We were delighted to host our postponed Summer Fayre this week at Percy Hedley School, and what an absolutely brilliant turn out it was! From current students and families, to welcoming back passed students and even people from our local community, it was absolutely brilliant to see so many smiling faces!
Lots of fun was had on the Tea cup rides, Fayre games and Stalls and some children enjoyed having a go in the Community Police vehicles. We also had lots of our visitors who enjoyed holding the ferrets in the animal rescue tent. No fayre is complete without the obligatory treats, and many enjoyed pizza, hot dogs cakes and even Ice cream!
Jo Allen, Headteacher at Northern Counties School, had lots of jobs for the NCFE volunteers to complete to help refurbish and tidy up the playground. The team had a busy day transforming rusty railings into bright blue bolts along the pathway, staining the rollercoaster fencing, and painting Percy’s bench.
Dawn Baker, Director of Innovation and Investments, started fighting the foliage and completely converted the overgrown borders of the playground by lopping and cropping ivy, tree branches, and weeds!
“It was a pleasure to be able to lend a hand” – Philip Le Feuvre, NCFE Chief Strategy Officer
Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer, commented: “After many months of working remotely, it was a real pleasure to get together as a team in person and focus our physical efforts on a great cause. Whilst some of our (my) DIY skills left a lot to be desired, we felt very proud to be able to improve the school and social environments of young people in the local area. The Northern Counties School plays a vital role in the local and regional community and forms an essential part of the education ecosystem. It was our pleasure and privilege to be able to lend a hand.”
“We’re really grateful to the volunteers from NCFE for their time and effort, which has made a huge difference to our playground area. This will benefit the learners at our school greatly” – Jo Allen, North Counties School Headteacher
Leybourne, Newcastle, is a fully refurbished residential home for 8 adults with a range of physical and learning disabilities.
Leybourne is situated in the quiet residential area of Killingworth, the age range of adults living at Leybourne is currently between 19 and 25 and all accommodation is single occupancy.
At Leybourne, our residents enjoy accessing Newcastle city nightlife, clubs, restaurants, theatres, and shows. We also support people to go to both St James Park and The Stadium of Light. There is nothing we don’t support for our residents as they love to go on holidays abroad or have weekends away, indulge in pamper weekends, or thrill-seeking weekends such as abseiling, canoeing, and fishing.
We uphold the values of positive behaviour support, choice, control, and autonomy for our young people to lead fulfilling lives. We promote wellbeing for our residents by accessing alternative therapies and hydro pools accessible through The Percy Hedley Foundation.
The Percy Hedley Foundation is passionate about promoting and achieving excellence in residential care, with our primary aim being to make every visit to our residential units a positive, enjoyable, and beneficial experience.
We aim to provide a personalised service that meets the needs and aspirations of our residents, promotes independence, dignity, and respect and enables them to make the most of life through the provision of a specialist, high-quality service.
Alongside this, you will become part of a team of supportive and caring colleagues also delivering the highest quality of care to our residents, where you’ll feel rewarded and appreciated.
Check out our current Newcastle support worker and Night Care Officer roles below.
To apply in only 30 seconds for a callback with one of our HR team to discuss our vacancies and how you might enjoy working at Leybourne, please fill in the short form below:
If you’re a passionate and experienced senior leader who wants to take #TeamPercyHedley on the next step of our journey towards making the services we provide the best they can be.
If you are motivated by improving the lives of families and individuals with complex needs this is your chance to make a difference.
Last week we were delighted to hold our first Hedleys College and Horizons “Picnic in the Park”. It was the perfect day for a celebration of achievements for all the students at College and the people we support at Horizons.
For the first time we were able to meet outdoors in our bubbles, in a well organised event to help everyone stay safe. We had a brilliant selection of entertainment including DJs, karaoke, The Soundbeam band and even a bubble show! There were no shortage of tasty treats either with a candyfloss machine, popcorn machine, Ice cream van and more!
Huge congratulations to all our award winners, the following awards were given out during the day.
Hedleys Horizons Awards
Dan- “Therapy award”: Dan has made great progress on his independence skills working in the living skills kitchen.
Susie- “Increased Independence award”: Susie has developed many new skills in Music and is growing in confidence every week.
Mike- “Above and Beyond award”: Mike is always smiling and asking about his friends in his bubble, checking that everyone is ok!
