All Posts By

Rachael Hurton

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

What are the Benefits of SEND Yoga?

Benefits of SEND Yoga

What are the benefits of yoga for SEND children

Challenges facing SEND children

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) may have conditions including ADHD, Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Sensory Processing Disorder or Autism. Their diagnosis can adversely affect their physical ability, behaviour, concentration, reading and writing skills and socialisation. Many children on the autism spectrum are in a constant heightened state of arousal, with some suffering anxiety attacks and hyperventilating. Yoga can bring calm and a sense of order to these children.

Benefits of SEND yoga
For everyone, yoga is a beneficial discipline involving the mindful combination of breath control, guided imagery and stretching. For children with SEND yoga can be especially helpful, with advantages including:

  • Increased confidence
  • Improved communication
  • Better concentration
  • Stress relief
  • Motor skills development
  • Relieve muscle tension
  • Self-regulation and sensory processing
  • Breath control.

Increased confidence
A yoga class is a safe space for SEND children. Taking part brings a feeling of accomplishment and achievement. Consequently, children feel more confident and on top of their bodies and emotions.

Through yoga, children can gain a better understanding of their own bodies and how to control their movement, leading to a sense of mastery. Children who suffer from low self-esteem may become more confident in social settings, and group lessons encourage successful team working and collaboration with other children.

Improved communication
Yoga helps to develop speech and language skills in a fun way. Non-verbal children can use animal yoga poses to express their feelings, such as the mouse pose for shyness or a dog wagging its tail for happiness.

Better concentration
Yoga’s combination of breathing techniques and poses helps children clear their minds and focus on the activity at hand. This can lead to improved concentration during school lessons.

Stress relief
SEND children tend to be more anxious than able-bodied children. Learning breathing exercises can relieve stress and tension. Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting rest and relaxation.

Motor skills development
Yoga promotes movement, increases flexibility and eases joint stiffness. Poses develop motor skills and body awareness, leading to improved posture, stability and balance. Enhanced muscle tone is especially beneficial for children with cerebral palsy.

Holding poses increases strength, while poses such as tree, airplane and seated twists can increase body awareness and develop gross motor skills.

Relieve muscle tension
Children with special needs often have rigid muscle tone and yoga can address this. Stretching the body can help the child get rid of the tension.

Self-regulation and sensory processing
Yoga can help children to cope better with their emotions through mindful breathing and calming poses. For example, the starfish pose will stimulate the proprioceptive sense (which helps us to feel grounded and calm). . Physiotherapists call proprioception the ‘safe sense’. This is because activities which stimulate this sense have an organising effect on the brain. This can be particularly beneficial for children with sensory processing issues.

 

Children with autism often find it difficult to express their feelings. The brain’s emotional region is activated through yogic movement, music and breathing exercises. This encourages children to develop emotional awareness and enables them to express their emotions in a healthy manner.

Breath control
Breathing and relaxation are an important part of yoga practice. Children learn to feel calm through yogic breathing, which reduces heart rate and blood pressure.

Importance of regular practice
It’s essential to practise yoga regularly in order to see the full benefits. Once a child knows their body, they can begin to explore new poses and focus on areas of improvement.

How Synergy Dance Outreach can help
We deliver our exciting yoga programme in schools and leisure centres, breaking down the barriers which prevent SEND children from participating.

Our action-packed yoga classes are full of energy, fun and flair and encourage creativity and imagination. Children have space and freedom to grow and learn new skills, keep fit and make friends. With Synergy, yoga is fully accessible to all and no one is left behind!

 

Practice SEND Yoga with us online

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

What are the Benefits of Dance for SEND Children?

What are the benefits of dance for SEND children?

What are the benefits of dance for SEND children

For everyone, dance is a fantastic exercise that can provide significant physical advantages:

  • Improved condition of the heart and lungs.
  • Increased muscular strength, endurance and aerobic fitness.
  • Better coordination.
  • Better agility.
  • Better flexibility.
  • Healthy blood pressure.
  • Improved overall balance.
  • Improved spatial awareness.

For children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), there are additional advantages that can help to ameliorate their disability.

Physical benefits of dance for SEND children
Through dancing, SEND children learn about body coordination and control. Dance is a fun way to practise balance skills, good posture, and build awareness of the body in space. Meanwhile, developing rhythm helps with improved motor control: both gross and fine motor skills develop when SEND children attend dance classes. These skills are translated into the movement patterns required for daily activities.

