Employ My Ability offers vocational training for students with learning disabilities and special educational needs and disabilities. One of their students, Maddie Walters, spent her last term working on her journalism skills with the aim of writing a column for us. – Ed
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! For this month’s article I’m going to share an event that happened at Thorngrove Garden Centre and how the magical Fairy Tale Forest came to be.
Every Thursday in December both education students and day service users at Thorngrove Garden Centre worked behind the scenes with Angel Exit Theatre, a Dorset-based theatre company that creates interactive events, to make a fairy tale forest come to life. The staff and students enjoyed the music and drama, they loved pretending to be the animals and they also loved learning the songs that were included in the production. The poly-tunnel was decorated with trees and snow and there was a huge gingerbread house where Mary Godmother lived. It gave the children who have visited a magical experience with festive activities that they enjoyed.
The team and I were interviewed by BBC Radio Solent and talked about how Angel Exit Theatre came about and what was my favourite bit about this event (my favourite bit was the workshops we did before the production!).
During the event I spoke to people as they exited, asking questions like “Did they enjoy the Fairy Tale Forest?” “Did they meet Mary Godmother”? and “What was your favourite bit?”. All the feedback was great!
Everyone really enjoyed the Fairy Tale Forest, and I hope we can do it again next Christmas!
If you are interested in learning more you can visit The Angel Exit website and see lots of photos for this event on the Angel Exit Theatre Facebook page.