Michael- “Yes I can award”: Michael has stayed optimistic throughout this year and managed very well while dealing with lots of changes.
Kirsten- “Stand out service user award”: Kirsten has tried a lot of new activities this year and has taken part in every session enthusiastically.
Congratulations to The Woodwork group in the ceramics room who have all been awarded the “The Enterprise Award”: This whole group have enjoyed learning new skills and taking on group projects. Well done to Mark Smith, Daniel Walsh, Paul Aiken, Stephen Thompson, Kelsey Hall, Janice Shippen, Richard Wilson, Steven Ryder and Abbie Barnes
“Hedleys College, Education Awards”:
Thomas “Therapy award” Thomas has grown in confidence using his VOCA for a wide range of purposes and has been very flexible with the changes this year.
Harry and Alasdair “Home Learning Heroes award”
Harry has become a cooking maestro alongside Alan and kept us all sane with his quizzes during lockdown!
Alasdair has missed college and has also not been staying in residence due to restrictions, and yet he has kept going, joining sessions on teams throughout. We have also loved all the facebook posts from him and his family! Well done Alasdair!
Megan “The Kindness Counts Award”: Megan has welcomed new friends into the group and has worked with peers over Teams always wanting to help.
Rory “Yes I Can Award”: Rory has been in and out of shielding since March 2020 and has dealt with various health issues during this time. Despite this he has always bounced back and tries hard with his therapy every day.
Keira “The Academic Award”: Keira has made amazing progress with her independence, communication and transition in the community.
Congratulations to April, David, George ,Jasmine, Lana and Isshi who have won “The Enterprise Award” This group have worked on many projects this year including sweet hampers, balloons and personalised items made to order and have been able to reinvest their profits into expanding their business!
Huge thank you to North Tyneside Council, Northumbria Police, volunteers from around the Foundation, Springfield Park Warden and all the staff who worked behind the scenes to make it possible. Everyone had a brilliant day and we hope to make it an annual event…watch this space!
Percy Hedley School had a very exciting visit last week from…The circus!
Huge thanks to our wonderful PTA who arranged for Martin Bloomfield, www.circurama.com the circus performer to come in and entertain our students with a variety of circus skills last week.
Martin tailored this to meet the needs of all of our students, and as you can see, a fantastic time was had by all!
Interim Chief Executive D’Arcy Myers recently completed his Offa’s Dyke walking challenge in support of The Foundation on Monday 31 May. During the 12 days of the challenge he:
Walked 190 miles
Completed 402,507 steps
Climbed 29,807 feet (Everest is 29,032)
Walked through 8 counties and crossed the England/Welsh border over 20 times
Passed through 600 stiles or kissing gates
Experienced rain, hale, high winds and sunshine in the wettest Welsh May in 160 years!
D’Arcy said:
“I wanted to do the walking challenge to reconnect with nature and as you can see from the photos, it definitely gave me the opportunity to do that!
It also gave me the space and time to reflect on my time so far at the Foundation and how I can be of the best service to help everyone at Percy Hedley during the rest of my time as interim CEO.”
To donate to D’Arcy’s Offas Dyke Challenge and help him raise funds for The Percy Hedley Foundation text PERCYTEN to 70085 to donate £10.
The government has recently announced some changes to the Covid-19 rules for visitors and trips out of residential care homes.
Visiting
Residents can now have up to 5 nominated visitors, with a maximum of 2 visitors at once or in one day. We have already put this change in place across our homes.
All visits must be booked in advance so that we can safely manage visitor numbers to each home and all visitors must follow our visitor policy to help us keep everyone safe. This includes taking an LFD test to confirm you don’t have COVID-19, wearing PPE and limiting physical contact with your loved one.
Trips
Residents can now also make trips away from the care home without self-isolating on return to do the following:
Outdoor visits to parks, beaches or gardens (residents can go indoors to use the toilet).
Go to work or take part in education or training.
For medical appointments such as GP appointments, excluding overnight stays in hospital.
To take part in other activities necessary to maintain an individual’s health and wellbeing (for example, going to a day centre or to a place of worship).
Some residents may need staff support during trips away from the home (this will be identified in their visiting plan).
Residents can travel in one of their 5 nominated visitors’ vehicles. When travelling windows should be open and anyone travelling with the resident should wear face masks which we will provide.
