🎉 Alert Program® Update, Understanding Our Engine Levels! 🎉

This week marked an exciting start for three of our student groups as they successfully completed Week 1 of the Alert Program® with Janice, our Occupational Therapist. The Alert Program® helps children develop awareness of how their bodies feel and learn strategies to regulate their energy levels so they can feel ready and comfortable for learning.

During this first session, students were introduced to the concept of “engine levels”, a simple and engaging way to think about how our bodies can feel at different times. Together, the groups explored what it means when our engines are running slow, fast, or just right, and how these different levels can affect how we feel, focus and participate in activities.

All of the groups engaged brilliantly with the session. Students took part in thoughtful discussions, shared their ideas and demonstrated a fantastic understanding of how these engine levels can relate to their own body signals and experiences throughout the day.

A highlight of the session was a collaborative activity where the children worked together to sort a large collection of engine speed pictures. This gave students the opportunity to think carefully about which images represented slow, fast or just right engine levels. As well as reinforcing the concept, the activity also supported the development of fine motor skills, decision making and teamwork, as students discussed their choices and worked together to organise the images.

The activity sparked lots of conversation and curiosity, with students reflecting on how different activities, environments and feelings can influence how their engines run.

Next week, the groups will begin exploring our sensory systems and learning more about how they influence our engine speeds. Through a range of fun, hands-on activities, students will start to discover strategies that can help them adjust their engine levels and keep them “just right” for learning, socialising and everyday activities.

It has been a fantastic start to the programme, and we are incredibly proud of how engaged and reflective our students have been.