New year, new term, new equipment!

We are excited to say that we’ve been lucky enough to receive an iSandbox for education, kindly donated from the Morrisons Foundation. The iSandBox is an augmented reality education tool, it works with a sand base, projector and computer. It uses augmented reality to ‘bring sand to life’ using depth sensors that monitor the height of the sand and react to different movements.

The variety of education is appropriate for all of our students, and can range from teaching them about topography, geography and science, to learning about colours and shapes. Not only does it teach our students, but also enables them to practice their fine motor skills whilst bringing out their competitive side.

One student has said: “I liked the feeling of running my hands through the sand. We had a great time using the iSandBox and the balloon game was great”.

And the teachers are raving about it too: “This machine is educational and super interactive. It is very realistic and I believe it will teach the children without them even knowing they are learning! We all liked it a lot and have booked in for the class to use it next week”.

This equipment will enable our students to develop and practice teambuilding, vision perception, tactile sense, memory and imagination. Each scenario will be used to generate discussions and demonstrate understanding. We will also use it as a therapy tool with activities requiring students to reach and stretch. For our visually impaired students it will enhance their education with other senses such as touch and hearing.

We have the first of it’s kind in Europe as our iSandbox is designed for children and adults with special needs and has a lifting mechanism for adjusting the sand container height, meaning regardless of their wheelchairs our students can use the equipment with ease.

Thank you to the Morrisons Foundation for supporting us!