In recognition of National Epilepsy Week, #nationalepilepsyweek , we thought we would pull together some great information from The Foundations nursing team. Read all about how we look after epilepsy and read some of our frequently asked questions on epilepsy.
Epilepsy In The Percy Hedley Foundation
Within the Percy Hedley Foundation our team of highly skilled nurses, education, care and residential staff are qualified to administer emergency medication to the children and people in their care following NHS seizure plan.
Every child, young person or adult in The Foundation with Epilepsy has their own personalised seizure plan which contains information on their seizures (triggers, what seizures look like) and how and these are controlled.
The Foundation also operates a `yellow bag procedure`. This yellow bag is provided to everyone who may require emergency medication and contains their medication and any care plan information.
These bags are locked and then always kept on the person at all times, in a convenient place. This ensures, not only that we keep all medication confidential but also that the medication is always quickly on hand should it be required.
Frequently Asked Questions About Epilepsy.
What is Epilepsy? Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects the brain and causes recurring seizures or fits. Due to an uncontrolled increase of excess electrical activity in the brain interfering with the normal functions, this causes a short interruption to the relay of messages in the brain.
What causes Epilepsy? Epilepsy can be caused by various conditions that affect a person’s brain. Some of the known causes include:
• Stroke. • Brain tumour. • Brain infection from parasites (malaria, neurocysticercosis), viruses (influenza, dengue, Zika), and bacteria. • Traumatic brain injury or head injury. • Loss of oxygen to the brain (for example, during birth). • Some genetic disorders (eg. Down syndrome). • Other neurologic diseases (eg. Alzheimer’s disease).
For 2 in 3 people, the cause of epilepsy is unknown. This type of epilepsy is called cryptogenic or idiopathic.
How many people have Epilepsy? Approximately 600,000 people in the United Kingdom are diagnosed with epilepsy, affecting people of all ages, from newborns to the elderly.
This is the equivalent of 1 in every 103 people.
Every day 87 people are diagnosed with epilepsy.
What is a seizure? An epileptic seizure results from a sudden electrical discharge in the brain that causes changes in sensation, behaviour or consciousness. Seizures can take many forms because the brain is responsible for such a wide range of functions. Seizure symptoms depend on where in the brain this abnormal burst of electrical activity happens.
How long do seizures last? As a result of the electrical activity, there are many different types of seizures – most usually last from a few seconds to a few minutes and usually stop without any treatment.
Are all seizures the same? There are 40 different types of seizures and people may have one of several different types. Approximately 60% of people have tonic clonic seizures, 20% complex partial, 12% mixed tonic clonic and partial, 3% simple partial and less than 5% absence seizures, myoclonic seizures and other types.
Are Epilepsy seizures caused by light? Approximately 3% of people diagnosed with epilepsy are photosensitive, which means their seizures are brought on by flashing lights.
What to do if someone has an epileptic seizure? If you see someone having a seizure or fit, there are some simple things you can do to help. You should call 999 for an ambulance if you know it’s their first seizure or it’s lasting longer than 5 minutes.
It might be scary to witness, but do not panic.
If you’re with someone having a seizure:
only move them if they’re in danger, such as near a busy road or hot cooker
cushion their head if they’re on the ground
loosen any tight clothing around their neck, such as a collar or tie, to aid breathing
turn them on to their side after their convulsions stop – read more about the recovery position
stay with them and talk to them calmly until they recover
note the time the seizure starts and finishes
If the person is in a wheelchair, put the brakes on and leave any seatbelt or harness on. Support them gently and cushion their head, but do not try to move them.
Do not put anything in their mouth, including your fingers. They should not have any food or drink until they have fully recovered.
When to call an ambulance
Call 999 and ask for an ambulance if:
it’s the first time someone has had a seizure
the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes
the person does not regain full consciousness, or has several seizures without regaining consciousness
the person is seriously injured during the seizure
People with epilepsy do not always need to go to hospital every time they have a seizure.
Some people with epilepsy wear a special bracelet or carry a card to let medical professionals and anyone witnessing a seizure know they have epilepsy.
Our residents and staff at Chipchase house had a brilliant 80s party night as staff and residents got dressed up for the occasion.
The night was full of laughter, singing and dancing and it was brilliant to see everyone having so much fun.
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