working kitchen garden.
As a result of this grant the garden has been renovated and the group have also extended the out of hours facilities to enable a wider use. The Association is now growing larger than ever and they’re looking to expand their facilities and to develop the range of activities for the children.
“Without your support we wouldn’t have been able to do this. While Education Support provides staff salaries and books, you have provided the interest, excitement and the reason why the children want to come every day. Thank you.”
.
