Watch as Woburn Safari Park invites children from special school to celebrate one-eyed camel’s birthday

Children from a special school were delighted yesterday (May 1) when they helped to throw a birthday party for a one-eyed camel at Woburn Safari Park.

To show their commitment to including special education needs (SEN) in their park, staff invited students from Windmill Hill School in Luton to make some tasty treats for the birthday boy, two-year-old Wednesday.

The park in Bedfordshire is now the first of its kind in the world to be symbol-friendly, using the Widgit Software to make the safari experience more inclusive for visitors with additional needs.

Students Casey, Younes, Yusuf, Markus and Alex spent the morning creating birthday boxes and using different symbols – a camel, birthday cake, a present and a carrot – to communicate with their parents and teachers.

With some guidance, they chopped up carrots, placing them into decorated boxes to feed to Wednesday and his friends.

The idea to make the park more accessible came from Natasha Kyle, head of education and customer liaison.

Despite being in the job for under two years, Natasha has made it her mission to put symbols around the park, making it easier for visitors with SEN to navigate their way around the attractions and feel more comfortable.

She said: “We’ve got communication boards that we have been using, we’ve also got our social stories, BSL interpretation boards and SEN sessions. All of our staff are ready to invite these families in for a more accessible day.”

They fed willow leaves to the birthday boy and the other camels who were desperate to have a share of the birthday brunch, who had just begun to malt for the summer. The students had huge smiles on their faces as the animals ate carrots from their hands.

Using the Widgit symbols, they sang happy birthday reading along with the special signs created by Rebecca Lynch.

Rebecca is a symbols and education specialist with Widgit. The subscription-based software company has been going for 40 years and helps people to express themselves through images.

She said: “It’s essential that companies, like Woburn, start using symbols in the environment around them. Coming somewhere new can be really daunting and can be quite anxiety-provoking, the children don’t know where they are going.

“Using symbols we can prepare children for the journey they are coming on.”

For Harleigh McShane, a learning mentor at the school, it was great to see the often reserved children come out of their shells.

She said: “It’s been so lovely seeing them, students that are usually really shy and not usually so outgoing, then completely in their element feeding the camels and enjoying speaking to other people.”

And that’s not all Woburn is doing. It is “planning to bring enhanced educational facilities” to the park to improve its services for adults and children with SEN. But more information will be announced later this year.

Natashed added: “Wednesday is obviously a little bit different to our other camels, which is fine, but he has one eye and we just want to show the children that it is fine to be different and we are celebrating that.”