All of our Educators have been selected based on their ability to employ modern educational techniques. During an intensive three-month training programme, they learn how to apply our programmes to meet the individual requirements of each school.
Birmingham Life Education currently works with well over 57,000 children in the West Midlands and employs nine educators on a full or part-time basis.
Educators Lisa Nethercote and Lynne Mansell say one of their highlights this year was their work with the children from Priestley Smith School in Kings Standing, Birmingham. The children, aged between 5 and 7, have a range of special educational needs and most have total loss of sight.
Lisa said: "The success of our work with the school lay in the pre-planning session. We worked with teachers to develop a special adaptation of Life Education programmes and replaced visual elements with music and texture. The sound of drums for example helped us to create the impression of heart-beats and messages speeding to and from the brain so children could ‘hear’ the effects of alcohol and nicotine on the body".
Lynne continued: "We needed to be aware of the differing needs of each child. So for example instead of using pictures of a picnic scene we got the children to touch and smell real food, using fresh fruit, rice and cereal. They really had a lot of fun guessing what everything was!"
Head Teacher Christopher Lewis concluded: "I was really impressed with the skill of the educators in making sure that our children were able to fully participate in the programme and get the most from the valuable Life Education experience"
