The idea of our group started when the East Dorset portage team met up for a SEN summer event, and all parents and carers felt that it would be nice if there was something more frequent as there are sadly no preschool age groups locally to help support children with SEN but unfortunately this was not possible for them to organise. With the support of the Children’s Centre & Action for Children providing us with the use of the Corfe Mullen children’s centre, 3 mums came together to create a fun, safe place for children to play and parents/carers to get together for support. We made posters and gave out some details to portage, Children’s Centres and Poole children’s development centre and Something Special was created. 

We now have a social media page and website, and have reached out to the community to help spread the word so that we can keep providing a much-needed service for local preschool children with any kind of additional needs, as well as support for the parents and carers. We have around 8-10 regular children at our weekly sessions and more at half-term. Parents and carers that get together to create a safe and welcoming atmosphere, with no judgement and lots of advice and support.

We run throughout the half-term holidays so that children who are currently at preschool on the days and times we run can benefit too, hosting parties, special events and lots of different arts & crafts and sensory/messy play and music time.

We feel this has provided a good use of the Children’s Centre and have received lots of support from the village in helping us to continue this project and expand.