Lipson College Special Needs Unit

Lipson community colleges special needs unit (SNU) works with children from the Plymouth catchment who have physical mobility and learning impairment. The students work both within the units own room and in the college as a whole alongside their able bodied contemporaries, often with their own helpers and learning assistants.

The unit's highly motivated pupils and staff set up a project to convert the bare unused courtyard adjacent to their room into a multi sensory learning area and relaxation space.

Mike Westley from the Sensory Trust learned of the Lipson Project and offered the services of his Post Graduate Landscape Design Students from the School of Architecture at the University of Plymouth, as a design resource, working in partnership with the SNU client team of pupils and staff.

The project brief grew to include a more inclusive landscape design strategy for the rest of the college campus as well.

The landscape students worked with the SNU team in a series of workshops focused on the multisensory and learning place making potential for the courtyard space. Mike invited Pam Hodgson, Education Officer for the Eden Project, to lead a workshop exploring the sensory possibilities of plants.

The SNU team from Lipson visited the landscape students studio to critique their developing proposals with expert user feedback.

The students individual designs were then presented at Lipson to the SNU client group, the Governers of the College and the Parents Teacher Association and won approval for funding.

Following this inclusive design process, the SNU team agreed to act as expert user testers for the Sensory Trust in their partnership with the Eden Project. Twenty children helpers and staff from the SNU visited Eden, and over the summer are preparing a report on their Eden experience with essential feedback on how the project might provide an even more inclusive experience for all.

Further Information:

• Lipson Community College - 01752 671318
• University of Plymouth, School of Architecture

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