Fundraising at MOVE Fest
Pupils at Bedelsford School are taking part in MOVE Fest and raising funds for a new piece of equipment that helps them to keep active. The majority of pupils at the school are wheelchair users but they have been counting their steps in order to raise funds for a new innowalk machine.
If you are able to support the school’s campaign, the pupils and staff would be grateful for any donations you can manage via this Go Fund Me link
On Wednesday 28th June took part in the MOVE Charities annual event to encourage all pupils to engage in functional movement (eg sitting, standing, walking and transferring.) The school is a MOVE Centre of Excellence meaning that it recognises and promotes the importance of functional movement and the learning of vital movement skills across the school day.
This year, the theme is ‘MOVE Fest’ so pupils will take part in a variety of themed festival activities for all pupils to practice these vital skills. The school is using MOVE Fest to fundraise for an additional Innowalk which will be used to track how many steps students take during the week.
“The Innowalk is a magical piece of kit,” says Sylvine Tanner, a Paediatric Physiotherapist at Achieving for Children, Kingston, who is based at Bedelsford School. “It encourages normal bone growth and it also really helps with high tone, cardiac health, gastrointestinal health and makes the children stronger.”
The school currently has one Innowalk machine but it is a small size so only suitable for primary age children.
“We are fundraising for a larger machine, because our current one is only suitable for smaller children,” says Jessica Webb, Assistant Head at Bedelsford School. “Our parents have seen the benefit of their child using the Innowalk and so are really getting behind fundraising activities to buy a bigger machine.”
Evidence suggests that for children with cerebral palsy who use the Innowalk may not need hip surgery. The school have also noted that some children who use the machine are able to come off their medication (Movicol for constipation) after regular use of the machine. It also helps improve respiratory health and, as with all forms of exercise, it helps produce endorphins and improve mood and wellbeing.
The school are grateful to Made for Movement (Innowalk) who lent an additional machine for the day so that more children can take part with the fundraising activities.
There is more information about the MOVE Programme via the link below
