hen school is out, most teenagers can?t wait to escape, but when 19-year-old Bermudian Shala Muhammad?s time at a special school in Wales came to an end, she begged to stay longer.

Miss Muhammad, a CedarBridge Academy student and member of the Windreach Recreational Village transitional programme, won a scholarship to attend the Ysgol Hendre Residential School in Bryncoch, Wales for a week. met up with Miss Muhammad to talk about her trip to Wales along with chaperones Windreach Work Experience Co-Ordinator Tammalita Astwood and Ralda Jones CedarBridge Academy functional skills teacher.

?I enjoyed myself a lot and made a lot of friends,? said Miss Muhammad. ?I made breakfast for myself ? toast and eggs. I helped in the school office and I also did volunteer work in a senior citizen?s home. I made a lot of friends, and no, I didn?t get homesick.?

Miss Astwood said that Miss Muhammad?s stay at the school was funded by Windreach Recreational Village founder Sandy Mitchell.

?He asked us to choose one of our Windreach users who would be a suitable candidate to travel to the school in Wales,? said Miss Astwood.

The candidate needed to be sociable, and match the age of the students at the school.

?Automatically, I thought of Shala,? said Miss Astwood. ?At the beginning of the last school year a number of kids from the functional skills class at CedarBridge Academy started to come to Windreach for a transitional programme. Shala has developmental difficulties that affect the way in which she learns. She answers the phones here twice a week to gain some vocational experience. She can often be heard cheerfully greeting callers on the main switchboard.?

Last summer several students from the Ysgol Hendre travelled to Bermuda to camp out at Windreach Recreational Village. Ysgol Hendre is a co-educational residential school for older children through young adulthood with moderate to severe learning difficulties. Some of the students have emotional and behavioural problems. The school has a unique residential programme that allows a small number of students to stay overnight on a daily rotational basis.

?It was a big surprise for Shala,? said Miss Astwood. ?We told her only a few days before. Mr. Sandy Mitchell presented Shala with the airline ticket at CedarBridge. Taking Shala there was a wonderful experience.?

Miss Muhammad, Miss Astwood and Mrs. Jones spent their time at the school living in the residential unit.

?This was comprised of five boys rooms and the equivalent for girls with two single beds per room,? said Miss Astwood.

?An average night in residence would touch on many angles of independent living including money management and socialisation.?

Being away from home for a little while allowed Miss Muhammad to gain a new sense of independence.

?It allowed her to put into place skills she had learned at CedarBridge such as ironing,? said Mrs. Jones.

?She had a routine at night where she organised herself for the next day. It was a balancing for her and for us. We learned what level she was at.?

Just making breakfast for herself made Miss Muhammad proud.

?That is a part of our programme at CedarBridge as well,? said Mrs. Jones.

?The students cook twice a day. They do breakfast and lunch in the morning.

?She is used to taking directions from the teachers at CedarBridge. This allowed her to go ahead and do it independently.?

Mrs. Jones said Miss Muhammad fit right in with the other students at the school in Wales.

?I thought it was perfect match,? said Mrs. Jones.

?She interacted really well with the children there and the staff. She did not need us. She did not cling to me or Tammalita. She went off on her own and we could watch the interaction.?

Miss Astwood said this sense of belonging is very important to students with learning challenges who are often met with social rejection in a mainstream school.

?I felt that Shala?s socialisation skills were wonderful,? she said.

?I see that here at Windreach as well. That was one of my underlying reasons for choosing her.

?She doesn?t have a problem going to someone and saying ?hi?.?

Miss Muhammad also had the opportunity to improve her vocational skills while working at the school in the office.

?I got to answer the telephone, and I was laminating signs,? said Miss Muhammad. ?I did well.?

Miss Astwood said they hoped that students in the transitional programme at Windreach would be able to get jobs and some measure of independence when they left the school system.

?Unfortunately, a lot of the kids when they leave the functional skills programme at CedarBridge, you find them in the grocery store packing groceries,? she said.

?Some of them could be doing so much more.?

Thanks to the work of CedarBridge and Windreach, Miss Muhammad is being equipped with skills that will allow her to work in an office setting. She has a ?phenomenal? memory and will soon be giving tours of the Windreach facility.

The trip to Ysgol Hendre was not only beneficial to Miss Muhammad, it also helped Mrs. Jones and Miss Astwood.

?There was so much information that I gained from being there,? said Mrs. Jones. ?I think also it worked both ways because I shared what we did.

?In sharing that I got resources, books, photocopies and downloaded information.

?Some of these things I have already begun to implement for September.?

The link between CedarBridge Academy and Ysgol Hendre has remained and Mrs. Jones has been exchanging emails with teachers there.

Miss Muhammad hopes to see many of the friends she made at the school next May when a group of Welsh students will stay at Windreach again.

?Although they are having major challenges raising the funds that are needed for this trip they have seen the reward of enriching the lives of their students through educational travel of which some of them would probably never be able to afford,? said Miss Astwood.