Covid grant helps outdoor education centre cope with rising demand

A CHARITY giving young people a second chance at education will be able to create extra space at its base to cope with rising demand thanks to a coronavirus fund grant. 

Wiltshire Equine Assisted Learning, which helps children and young people from six to 18 struggling with autism, ADHD, mental health issues or anxiety, has received £5,000 from Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund. 

The charity says the grant will help it rent and renovate barns at its base at Stagwood Stables near Holt so its users have more space to learn after numbers have tripled in three years.  

The ten-year-old charity uses outdoor learning and working with animals to engage young people who find it hard to cope in the classroom and are often permanently excluded or refuse to go to school. 

“What we do is try to change their mindset about education, that it doesn’t have to be something that is difficult for them, there are different ways to be educated and there are different skillsets,” said managing director Heather Watson, who founded the charity. 

“If you are not a person who finds sitting in a classroom easy, because you are overwhelmed by noise and other people, then if you are outside with animals or in a quieter setting you are going to learn a lot better.” 

A spokesperson for the charity explains, “Young people from all over the county are referred to the charity by schools, health workers and social services. The 90 children and young people it works with every week include those who have suffered emotional trauma and young carers. 

“Demand is so high the charity has a waiting list of up to 20 at any one time. Three years ago it had just three staff, now it has nine and is looking to recruit two more.” 

Heather Watson added, “Demand has tripled because there are a lot of children out there who need this extra help. By the time the parents get to us they are desperate because they have been through a whole school system and their children are either permanently excluded or they are refusing to go in and they are in a terrible state. 

“A lot of the parents have had to give up jobs, which is having a financial impact, and for them it is a massive relief to be able to bring them to a place where they are not going to get a phone call to come and collect them and get reports from us about the positives we see in their children rather than all the negatives.” 

The charity says the centre’s approach is to allow its young users the time and space to understand and express their emotions and develop coping strategies to curb anger or anxiety. They work one-to-one with one of the staff for up to a whole day three days a week. The bond of trust that builds up between them allows the staff member to draw up a programme to either inspire them back into mainstream education or complete their education there. 

“We do a lot of this by working with the animals, particularly the ponies, who are pretty intuitive,” said Heather. “The impact of their actions on the ponies is quite easy to see. If they go up to a pony and they are angry, it will just go off. 

“Our job is to help them think about that reaction, why did it react that way and what was it about the way they went to the pony. Could they change something about what they did get a different reaction? It is experiential learning to give them a chance to think about how they communicate with their peers and then we can apply that to their own situation so they can see how their behaviour affects others.” 

Youngsters help care for the centre’s five ponies, four alpacas and seven guinea pigs as well as take part in outdoor learning, crafts, carpentry and horticulture.  

“Some do vocational qualifications in equine care, horticulture, maths and English to GCSE level, functional skills, conservation, cv writing and employability,” said Heather. 

“For a lot of them we are their education, particularly those over 16 who haven’t managed to get GCSEs. They will leave us with some exams and vocational qualifications under their belts. We set them up for employment after they leave us. 

“Renting the new barns will mean more space for independent study space and teaching areas. We are just starting to renovate the extra space now and knowing we have the grant to help us is wonderful. It will be fantastic on the horrible days in winter knowing we have this space under cover, it will be a Godsend.” 

Although she takes more of a back step from teaching these days to concentrate on admin, Heather said she still has the same enthusiasm for helping young people realise their potential. “I am just pleased to see children and young people actually being happy somewhere and feeling like they are accepted and that they can achieve and make friends and that they are worthwhile,” she said. “That’s the joy in it for me.” 

Wiltshire Community Foundation joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said, “We are only able to help amazing groups like Wiltshire Equine Assisted Learning because of the generosity of donors who helped us distribute £1.5 million from the Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund. 

“As Heather has said, demand is still high for her group’s services and that is the case for the hundreds of groups we help through this and our other funds so we still need help to keep on meeting this need.” 

Find out more about Wiltshire Equine Assisted Learning at wiltshireequineassistedlearning.co.uk and about the work of the community foundation at wiltshirecf.org.uk.