Many young people with a learning disability find it difficult to understand what they are doing now and what they are doing next. A well-structured dance curriculum will support a child in developing understanding of sequencing through choreography.

It’s a fact that SEND children are at a higher risk of being obese. Dance provides an aerobic activity for them supporting weight control and cardiovascular health.

Often exercise will have beneficial effects outside the dance class: improving children’s academic learning ability for example. Learning dance sequences can also help those with dyspraxia (a motor learning disability that impairs the organisation of movement skills).

Children with physical disabilities can regain or increase muscle strength and balance while mastering milestones such as bending the knees while walking and hand–eye coordination.

Mental benefits of dance for SEND children
Dance provides a unique non-verbal expression of feelings that is universally understood. It provides a channel for SEND children who have difficulty with their communication. When children explore expression through dance, they can convert their feelings and thoughts through physical movement, thus removing the limitations that they may feel in their spoken speech. Children can become ‘unlocked’ and express themselves more freely.

Dance is vital in tackling the social isolation, loneliness and frustration that many in the disabled community feel. It can affirm individuality and a sense of self. According to research from the Institute for Voluntary Action Research, 88 per cent of disabled young people participating in dance classes feel better able to express themselves while 75 per cent feel more physically fit.

Dance allows students with special needs to be actively involved in their learning. This independence boosts their self-esteem and can release endorphins in the brain. Participants are able to bond with other students in a common goal, which may promote better interpersonal skills. Through group work, both the confidence and social skills of SEND children come along in leaps and bounds.

Finally, dance can promote a state of euphoria that lasts long after the music stops: students can effectively leave their cares behind on the dance floor and forget the things that might hold them back.

How Synergy can help
We support the SEND community with dance, fitness and yoga classes for children and adults.

We provide inclusive opportunities for having fun and keeping fit where neither finance, fitness, ability, disability or family circumstance stand as barriers to participation.

Synergy Dance® Outreach aims to promote lifelong participation in dance and fitness and to reach all levels of fitness, ability and background – through our work in schools, leisure centres, outreach programmes and funded charity work for under-represented or inactive groups. Our exciting sessions may take place standing or seated for those in wheelchairs.

 

See our range of classes here.

To find our more about our charity, and what we offer go here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Synergy Dance® Outreach awarded £4950 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund

Arts Council England

Synergy Dance® Outreach awarded £4950-00 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Community Foundation for Surrey.

Synergy Dance® Outreach awarded £4950-00 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by the Community Foundation for Surrey – ensuring that creativity plays an important role in local community celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will ensure that thousands of people from communities all across England will have the opportunity to take part in exciting creative events – all in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. From puppetry and story creation, through to making crowns, carnival and art trails, there will be a huge range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved in.

Synergy Dance® Outreach aim to use this funding to deliver an intergenerational project including singing and dance activities for seniors in care homes/outreach centres together with groups of local young people, that will culminate with an event to tie in with The Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday 5th June.

Following the success of the first Big Jubilee Lunch, to celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, The Big Lunch will bring the Jubilee celebrations into the heart of the community again in 2022 and our final performances will take place prior to lunch to entertain the local communities.

We already work with a number of care homes and older peoples’ centres across Surrey and will be working with 2 care homes and 2 children/youth groups in some of the more deprived areas of Guildford including Stoke.

We will do 6 weeks of singing and performance activities leading up to the Jubilee performance and our singing and performance coach will work separately with the older and younger groups to listen to and identify their favourite songs and themes from the last 70 years. We will also start identifying if there are any individuals who have special talents singing or playing music who would like to feature in the performances.

Invitations will be sent to family, friends and members of the local community to attend these performances before the Big Jubilee Lunch put on by the homes at Signature care home Hindhead and QEP Care home Guildford. We will have a professional videographer filming and also live streaming (with appropriate permissions and safeguarding in place).

All of this has been made possible thanks to National Lottery players and administered by UK Community Foundations on behalf of the Arts Council, the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will support a huge range of projects throughout England. 44 community foundations have been awarding grants across the country.

Darren Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England said “The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund is a wonderful example of our ambition to give everyone the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts, culture and creativity – made possible thanks to National Lottery players. This June, we’ll see communities across England coming together to celebrate a historic milestone for this country. I’m excited to see these projects brought to life in villages, towns and cities across the country as our wonderfully creative communities celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”

Rosemary Macdonald, CEO, UK Community Foundations, said: “For community foundations, people and places are the priority and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is a unique opportunity for people to get together and celebrate in their communities. We are proud to have connected Arts Council England with local organisations whose imaginative and exciting projects and collaborations with professional artists will bring communities together to enjoy marking this milestone moment in our history.”

