A team of High Needs and Special Educational Needs students from Reading College and University Centre are celebrating after winning an agricultural competition.
The students from the college on King’s Road were chosen as the winners of the Agricultural Challenge in early May, after winning two categories.
The Agricultural Challenge for Special Education is run by the Newbury & District Agricultural Society (NADAS), awarded annually to special educational needs schools and colleges in Berkshire.
With nine categories in total, institutions are encouraged to enter five of the categories. The team from Reading College and University Centre’s SEND and High Needs provision entered four categories.
Judging took place on Saturday 10 May at Arlington Arts Centre. The college team was given certificates for each of the categories that they won and for winning overall.
The students will also receive an engraved trophy and £100 for winning and £100 for taking part in the competition.
The students scored first prize with their rainbow, nature and weather-inspired sensory board, made from recycled and waste materials.
The students used a giant Connect Four board that was going to be discarded, which was cut up, stuck to the board and filled with different tactile surfaces such as cork or fake fur. They also used an old confectionary box to create a flower and filled it with tissue paper and pompoms.
The students also added a zip, a xylophone, buttons, beads, gloves, spice jar tops and other materials to create their finished sensory board.
Each student had distinct things to do, some filled areas of the board with feathers and other materials, whereas others used the glue gun.
A t-shirts bundle dyed with onion skins scored the students their second first prize in the clothing dyed with fruit or vegetable category.
For their third category entry, the students created a natural weaving piece inspired by a picture of a Lavender field, using wool, fabric scraps, plants and natural fibres, woven through a handmade loom.
For the Something to Encourage Wildlife into the Garden category, the students created a hedgehog house and a butterfly tree.
For the hedgehog house, the students covered a cardboard box with leaves and lined it with hanging basket lining and woodchips. For the butterfly tree, the students attached coloured spice jar lids to a tree.
Bobby was one of the students who worked on the sensory board. He is studying a Skills for Living 1 programme at Reading College and University Centre.
He said: “I chose the rainbow theme for the board. I had the idea of the sun.
“I enjoyed putting it together. I filled the middle bit of the flower with pompoms and filled some of the Connect Four holes with different things. I felt happy and excited that we won.”
Fiona Moore, LLD/D Lecturer at Activate Learning, said: “I’m overwhelmed with how much the students got into this! It’s excellent that we won. I’m very proud of them. Their hard work paid off.
“The students are over the moon. They’re already looking forward to next year!”
Find out about our SEND programmes available to study at Reading College and University Centre or contact Activate Learning on 0800 612 6008.