Occupational Therapy

Importance of Physical Exercise at Sherbrook

Central to the Sherbrook philosophy is participation in regular physical activity. We actively encourage pupils to get involved in activities throughout the school day, starting with sensory circuits as part of their morning routines, whole class movement breaks to include desk drumming, dough disco, and gross motor movement videos created by staff.

The aims of Occupational Therapy are to increase independence, learn new skills, build confidence and have fun. Assessments are carried out to identify how children manage their processing of sensory information and their developing skills.

O.T programmes are tailored to meet the needs of the individual child and provided on a 1:1 basis, small group work and whole class interventions. Sherbrook offers a wide range of activities to help support fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory, visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills and handwriting.

Evidence shows that this enables our young people to disperse excess energy, therefore helping them to gain the emotional and physical composure and increased self-awareness necessary to be good learners. Additional benefits of this approach include:

• Decreased frequency of negative self-stimulatory behaviours
• Decreased aggression and self-injurious behaviours
• Increased attention span
• Improved motor-function
• Improved receptiveness to the development of desirable learning behaviours
• Improved proprioception and functioning of the vestibular system
• Improved self-awareness and well-being
• Improved tolerance of environmental complexity