Talking Heads

All of the young people who attended ASCEND during Children’s Mental Health Week 2021 had the opportunity to take part in a number of different activities including planting seeds of hope, therapeutic art approaches, exploring emotions through poetry and confidence building workshops.  As a team we agreed to commit to a legacy art installation and have produced two large canvasses on this years Children’s Mental Health Week theme of ‘Express yourself’.

Each canvas features a profile of a young person with text and images of their interests, feelings, worries and hopes. The finer details of the canvasses include song lyrics, poetry and images of their artwork produced for the project.

We are really proud of the work produced and the engagement in this project.

Long standing member of ASCEND staff Mrs Mason lead on the project alongside Ms Grimmond our newly appointed Learning Support Assistant. It was a great way for the students to develop their understanding of Mental Health and explore strategies for focusing on wellbeing.

#childrensmentalhealthweek #place2be #OATacademiestrust

Ascend at OPA is a resourced provision for students with Social, Emotional and or Mental Health needs. We have a capacity of 30 student places and have our own purpose-built building and games area in the grounds of Ormiston Park.

We have a small class of 4-6 young people in each year group with a high staff to student ratio. Students take part in a full curriculum offer at both key stages with bespoke SEND provision.

Admission to ASCEND is on a consultation basis following an Annual review for young people with an Education, Health and Care plan.