Preparation for Adulthood 
What is it?
Preparation for adulthood (PFA) is a term used to support the transition from childhood to adulthood for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Preparing the transition to adulthood is an ongoing process from early years.
There are four areas of preparation for adulthood; employment, independent living, friends, community and relationships, and good health. All four of these areas are highly important and the staff team at Benton Dene work hard to support pupils and provide opportunities for pupils to develop their skills in these areas through the learning within our curriculum, daily activities, educational visits and event weeks such as our World of Work week.
The table below outlines some of the ways in which PFA is evident throughout Benton Dene School. Whilst some of the opportunities listed follow a specific pathway according to year group (eg- The Robinwood residential for Blue zone), most are available to all pupils according to need providing a bespoke approach to PFA for all pupils at Benton Dene School.
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Employment
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Independent living
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Friends, community & relationships
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Good health
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The Climate Strategy
Blue 5 and 6 took part in the Climate Strategy Strand 2 at The Common Room in Newcastle. As a team, the children presented their ideas on how to tackle climate change to a group of judges who loved their idea of a mechanical boat, powered by solar panels that would collect plastic from the ocean. Each child played a crucial part in coming together to form a presentation to deliver to the judges. From diagrams, research, product designers to Lego building engineers, our teams came through. As a result of their amazing efforts, Benton Dene were the worthy Winners for their outstanding effort and were awarded the winning entry of North Tyneside Learning Trust's Climate Strategy.
In the autumn term all classes worked towards producing products to sell at Benton Dene’s Christmas fayre. The pupils looked at a range of ideas for stalls at fayres and worked as class teams to decide what product or service they wanted to produce.
The pupils then explored how to advertise the fayre in different ways. Some of Blue zone created a video campaign that was then uploaded to our school website and twitter pages. Green zone created and distributed posters to raise local awareness of our Christmas fayre.
Blue 6 painted these fabulous paintings in the underpass at Cullercoats as part of an Enterprise project. They are there for everyone to see and we have had some lovely feedback from those who have seen them.
We made 'fidget cushions' for a care home in Killingworth.
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Blue 6 created a video as part of their Enterprise project.
Take a look at Green 5's Enterprise project. They made their own Christmas candy canes. Pupils worked together to research plan and design how they wanted their enterprise project to look.
