Barnswallows is set to open a new centre in Weltevreden Park for children with special needs.
The Swift Academy will be based on the informal home-schooling atmosphere, offering one-on-one attention to assist children overcome developmental delays, including fetal alcohol syndrome, Down’s syndrome and cerebral palsy.
Director of Barnswallows and a qualified teacher/therapist René Testa said they will start with six children. The new centre opens in April.
“I will be conducting the class with an assistant and extra therapies will be done in the afternoons. The therapy will form part of the curriculum. We have been working with special needs children for five years and this is part of the new phase at Barnswallows,” said Testa.
Testa said the academy will be run in accordance with the principles of Barnswallows, which include a green diet where the children will have breakfast and snacks with no preservatives or colourants.
“No chemicals are allowed on the property and parents will have to adhere to our principles of green living.”
Children between the ages of four and eight with mild to severe delays and no severe handicaps will be admitted.
The services to severe delays will be extended once a bigger piece of land is acquired.
“We opened our first satellite home in Benoni, Swallow’s Nest, which operates according to our principles and follows our protocol.
Swallow’s Nest takes in our babies and we will, from now on, only do the special needs children in our area who usually are not fit for mainstream schooling and need a place where they are helped to overcome their developmental delays,” Testa concluded.
Details: rene@barnswallowbabies.org or 011 475 2318.
