We are very excited to welcome 2 students from Bradford University on their final year placement here at Co-op Academy Southfield. They will be working across school, on a 10 week placement, identifying & developing a creative service project. Here is a little more about Kerrie and Alex.

Hi! I’m Kerrie Turner student Occupational therapist on placement with the Co-op Academy for 10 weeks. I love 90’s dance music and adventuring, love going to new places. I have a son aged 9 with additional needs. We have 2 giant French lop rabbits called Flopsy and Lightning. They keep us on our toes little escape artists. Before coming on placement with Co-Op Academy I have had placements in head injury, hand therapy, perinatal care, acute mental health and medical teams including Accident & Emergency. 

I am here with a colleague from the University of Bradford to complete a creative service delivery project in the school. Hopefully, this will be a project that will continue once our time here has ended and will improve occupational performance. 

My name is Alexandra Vento. I am currently a third-year Occupational Therapy student at the University of Bradford. At present, I am on a placement at Co-op Academy Southfield. I am on placement with another student from the University of Bradford to complete a creative development project. Which hopefully will continue after we have finished. 

I was previously a Therapy Assistant for several years, before starting University. I am also a Personal Assistant for a young adult who has Downs Syndrome this has provided me with experience working with people with special educational needs. My particular hobbies are adventuring to new places and walking. I also enjoy swimming in my spare time, as well as studying for my degree

We are looking forward to sharing their impact with the students and school during and after their placement with us.

What is an occupational therapist (OT)?

An occupational therapist works with children to improve their ability to do daily activities. They can provide specialist equipment to help your child manage or improve specific tasks eg equipment to help with handwriting, or teeth brushing or managing a child’s sensory sensitivity to day to day functioning. The aim is to maximise a child’s potential ability and increase independence.

Problems which an occupational therapist can help with include:

• Fine motor skills such as tying shoelaces, cutting and handwriting.
• Hand-eye co-ordination, such as when children have problems with copying from a blackboard or ball games.
• Daily living skills such as doing up buttons, using utensils, washing, eating and drinking.
• Sensory integration, when children find it difficult to process message from the senses into motor responses.
• Spatial awareness and proprioception, knowing where your body and limbs are in space, and where objects are in relation to that, organising and interpreting sensory stimuli.
• Visual discrimination – children with visual processing difficulty may not see the difference between a triangle and a square, or may mix up similar letters such as p and q. They have trouble reading maps or finding specific items on a page, colouring or writing within lines or margins, and identifying an object when parts of it are hidden.

The therapist will produce a programme to work on in school or at home, which may work on strength and dexterity, or on sensory/visual processing. Therapists can also give you tips and recommend equipment which needn’t be costly but may make a big difference.