HM The Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in 2015.  Her reign has been marked by a commitment to public service, reflected by her extensive programme of engagements at home and abroad, and support for over 600 cultural organisations, charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations.

 

About The Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk

 

About UK Community Foundations

UK Community Foundations is the membership organisation for the national network of 47 accredited community foundations across the UK. UKCF members inspire local philanthropy, bring communities together and fund great ideas.  We have a deep understanding of need in our communities and the challenges and hopes that face them.

UKCF supports community foundations by providing advice, learning and resources, by championing philanthropy at a national level and by developing national programmes that invest in local communities. www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Return to fitness and fun at the Hive – Free SEND Classes

Return to fitness and fun at the Hive

Return to fitness and fun at the Hive

We currently have some fun and fulfilling opportunities for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – or long-term health conditions – to get involved in local fitness classes.

The pandemic has affected many people’s confidence and has had an adverse effect on the population’s mental health. We’re now offering the chance for teens, children and adults to rebuild activity and motivation.

Many people with disabilities were negatively impacted by Covid due to having to shield, suffering additional feelings of fear and isolation due to their conditions. We will support this group to grow confidence, resilience, physical and mental health and wellbeing.

We will deliver the following five eight-week programmes in Guildford with FREE weekly classes for our Return to Fitness and Fun at the Hive:

  1. Seated dance for age 10–15
  2. Seated dance for age 16+
  3. Seated yoga for age 10–15
  4. Seated yoga for age 16+
  5. Dance and fitness for those with autism and learning disabilities for age 18+

Classes are to be held in May and June at two centres:

The accessible Hive, on Park Barn Drive, boasts a community ethos. This warm and welcoming wellbeing space caters for people of all ages and abilities.

Well-equipped, attractive Queen Elizabeth Park Centre in Stoughton offers excellent facilities for groups and public meetings, and houses the Haven cafe.

 

These fun and dynamic courses will enable participants to:

  • relieve stress
  • improve mental health
  • boost the immune system
  • improve flexibility, motor skills and core strength
  • improve posture
  • learn mindfulness
  • build friendships and supportive networks.

 

Enjoy those classes? We hope that you will be inspired to attend our crowdfunded family festival on the 26th June for those with SEND at Guildford Spectrum Leisure Complex.

Yoga and Wellness sessions for children and teens are on the menu, and the Synergy guiding principles of inclusion, creativity and fun for all will be much in evidence!

 

We are making great progress towards our financial target. For details about our crowdfunding initiative and to donate to this worthy cause, see https://www.spacehive.com/inclusive-family-send-festival#/idea

 

For more information contact info@synergydanceoutreach.co.uk or look up our website at www.synergydanceoutreach.co.uk

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Charity of the Year 2022 with Guildford Spectrum

Charity of the Year Award 2022

Synergy Dance® Outreach is delighted and honoured to announce that we are one of three charities to go through the public vote for Charity of the Year 2022 with Guildford Spectrum!

We wouldn’t have gotten this far if it wasn’t for all of our customers, past and present. Your support and your incredible young dancers mean the world to us, and we’re glad to be able to give them a safe space to dance, be free and make new friends!

As always with awards (Charity of the Year 2022 with Guildford Spectrum), we need your vote to get through to the next stage. Winning this award would make a huge difference to Synergy Dance® Outreach, and if we win, it would help us provide more inclusive classes for SEND/VI audiences and enable us to offer pre-paid sessions for those in which finance is a barrier.

If you have a spare minute, you can vote for us here – https://www.guildfordspectrum.co.uk/charity-support/charity-of-the-year-2022/

Voting closes on the 27th March 2022, and every vote counts, so please share with your friends and family!

See us on Strictly come dancing here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXTg6n4SD-k

To find out more about Synergy Dance® Outreach and what we do, please go here – https://synergydanceoutreach.co.uk/what-is-synergy-dance-outreach/

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Club Hub Awards 2022 – Finalists Announced

Club Hub Awards 2022

Local business owner Rachael Hurton who runs Synergy Dance® Ltd and Synergy Dance® Outreach is a finalist for the Digital Business of the Year, Biggest Growth of the Year and Non-Profit Business of the Year categories of the Club Hub Awards 2022.

The Club Hub award finalists were announced on 1 March. Awards were offered across 14 categories. 71 finalists have been shortlisted (5 per category) from over 350 applications, representing 140 businesses (Club Hub members). The standard of applications was very high and represented a diverse range of kids activities, clubs and related businesses.

