The young people that attend the Phoenix School of Therapeutic Education at Cygnet Hospital Sheffield have worked incredibly hard over the last few months to compile evidence for their home schools to calculate their GCSE and A-Level grades from.
Such persistence deserves to be celebrated, and so later this month the Phoenix School will be hosting their first ever end-of-year prom!
A few weeks ago, the school sent out an all-staff email plea for formalwear (the sort of clothing that we tend to wear once and then leave in the back of our wardrobes to be eaten by moths) for the young people to wear on the night of the prom.
We were truly overwhelmed by the amount of support, donations and rallying around that ensued.
This resulted in a huge selection of new or barely worn formal dresses, suits, and shoes in different styles and sizes for the young people to select from; and last week the Phoenix School Prom Shop opened to the young people of Unicorn, Griffin and Pegasus wards.
The young people were unanimously awestruck by the sheer number of items to choose from and by the generosity of staff and members of the public.
Lots of decision making, swishing, twirling, zipping, lacing, laughter, happy tears and a few fights between the staff and the not-so-sturdy clothing rails went into ‘prom shopping’ which turned out to be a huge success.
The most important and most heart-warming part of the whole process was seeing the young people shift from feeling awkward and insecure about getting dressed up, to beaming with pride at their beautiful new ensemble.
Behind the scenes, lots of individual risk assessments were done, and plenty of planning around managing the anxiety that this out-of-the-ordinary event may cause were also done. A social story was written with visual prompts to explain what to expect during the process prior to it happening, and the young people were able to choose which staff they wanted to help them with choosing something to wear as well as whether they wanted to go it alone or have a peer with them for advice.
Issues around body image were managed sensitively, and the team ensured that each young person felt comfortable, safe, and supported during.
The Phoenix School would like to extend a huge thanks to everyone that has donated garments – we can’t wait for the prom now!