The Weston Centre, Phase 1 of PACE’s groundbreaking Early Years & Independence Centre development, opened for our children in early January 2014. This first year of operation has been one of transformation and excitement for the children and staff who use the Weston Centre.

We are delighted to share with you some of our favourite images and moments from our first year, all made possible by you.

And this is just the beginning!

(Above): The children and staff of SMILE Class enjoying their new home in the Weston Centre during the first days of operations in January 2014.

(Left): The children at PACE enjoy every opportunity to discover and learn. Pizza-making sessions in the Centre’s independence unit kitchen are particularly popular. The kitchen and lounge area are also home to many other activites, including parent group meetings, feeding clinics and twilight (after-school) ses-sions for our primary school children.

The Weston Centre: One Year On

The Weston Centre is proving to be nothing less than transformational as the home of PIPS, our newly relauched and enhanced services for very young children (0-3 years) who are at risk of developmental difficulties. Our highly skilled team offer individual assessments, feeding and therapy clinics, and baby massage services. They also provide a range activites and support for parents to help them begin to un-derstand the needs of their infant children, helping them to build their own skills and confidence. Since opening, we are now receiving one new referral per week to these much-needed services.

(Upper Left): PIPS staff conducting an individual child assessment session in the new Weston Centre, working closely with the infant and parent.

(Lower Left): PIPS promotes the benefits of nurturing touch and communication between babies and parents through our baby massage sessions. These sessions have benefits for both babies and parents alike, pro-moting communication and parenting self-esteem, and helping to relieve stress, colic or sleeplessness. Group sessions also encourage parents to talk and share their feelings and experiences with peers. Two PIPS team members are fully-qualified baby instructors.

(Bottom Right): Working with parents from this very early stage is critical. Helping to build their skills and confidence to meet the specific needs of their child is a core part of the work of the PIPS team, as it is across the whole of PACE. We also provide specific support in the often challenging areas of feeding, such as working on safe swallowing or reducing tactile defensiveness, and sleeping difficulties.

PIPS: PACE INFANT & PARENT SERVICE (Ages 0-3)

GIVING TO PACE IN 2013: Facts & figuresPACE NURSERY SERVICES (Ages 3-5)

The Weston Centre is home to PACE’s nursery services groups for children (aged 3-6 years). Some children spend part of their time at a mainstream nursery and receive additional, specialist support here at PACE. Others, with more complex needs, are with PACE on a full-time basis.

Our Nursery Groups are playful, fun places to be. They are also transdisciplinary environments where the children are challenged and stimulated to learn vital new skills, develop relationships, build confidence and acquire critical sensory and motor abilities. All of these valuable skills and assets will stand them in good stead as they grow and develop.

(Right): This is Aimee, aged 4, with one of PACE’s physiotherapists. When she first came to PACE in 2012, Aimee was unable to stand and could barely manage even to sit up unaided. Like so many chil-dren, Aimee has begun her own journey with PACE. She is now busily exploring her world, especially the Weston Centre, with greater independence and confidence.

(Below L & R): Members of Willow Class taking part in motor sessions inside and outside the Weston Centre. The sessions include working on movements against gravity, weight-bearing and orthopaedic stretching. Movement isolation (e.g. learning to keep your body still while moving your head) is particularly important for our children to learn. It is a vital step in enabling them to access IT and other communications devices in the future.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: PHASES 2 & 3

Thank you for making the Weston Centre a reality, and for supporting the First Steps Appeal to build the PACE’s Early Years & Independence Centre.

Your support is transforming lives!

We look forward to keeping you informed of our progress in 2015.

The Weston Centre is the first of three major phases of construction that will comprise the Early Years & In-dependence Centre on the Bradbury Campus, which we expect to complete in 2016. We are very excited to let you know that Phase 2 commenced construc-tion in January 2015, with a projected completion date of August 2015, in time for a phased open-ing from the beginning of the new academic year.

Phase 2 will deliver two further nursery class-rooms, a quiet room, and an additional outdoor play area, to further enhance our ability to of-fer our intensive and innovative services to very young children and their families.

Thanks to your help, the ongoing First Steps Ap-peal has already raised £2.4 milllion towards its ultimate goal of £4.5 million to complete this ambitious and important project.

Once fully complete, we expect that these first-class new facilities will enable PACE to help an-other 200 children with cerebral palsy and relat-ed motor disorders (and their families) and be a model of excellence for others to follow.

The PACE CentreBradbury Campus, 156 Wendover Road Road, Aylesbury HP22 5TE

t 01296 614287f 01296 393556i www.thepacecentre.org e info@thepacecentre.org