The Club Hub Awards are the only national awards for activity providers with entry by application form only, no voting. The awards are independently judged by a panel of expert judges, who are children’s activity professionals or specialists in their field. They shortlisted the finalists and will select the winners for each of the individual award categories. The judges will select winners based on their commitment to excellence, innovation and growth of their business, demonstrated through their business performance, achievements, brand values and passion for what they do.

Award winners will be announced at the Club Hub Event 2022, Saturday 14 May, Macdonald Burlington Hotel, Birmingham. The event is designed to help kids activity providers to grow their business through insight and tips on social media, brand awareness, marketing, franchising, sales, customer service and everything involved in running a kids club. It’s a full-day event, including networking opportunities with 100s of people from the kids club sector from all over the UK.

“Huge congratulations to all our 2022 finalists. I can’t wait to meet you at the Club Hub Awards 2022 Event in May. You should be so proud of all your amazing achievements the past year, we’ve all been playing catch up since the pandemic and after reading your applications it’s great to see all the hard work and commitment you’ve been contributing to the Children’s Activities Industry.”

Tessa Robinson, Founder and Director of Club Hub UK

Synergy Dance Outreach Mission

More About Synergy Dance® Outreach

More about ClubHub UK

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Mindfulness & Wellbeing Resources for Children

Mindfulness and Wellbeing Resources for Children

Synergy Dance® Outreach has been featured, in ClubHub UK’s latest blog post – Mindfulness & Wellbeing Resources for Children, which brings a host of resources for children to help benefit their mental health and wellbeing. 

Over the past two years, our children have battled through COVID and multiple lockdowns, which meant no friends, no families, no routines, no schools, clubs or parties! And, over the recent weeks, they have been hearing about war and war crimes as a war breaks out between Russia and Ukraine. 

In light of the above, many children will be facing or expressing signs of poor mental health. They might be finding it hard to re-adjust, or they might be feeling scared or anxious and overwhelmed. 

So, if you’re looking for additional resources to help your children through these difficult times, click the link below and see all of the online mindfulness and wellbeing activities for children that Club Hub have put together.

https://clubhubuk.co.uk/the-best-mindfulness-and-well-being-activities-for-kids/

If you’re looking for in-person activities to help your children socialise and improve their interaction and communication skills, we have a whole host of in-person workshops and classes. Including, classes for SEN and Disabled children and teens. 

https://synergydance.simplybook.it/v2/#book

To find out more about what we do, and our charity mission go here – https://synergydance.co.uk/what-is-synergy-dance/

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

His cheeky little laugh and smile has returned…

SEND testimonial

It’s testimonials like these that make what we do incredibly special. Here at Synergy Dance® outreach, we aim to be inclusive. Our classes are more than just dance classes – they are a sense of belonging to those who might otherwise feel isolated. 

If you work in a school or an environment that deals with SEND Children and Teenagers, we would love to speak to you and tell you more about what we do.

Our classes are fantastic but don’t just take our word for it. Read one of our recent testimonials below.

I just wanted to feedback to you, that George has had a pretty tough time of it since the beginning of the pandemic. I’ve had to work more than usual (I’m a paramedic so no working at home for me!) which meant he was able to attend school during the period of homeschooling, however it was all different for him as they offered places as ‘childcare’ rather than a typical school day. Then as he returned full time he was kept back a year whilst his friends and regular teacher moved up, so he had more change to contend with.

Covid also hasn’t been kind to our family, and we have lost many family members over the last two years. We are a small, but close family, and the absences are greatly noticed.

On top of this George has had two operations at Great Ormond Street – he was really brave!

As George is non-verbal, I’ve not really been able to talk to him about how he is feeling, or talk him through difficult situations, and last year he really struggled with anxiety. This affected his ability to attend – and then stay in school, and then began to affect him at home too. He didn’t really want to go out of a weekend, and wanted to stay home for fear if he went out, he’d be taken to school.

It was so sad to see, as George has always been such a happy, cheerful little boy, known by all for his huge smile and infectious giggle!

I had been searching for a support group or therapy for him – well, actually searching for anything that might help him work through his anxiety! But there is little to nothing out there for children with special needs. I then found you, through watching Strictly Come Dancing.

