Culzean Castle and Country Park, a National Trust for Scotland property which overlooks the Firth of Clyde on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland, achieved Makaton-friendly status in 2015 and is continually working towards providing more opportunities for children and young people on the autism spectrum.
We provide a number of training opportunities for staff, including Makaton taster sessions and Makaton beginners workshop. We also provide in-house Makaton training twice a year, and Scottish Autism awareness training.
We also run a number of events and activities, including tailored sessions for families led by our ranger and learning teams during Autism Awareness Day 2016. One visitor said that “the fact that the staff were learning and using Makaton signing was brilliant and showed great commitment.”
We run regular “relaxed” versions of our popular events, such as Bake Your Own and craft sessions.
Formal and informal evaluation is carried out for activities to learn from our audience and continually adapt and improve.
Some of the challenges that we have faced in this work include the cost of running activities, and the impact of planning and evaluation on staff time.
But we want to maintain a high quality programme of events and activities for children and young people on the autism spectrum, and their families and friends.
In 2017, we will take part in Autism Awareness Day 2017, and launch sensory back-packs for visitors and a visual story and sensory map of the castle.
And our future plans include exploring the possibility of engaging young people on the autism spectrum in work experience or volunteering placements to promote Culzean as a site where life skills can be developed.
Elena Trimarchi is the learning officer at the National Trust for Scotland
We provide a number of training opportunities for staff, including Makaton taster sessions and Makaton beginners workshop. We also provide in-house Makaton training twice a year, and Scottish Autism awareness training.
We also run a number of events and activities, including tailored sessions for families led by our ranger and learning teams during Autism Awareness Day 2016. One visitor said that “the fact that the staff were learning and using Makaton signing was brilliant and showed great commitment.”
We run regular “relaxed” versions of our popular events, such as Bake Your Own and craft sessions.
Formal and informal evaluation is carried out for activities to learn from our audience and continually adapt and improve.
Some of the challenges that we have faced in this work include the cost of running activities, and the impact of planning and evaluation on staff time.
But we want to maintain a high quality programme of events and activities for children and young people on the autism spectrum, and their families and friends.
In 2017, we will take part in Autism Awareness Day 2017, and launch sensory back-packs for visitors and a visual story and sensory map of the castle.
And our future plans include exploring the possibility of engaging young people on the autism spectrum in work experience or volunteering placements to promote Culzean as a site where life skills can be developed.
Elena Trimarchi is the learning officer at the National Trust for Scotland