Special Events
Compass House Project
As well as individual events throughout the year, West SILC have been involved in the ongoing Compass House project.
Following the Make Your Mark vote in 2017, pupils wanted a 'Curriculum for Life' and real work experience opportunities. Pupils from West SILC joined pupils from the South, North West and East SILC and the Lighthouse School to create 'Compass House'. With support from Leeds City Council the pupils are working in partnership to set up pop up shops in Leeds.
Compass House meet on a regular basis to make all the key decisions about the pop up shops. All items sold have been handcrafted by pupils from each school.
Our first pop up shop was a market stall in Leeds Kirkgate market in December 2018. Pupils took turns manning the stall and dealing with customers.
We continued the project and had a summer pop up shop in July 2019.
We are very excited to have a stall in Leeds Market in December 2019 (Monday 2nd to Friday 6th).
The Compass House project provides students with valuable and meaningful work experience as part of a curriculum for life. All profit made is used to fund future enterprize projects for our pupils.
Children in Need 2018
Children in Need is a very exciting event that the students embrace every year. Their selfless contribution to worthy causes never diminishes and they take great pride in helping others.
So far our Farnley site have raised £78 for Children in Need from Green Class' bake sale. Emma baked a beautiful Pudsey cake for all to share. Well done team!
Celebrating the Royal Wedding - May 2018
We celebrated the Royal Wedding at our Farnley site on 18th May. The union jack flags were in abundance and students were very much in the spirit of the memorable occasion. Oliver took charge of making the confectionary for his friends to devour! Everyone celebrated in style with scones, cream and jam!
Boccia & New Curling Challenge
Klaudijus and Reece attended the Boccia & New Curling challenge event at Becketts Park in early May 2018. They were as amazing as the event itself and thoroughly participated and enjoyed the day's activities. Well done boys!
Special Olympics August 2017
The Special Olympics in August 2017 saw an occasion that has instilled memories and experiences that will stay with us all for ever. The event Activity Festival took place during the games on Wednesday 9th August 2017 at the English Institute of Sport, Coleridge Road, Sheffield S9 5DA.
The Activity Festival was a free event aimed at people with a learning disability aged 12 years and over (and their friends, family and supporters), to come and try a range of sports including Basketball, Tennis and Cricket and experience the excitement of the Special Olympics GB National Summer Games.
Farnley site model tracksuit
West SILC Farnley Partnership representing MATP Leeds modelled their regional Yorkshire and Humberside Special Olympics Team Track suits in preparation for the Opening Ceremony of the 10th National Special Olympic Games in August 2017. We were well supported by our Farnley students parents and staff and it was a truly memorable occasion.
Active Travel Day - 27 April 2017
Our Sky Blue class won a competition that was to design a menu for the Tour De Yorkshire and part of the prize was an "Active Travel Day" for West SILC. The logistics for the event took real organisation skills and Jo Purdie-Cole one of our senior leaders ensured, along with colleagues, that the students would experience lots of different opportunities. Leeds Highways helped to make this event happen and we were fortunate to be visited by two of local Councillors - Councillor Lisa Mulherin and Councillor James Lewis. The students had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the morning. Thank you to everyone involved for your time and commitment in making this a great event for our students.
GC Motors & Leeds Super Car Meet bring excitement to the school
On Wednesday 26th April 2017, we held another Super Car Day at our main site for the third year running. This has been such a special event in our calendar and Jason Holman who runs Leeds Supercar Meet organised for the cars to be brought to the school to enable students to experience the different super cars, having the experience of meeting staff at GC Motors and being able to physically touch and feel the cars! The cost of all the fuel tripping our students around the Pudsey area is completely borne by the owners themselves. Huge thanks to both Jason and GC Motors of Harrogate for making this a truly memorable occasion yet again.
Yorkie Talkie fund new Sunshine Coach with Variety, the Children's Charity
Thursday 20th April 2017 brought some very special visitors to the Main Site of West SILC. Yorkie Talkie and Variety, the Children's Charity.
Yorkie Talkie is a networking group based in Yorkshire and was founded in 2014. Their aim is to provide exciting and different events for professionals who like to try something a little out of the ordinary, whilst also supporting people in need. They have hosted numerous successful networking events over the past couple of years which have now raised enough money to buy a Sunshine Coach, which was donated to the West SILC school.
Charlotte Jackson from Yorkie Talkie said "We are delighted & overwhelmed by the generosity of the professional community in Yorkshire who have supported our events and helped raise enough funds to sponsor this Sunshine Coach. The new Coach will benefit the very deserving children of the West SILC School, enabling them to continue to have access to vital learning experiences outside the classroom."
Staff, governors and the School Council hosted our special guests. A huge thank you to Yorkie Talkie (Crowther Chartered Accountants, Begbies Traynor, Lloyds Bank, J9 Advisory and Leonard Curtis) and of course, our faithful supporters Variety, for another superb Sunshine Coach. This really does help to make a difference!
Yorkshire businesses support Variety, the Children's Charity in sponsoring a new minibus for West SILC
We were very fortunate to apply to Variety, the Children's Charity for a new minibus and our application was accepted, with the arrival of our bright, shiny minibus which arrived with us on 30th September 2016.
Variety worked really hard to secure co-funders and the vehicle was very kindly sponsored by Oakgate Group, Caddick Group, DLA Design and Richard Boothroyd Associates.
Our official handover event took place on Friday 18th November 2016 and despite the weather, which was extremely unkind to us, the event went well. We were honoured to host such busy sponsors in addition to Charlotte and Helen from Variety. We had a lovely morning, our visitors had a tour of the school, met the School Council and we had prepared a very large thank you card and a video of our students thanking the team who had enabled us to have a new minibus.
Our visitors were really enthused and humbled by our fabulous school, it being their first visit to a special school and commented on how wonderful our students were and acknowledged the valuable job that our staff do.
We have some treasured memories of the day and despite the sleet and snow, it certainly didnt dampen our spirits!
Thank you Variety!
The Dreamcar Event came to Leeds!
The drivers of The Dreamcar Event, scheduled for 12th June 2016 at Croft Circuit in Darlington (www.thedreamcarevent.com) gave students and staff a real thrill on Wednesday 28th April 2016 when they brought their super cars to West SILC.
Members from Leeds Supercar Meet, tirelessly organised by Jason Holman worked with Steve Duckworth from West SILC to bring the event to the main site, as a pre-end of year treat!
This was a huge opportunity for the students who have worked extremely hard again this year and we wanted to acknowledge their hard work with something that really interests them – super cars!
We have great admiration for Jason and the members of Leeds Supercar Meet who offered us the same opportunity last year, giving up their valuable time and commitment to making the super car event a day to remember. It was a truly memorable occasion, despite the sleet, wind and rain and it certainly didnt dampen any spirits!
If you have the opportunity, please go and visit the circuit in Darlington on 12th June 2016 to see these amazing cars hit the race track. There will be celebrities at the event and it is scheduled to be a fantastic day out for all.
Children in Need 2016
School supported this very worthy cause again this year, with lots of exciting activities and fundraising initiatives within school. Our students were committed once again to being involved in this annual event and, as always, were eager to fundraise for this important initiative.
Thank you for all your support again this year. Our fantastic school community helped to raise £193.15 for extremely worthy causes.
