Move

Assessment 2021 - MOVE Silver 

"Marlborough School are a committed MOVE team who are clearly driven by the positive outcomes that can be achieved using the MOVE Programme and ethos. As the MOVE Coordinator, Carol has done brilliantly in embedding a culture that promotes active enablement of their pupils to practice mobility skills and gain more independence. Carol and Katie have worked hard to train a core MOVE Team and support them to be confident in delivering the programme and assessing progress, which is further benefitted by a fantastic working relationship with their therapy staff. The efforts of the team to involve and support parents is also commendable. The school has already made progress with some of the Gold Quality Mark components, so I have no doubt that with the completion of the below actions, Marlborough School could reach Gold status within the next calendar year."

What is Move?

Move stands for: Movement for Learning and Life

Move is an activity based programme which uses the combined knowledge of education and therapy staff and family to teach children and young people with physical disabilities and/or complex needs the skills of:

• Sitting
• Standing
• Walking
• Transferring

Philosophy

The MOVE philosophy is that movement is the foundation for learning and focuses on what the child or young person can already do, not what they cannot do. It is a positive approach and realistic goals are set, achievable and functional. The aim of MOVE is that individuals are given opportunities to learn and practice new skills that will help develop independence, family life, social skills and wellbeing. Every achievement is recognised and celebrated.

At Marlborough we have a MOVE co-ordinator, 3 MOVE trained trainers and 16 members of staff who are trained MOVE practitioners. We currently have 10 students on the MOVE programme.

The MOVE team around a child will include the child, the child’s family/carer, teacher, class team, therapists and the MOVE Co-ordinator.

There are 6 steps to the MOVE programme:

• Assessment: The MOVE team gets together for an informal meeting to discuss the child’s acquired skills and goals are set.  There are 16 Practical skills that are measured such as sitting, movement while sitting, standing, transitions between sit to stand, walking forwards and backwards, and uneven ground.
• Goal setting: The goal will be something that is meaningful for the child and their family such as to sit on a chair at a table to eat with my family.
• Task analysis: To work out which skills are needed to achieve their goals.  It is these skills that will be practised at every possible opportunity in daily life.
• Measuring prompt: We measure the amount of support the child needs to learn the skills necessary to achieve their goal.
• Reducing prompt: The MOVE team plan for the systematic reduction of support over time.
• Teaching the skills: Once the skills needed have been identified the MOVE team will draw up a plan which integrates these skills into every possible opportunity throughout the day.

The MOVE co-ordinator will write an individual MOVE programme. They are copied for the student’s class team, the family, the therapy team and one is kept for the student’s own MOVE passport.

All the students on the MOVE programme at Marlborough have made good progress or maintained their skill level. They are able to generalise and transfer skills to other places and different situations. They have grown in confidence and parents report that family life has improved and that family outings are easier.

For more information on the MOVE Programme, please visit the Enham Trust website: www.enhamtrust.org.uk/Move or contact the school and ask to speak to a member of the Move team.