Move On Up

About Move On Up

Autumn 2023 Update!

“What a joy it has been to witness the workshops. The creative methods used and the nurturing of each student is an extremely positive experience.” Tutor feedback

In September, we started our third year of Move On Up – how time has flown! This year, we are starting to explore how Move On Up might look once the funding from the National Lottery Community Fund finishes. Consequently, we are continuing to deliver transitions workshops with Leeds City College and Bradford College, whilst also developing and piloting Move On Up training for professionals who work with young learning-disabled and autistic people. We are excited to deliver our first training session at Hazelbeck School later in November!

At Leeds City College, we have began our activity exploration workshops. So far, we have explored Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a sensory story, created character puppets, made clay pots, done some competitive cleaning and performed as a band! These workshops give participants the opportunity to try different activities and reflect on what they may like to do when they transition out of college.

At Bradford College, we are combining the Transitions Toolkit with activity exploration. We’ve made self protraits to try out art activities and practiced self-advocacy by debating whether employees should have unlimited holidays! All of these activities helped us to explore ‘Using Your Voice’, the first tool in the Transitions Toolkit.

This year, we have also started the Move On Up newsletter, to help share information and events to support young learning-disabled and autistic people and their families through the transition process. You can find the most recent newsletter in the ‘Resources’ section further down this page.

You can keep up to date with Move On Up and see photos from the workshops on our Instagram and Facebook.

Move On Up’s Impact

“Students have thought about their future in a more creative way. They have had opportunities to reflect on and share their thoughts and feelings on progressing out and leaving college.” Tutor feedback

This year, we worked with participants to imagine their Move On Up journey throughout the year and beyond. Check out our ‘River of Life’ Evaluation below to read about how participants reflected on their experience:

The confidence sunflowers are a visual representation of how participants’ feelings towards facing change have developed over the year. Whilst it is amazing to see participants’ sunflowers grow, we also believe that the confidence to express their true feelings, positive or negative, is an incredibly important skill that we encourage participants to practice throughout the year.

Move On Up participants completed their sunflowers at the beginning and end of their year:

Move On Up Training

“It’s a fantastic creative way to encourage students to think about their future and prepare them for moving on.” Tutor feedback

During the upcoming third year of Move On Up, we will be developing and piloting training for school and college staff to deliver Move On Up workshops to their students. We have had more requests for Move On Up than we can accomodate, so we hope that by creating training, we will be able to expand the reach and impact of the project, as well as spreading the use of The Purple Patch Approach. Keep an eye out for further updates soon!

If you would like to know more about Move On Up training, please contact Hannah using the contact details at the end of this page.

Move On Up Contacts

If you would like to know more about Move On Up, please get in touch! You can contact Hannah or Róisín using the details below:

Move On Up is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.