School for the Exceptional Child gets new sensory room |15 July 2023

The Air Seychelles Tourism Club has officially handed over the keys to a sensory room they had put together at the School for the Exceptional Child, to the school’s principal, Heidi Francourt, in a short ceremony yesterday morning at the school, in Roche Caiman.

It was the Air Seychelles’ acting chief executive, Captain Sandy Benoiton and the school’s principal, Mrs Francourt, who did the honours of cutting the ribbon to officially announce the opening of the room.

In his opening speech, Captain Benoiton said that the sensory room had been one of their main projects ever since adopting the school exactly one year ago under the Tourism department’s ‘Lospitalite Lafyerte Sesel’ initiative.

“I am sure that this room will be in constant use by the students as it is a calm and quiet place that will help in their development,” he said.

Captain Benotion added that the airline will not stop with the sensory room but keep adding to it and other areas of the school.

“We intend to nurture this partnership with the school as much as we can as we have grown to love the kids. I would like to thank the Tourism Club members and others for their hard work in realising this project, as well as our partners who have assisted where necessary,” he said.

The aim of the sensory room is to offer a therapeutic space for children with autism and other special needs, built with choices of equipment that can be used to improve a variety of physical and cognitive skills.

Students with behavioural difficulties will also stand to benefit from the calm environment.

The school’s principal, Mrs Francourt, said the new sensory room will be very useful, as it is a peaceful interactive environment to calm down children that feel stressed or hyperactive during the day.

“The room is very valuable to us here at the school, it targets the senses of the students and they enjoy feeling different textures and seeing the lights will certainly make them feel at ease,” she said, adding she looked forward to working with Air Seychelles on other projects.

The project was made possible partly through funds raised by the airline’s staff at the recent fundraising bazaar organised for the school by Air Seychelles on July 7, and the assistance of multiple entities, such as Weprint, which provided posters, Smartliving furnished the room, NeuroSey provided toys, while the paints came from Woodworks Unlimited.

At yesterday’s ceremony, there was also final touches being added to the school’s logo designed by renowned artist Jude Ally and two Plaisance secondary school students. The final pieces were added by Daniel Moustache, a student at the School for the Exceptional Child.

The ceremony also saw various song performances by the Air Seychelles choir and another performance by a group of students thanking the Air Seychelles for their partnership.

Diane Larame/Air Seychelles press release

Photos by Leanne Alcindor