A SPECIAL school in Worcester is opening the city’s first ever sensory lending library for pupils and parents to enjoy during the lockdown.

Fort Royal Primary School in Wyld’s Lane has launched the initiative to help support pupils and their families with much needed sensory equipment.

A spokesman for the school said: “The children’s concentration span is often limited and many different specialised learning tools are needed, to purchase these individually would be prohibitive for the majority of families and often difficult to know what to buy unless you can try it first.

"The Friends of Fort Royal asked if we could help secure funding to set up a free sensory equipment lending library so that families could have access to the pieces of equipment that they needed.

“We have been very fortunate to have had the professional advice and lead from Alison Double, an occupational therapist, who co-ordinated four of her students who attend the University of Worcester to help video, document and itemise every piece of equipment that has been bought.

The William A Cadbury Trust, Droitwich Lions Club, Webbs of Worcester and Sanctuary Housing have all given generously towards this project, with funds also from donations to the charity.

“We are delighted that we now have over 200 specialised pieces of equipment in the sensory library. This has been a major piece of work with brilliant partnership working at all levels and to get to this point in such a short time has been amazing.”

Fran Taylor and Gareth Hall, parents of Fort Royal pupil Freddie Hall said: “We often struggle to find sensory toys and aids that Freddie enjoys and interacts with. The sensory library has been a huge benefit to us as it has given us the opportunity to try lots of different specialised equipment that we wouldn’t normally have access to. We want to say thank you to all the staff at Fort Royal who made this fantastic sensory library possible.”