Since starting his dance classes I, and school have seen a huge change in George. George has only been attending for a couple of months, but has grown hugely in confidence and made huge personal developments in his understanding and language. He is so keen to copy his teacher, firstly watching her perform the dance move, then trying to copy, and has even started to develop some language, copying her as she tells him what the dance move is called, Amazing! George has actually been looking forward to going to school, to show staff and his peers the move he’s learned – before Christmas we couldn’t even get him through the door! His cheeky little laugh and smile has returned, and I’m so thrilled to see ‘the old George’ returning. So thank you so much, for such a wonderful, inclusive, fun group!

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

‘Deaf Dancer’ on Strictly Come Dancing 2021

Rose Ayling-Ellis

‘Deaf Dancer’ on Strictly Come Dancing 2021

Strictly Come Dancing has been a favourite among our instructors and young dancers ever since they can remember. But, this year was extra-special because not only were we invited to be a part of Strictly Come Dancing 2021, but the lineup included Rose Ayling-Ellis. Who flew the flag for the deaf community and inspired millions with disabilities to pursue their dreams. 

But how will she hear the music – Rose Ayling-Ellis?

When Strictly Come Dancing 2021 announced that it would have its first-ever deaf contestant, we saw the above question popping up time and time again. 

So, we thought we would tell you how our young deaf dancers take on their disability and completely rule the dance floor!

  • Through vibrations that can be felt through the studio floor
  • By following their partners lead, and instructors body language

Things to Consider

Merely asking, ‘Can a deaf person dance?’ is very abrupt and will be added to the long list of judgemental questions from the deaf/hard of hearing community. Here at Synergy Dance® Outreach, we wanted to remind everyone that anyone with a disability can do anything they put their mind to with the right support, passion and determination. 

It’s also important to remember that a lack of one sense improves and raises the others, and don’t forget music involves more than just your ears.

Final Words about Strictly Come Dancing 2021

We wanted to say a huge thank you again to Strictly Come Dancing. For allowing us to be a part of their show this year and for flying the flag for inclusivity. A huge congratulations to Rose – you completely knocked our socks off and have inspired young people across the nation simply by being you. 

Inclusive Classes

Synergy Dance on Strictly Come Dancing

Children Inspired by Rose and Strictly Come Dancing 2021

Rachael Hurton
In Latest News

Strictly Come Dancing 2021

Strictly Come Dancing 2021

More than 12.2 million people tuned in to watch the Strictly Come Dancing 2021 final as Rose and Giovanni were crowned champions, and we applaud the first deaf winner of Strictly Come Dancing. Rachael Hurton has been sharing her views on the Strictly show for the last 6 weeks on BBC Radio Surrey. You can catch up with her sessions here:

Week One: https://youtu.be/j3CxRRFBfjo

Week Two: https://youtu.be/jqH2cA-mdKU

Week Three: https://youtu.be/pNfQ1qxaGNo

Week Four: https://youtu.be/OoPDP9mZG8c

Week Five: https://youtu.be/4OjSbPlqUfo

The Finals: https://youtu.be/j3CxRRFBfjo

Rachael Hurton, founder of Synergy Dance Ltd and Synergy Dance Outreach would like to say a huge congratulations from all at Synergy to the Strictly Come Dancing 2021 winners, Rose and Giovanni:

“Your dances & incredible connection have changed lives and inspired the hearts of the nation. You are magnificent role models & have proved that dance is a journey of discovery & everything is possible!” (Rachael Hurton)

Strictly Come Dancing has shown us the power of dance to break down boundaries, inspire and unite. As a show, they are breaking new ground and sharing our belief at Synergy that anyone can dance. The emotional connection between the finalists and high standard of dancing this year was incredible.

With the uncertainty of the last year and ongoing Pandemic, we have never needed the positivity and inspiration from Strictly more. Strictly Come Dancing has inspired our junior Synergy dancers to go for their dreams, keep going, never give up and that anything is possible. Strictly are changing lives and giving us incredible role models to inspire.

We would like to say a huge thankyou to Strictly Come Dancing for visiting both our Children In Need Special Needs and Disability funded classes with Tess and Claudia, and for visiting our mainstream activities for all children and young people at Guildford Spectrum. It meant the world to our students and teachers. Strictly has shown that whatever we may have going on, never give up and go for your dreams! Also, the power of hard work to achieve your dreams and become an amazing dancer. At Synergy we will continue to expand our inclusive dance classes and to champion diversity and inclusion.

So, for now, let’s all KEEP DANCING! To find out more about the wonderful and exciting opportunities coming up both in schools and leisure centres, and for our digital recordings – contact us on admin@synergydance.co.uk