Friends of The Blue Tangerine Federation

Incorporating Friends of The Collett School, Friends of St Luke's School and Friends of Forest House Education Centre

Supporting Our Schools To Support Our Pupils

Chair of Trustees: Ruth Patil (c/o admin@bluetangerine.herts.sch.uk)

Charity Number: 1157000 (Friends of The Collett School Trading as Friends of The Blue Tangerine Charity)

Our Vision: Our Vision is a world where people with learning disabilities and mental health difficulties thrive.

Our Mission: To enable activities that promote the work of the schools, raise funds and in doing so, work with our communities to break down barriers for children with SEND

Our Ethos: We look after ourselves, each other, our learning and our environment.

Our Fundraising Priorities for the Next Three Years: 2022-2025

Federation-Wide

FEDERATION: Music Therapy
Cost: £35,604 per year
We would like to continue offering Music Therapy
across The Blue Tangerine Federation for the next
three years. In 2021 we witnessed the first year of the
incredible benefits that Music Therapy had for our
children with Special Educational Needs, with a Music
Therapist delivering both music therapy sessions for
small groups or individuals; as well as class music
lessons.
Music Therapy is about bringing together intellect
and feelings to enable personal expression, reflection
and emotional development. This encourages students
to form a deep understanding of themselves, their
ability to listen and reinforce positive interactions
whilst increasing their self-esteem.

FEDERATION: Information Technology

Cost: £15,000 per year

IT is an ongoing project which requires funding with equipment needed to be replaced regularly, technology being updated and specialist programmes becoming available that support with our children's learning. Specialist IT programmes and equipment will provide access to curricula subjects and provide levels of communication that would otherwise be unattainable for some of our pupils. Teachers can create simple, engaging and bespoke activities for individual students that can be easily accessible by all students with Special Educational Needs. It can also encourage and develop communication skills, and development of life skills.  

FEDERATION: Increase Class Budgets

Cost: £5,400 per year

We have set ourselves the target of increasing each class budget by a third (£300 a year.) The class budgets are used to buy stationary, art materials, learning resources, fulfil school trips, brunch and other classroom necessities.

St Luke's School Fundraising Priorities

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: LED Lighting

Cost: £31,242

The current florescent lighting we have at St Luke’s could be a contributing factor to sensory overload in our children. We therefore need to replace the current lighting to LED lighting throughout the school. Not only will LED lighting be a more cost effective and environmentally friendly option but it will relieve the sensory difficulties some of our children suffer with. We have already begun replacing the lighting in key areas, but there is still more to do.

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: Daily Mile Track and Multi-Use Games Area

Cost: £63,000

Since the pandemic, we have utilised all outdoor spaces to be able to accommodate Covid bubbles.  Being fortunate to have a wealth of external spaces, we have been able to do this.  However,  the spaces are open and bare - not conducive to the needs of pupils.  As many children do not regularly access external spaces outside of school hours, the wider focus on ensuring outdoors activities promote staying healthy and improving mental health. As a result, the schools' front field will include a daily mile track, exercise equipment and improved all-weather sports space. This space will be utilised during lessons as well as movement breaks and unstructured play times. Children will be encouraged to participate in physical activity in a fun and engaging way.

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: Lockdown Alarm

Cost: £7,000

The safety of our children is paramount and highlighted by gun attacks and assaults on school pupils in many countries including the UK, a lockdown alarm will ensure we can secure all areas of the school from potential threat.  The sound of the alarm is different to a fire alarm where all pupils and staff are expected to exit the building.  In the event of an intruder, staff will draw blinds and lock doors.  The school has provided the necessary blinds over the past two years for this purpose.  The system is installed in its entirety at The Collett School and Forest House Education Centre.

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: Toilets and Changing Rooms

Cost: £199,108.76

We need to complete our programme of toilet and changing facilities for our children with Special Educational Needs. As our school was originally a mainstream school with mainstream facilities, our toilets and changing spaces are inadequate and  unfit for purpose for the children who now occupy the school.

More children placed in our school have hygiene requirements and need changing.  We do not have any hygiene facilities to change our pupils; some of whom are teenagers.

Many pupils take longer and be more complex an activity for children with Special Educational Needs than their mainstream peers, whilst some finding changing highly stressful and challenging. All children should feel clean, comfortable and secure when using toilets.

We always take into consideration the views of our children as it is important they feel listed to and in control, especially with regards to their personal care. To support this, our children have been actively involved in the design and decision-making processes and have demonstrated strong views for changes to be made.

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: Additional Intervention & Sensory Space

Cost: £32,000

The children are relying more on individual intervention and sensory sessions with specialist teachers and external therapists. To be able to deliver these sessions effectively, we need to create suitable spaces. We are fundraising to internally build in an existing space within the heart of the school.

ST LUKE'S SCHOOL: Middle School Playground

Cost: £94,000

The area has been reclaimed after the removal of the condemned portacabins.  The Local Authority is looking to increase the number of children on site and the area requires resurfacing, play equipment suitable for children with complex special educational needs and mobility issues.  Monies from the Sports Premium are also targeted for use in this area for 2022-2023

The Collett School Fundraising Priorities

THE COLLETT SCHOOL; Sensory Room Extension

Cost: £71,000

Due to the increasing complexity of needs of our children, we are relying on our sensory spaces more than ever. All possible areas within our school are currently being utilised to it full capacity, consequently we need to build additional space to create a sensory room that is accessible to our children in lower school, who currently need to traverse through the hall to access the school's existing sensory area, that is often utilised by others.

The sensory room will be designed to create access to calming and stimulating activities, to enable behavioural challenges to be reduced, whilst also enhancing learning through play, sensory stimulation, improving balance, movement and spatial orientation. It can also provide a moment of comfort for overactive and distressed individuals.  It needs to cover a lot of scenarios!

We expect to extend building on to the lower school playground to retain the necessary classroom space and will require planning permission.

THE COLLETT SCHOOL: Essential water and hygiene classroom areas

Cost: £29,929

Across the school, some classes do not have access to a sink and cleaning area or, it is outdated and unfit for purpose. These hygiene areas are necessary to teach basic life skills.

THE COLLETT SCHOOL: Training Café

Cost: £83,000

Giving our children transferrable and employable skills is crucial to the work we do to enable our children to access opportunities once they enter our mainstream world.  The creation of a training cafe at the front of the school forms an aspect of our teaching curriculum, supporting access to work for the 94% of adults with special educational needs who are unemployed through adulthood.

Following the success of The Blue Tangerine Horsebox Café, we want to create an onsite café to offer more opportunities for work related learning. This will be a space accessible to the general public, whilst ensuring we uphold the safeguarding of the school.

As part of this project we hope to transform an old classroom space into a café where our children can gain accredited qualifications, work experience and a connection to their community.

THE COLLETT SCHOOL: Lower School Playground

Cost: £41,000

The current playground has had improvements through fundraising and is looking better and used as part of the teaching and independent play activities.  It now needs completing with resurfacing to provide a level area suitable to all our children and their mobility needs. Additionally, to be all-weather proof, so no matter what the weather our children can utilise it (including a canopy to create a shelter).