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Spring/Summer Blog
Hello and welcome to my spring/summer blog. Sorry for the delay since the last one but there have been some technical problems.
I have had to move out of my room because new clients have joined Cherry road. I am happy with my new room and that the new clients have all settled in well.
In early 2025, Rosemary, a long serving and much loved member of staff retired. We wish Rosemary all the best for the future.
We are lucky to have three students with us just now –
Emily, who is a first year student at Queen Margaret University studying art therapy
Sofia, who is also a first year student at Queen Margaret University studying music therapy
Anders, who is a third year student at Oslo Met studying to be a social educator. He is with us for three months.
In February 2025 we had a visit from Leigh Payton, who helps coordinate Midlothian People First meetings. This organisation champions the voice of people with Learning Disabilities. We also had a visit from the Care Inspectorate and await their report.
We are now looking forward to a nice spring in our refurbished rear garden.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Summer Blog
Hello everyone and welcome to my summer blog. Wow, the summer came and went with minimal sunshine, oh well we can’t control the weather, but we could still enjoy ourselves and we certainly did. Here are some of the following activities we got up to.
I was fortunate enough to go to Germany with the “Eskbank Tartan Army” for 12 days to watch the football, unfortunately I witnessed our defeat. I spoke with STV’s Raman Bhardwaj, Chris Harvey and Ronny Charters it was all very interesting.
The clients that were integrating with their previous staff from school over the spring are now settled in and enjoying all the new experiences Cherry Road has to offer.
They have all transitioned well and got to know their new staff and surroundings. It has been huge accomplishment for them, I hope they have many happy years with us.
Our garden has had a massive overhaul, even though the staff and clients kept it looking nice with flowers they had planted and nurtured and planters that they had made with staff it was not very wheelchair friendly. In came the machinery and after many weeks of hard work they had our outdoor space looking fantastic and accessible to all our clients.
Over the summer period as always the staff and centre put on lots of extra activities and trips.
I went with a group to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh due to the weather, we had planned on going to the owl centre but it was forecast rain all day in Whitburn. We had a great time looking at all the exhibits and the interactive section and testing our reflexes! We all met in the café for lunch, it was lovely for us all to all socialise out with the centre.
Other outings in included a group visiting Muiravon Country Park where they go plenty of fresh air and exercise (especially those staff pushing wheelchairs up the hills) whilst seeing all the animals. Once again they all had a great time getting out and about when the weather wasn’t miserable.
Another group went on a boat trip from South Queensferry to Inchcolm Island. They were very lucky with the weather and enjoyed a picnic on the boat, a great day was had by all.
Another trip saw people heading to Peebles for lunch and a walk round the park and High Street, North Berwick saw people zooming around in sand buggies.
Extra activities were on the summer programme for those who wanted to attend, some of these included Noisy noise workshop (instruments), Kic-dance (exercise), Sound bath yoga (relaxation), Clown drama (fun), Garden journeys (sensory) and Edinburgh Fringe street performers as well as our Thursday live entertainment………phew, we will be needing a holiday after the holidays !
I hope you have enjoyed my summer blog, hearing all about the fantastic opportunities we are given here at Cherry Road.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Spring Blog
Hello everyone and welcome to my spring blog.
As you can see from the photos below we were successful with the planting of our spring boxes, we also decided to plant herbs that can be used in our kitchen. It was one of our long term clients who loves to get her fingers dirty that did all the planting with assistance from one of her key members of staff, who also has green fingers……
Some of our longer attending clients have been enjoying regular visits to the swimming pool, hydro therapy pool and the gym. Others have enjoyed spring walks in the local parks and even having fun on the swings.
Some new clients have joined our service and have settled in well. A lot of planning happened and the “getting to know me” sessions went on for several weeks. As always the staff came up with new ideas and some older trusted approaches were used, this made for a great transition for both the clients and staff.
One lunchtime we were fortunate enough to have Fiona Winning from Red Note Ensemble playing viola in the dining room whilst we had our lunch. It was lovely to listen to and it was very relaxing whilst we were eating – Thank you Fiona.
Cherry Road learning centre has had a piece written in a very prestigious American magazine called Harper Magazine and also in our local Edinburgh Evening News Paper.
Within the article it states what “wonderful, complex and diverse service” our staff provide here in within our centre
The full article can be found online (Google Harper magazine, Cherry Road) it is a fantastic article and is really worth a read. We the staff, clients and everyone associated with the unit are extremely proud.
After the publication of the article about the centre and services we offer it was discussed in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament and we received a letter of recognition from Colin Beattie MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh for all our hard work and dedication. To say we are all very proud of all our achievements is an understatement. A huge thank you to the whole team, you really make the world a nicer place.
Looking forward to seeing what the next few months hold for us all.
I will be writing again soon, until then stay safe and enjoy the better weather (if it ever arrives).
Regards
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
New Year
Hello all and welcome to the first blog of 2024. I hope you are all well? As usual it has been busy, busy, busy at Cherry Road. We all had a lovely festive period, Christmas lunch was lovely thanks to the kitchen staff Izzy and Kasia. Also thanks to the other staff members that went the extra mile to make it so festive. The food and handmade table decorations were fantastic.
We had St David’s Brass Band entertaining us with their wonderful sounds, one of our own staff joined in with their trombone. The Sign N Zoom staff and clients put on a sign along concert they had been working so hard on. Everything was magical.
We have lots of plans to upgrade the rooms in Cherry Road Centre to enable both staff and clients to access to room spaces for specific activities for example Music room, Garden room, Craft room, Sensory room as well many other designated activity rooms. We have already started painting, replacing furnishing and would like to thank the staff for their hard work and people in the community for their kind donations.
We have a few new clients coming to join our service. We have had the pleasure of meeting them during their visits here over the last few months. I am sure they will have a great experience once they get to know everyone. Our great team will have them settled in before they know and will all be enjoying the large variety of activities we have to offer.
I have come to end of my “our future leaders course” and would highly recommend it. Information can be found on their website www.inspiringscotland.org.uk
Regards
Craig Pentland
Blog editor
Summer Holidays
We did a variety of things over the summer months these included pub lunches, boat trips at South Queensferry, The National Museum of Scotland, Portobello to dip our toes in the sea and enjoy ice cream, a jolly to Peebles to name a few.
One of our clients even went on holiday with their sister to a cottage in Fife, it was her first holiday in a long time and she enjoyed it greatly.
Artlink were off for the summer but we still had plenty of entertainment including workshops run by Charlie and Ron (sound and music), an act from the Fringe which involved a person standing in an oversized balloon and our Thursday Live sessions – phew, we well be needing a rest.
Gardening
Our vegetable garden turned out to be a bit of a flop, but at least we tried and had good fun doing it! Thanks to everyone who helped but I think it is safe to say that we will stick to flowers next year and may even cheat……..
Learning
I have embarked on an “Our future leaders” course through The Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities and Inspiring Scotland. Caroline and Corinne kindly offered to be my sponsors and thanks to them I am managing well, watch out Humza Yousaf I maybe after your job!
Volunteers
Scott now kindly volunteers on a Wednesday as our “Chief Security Guard” had a special birthday and he was the BIG THIRTY…..We had a collection and cake for him in which he was extremely grateful for although quite embarrassed when the whole dining room sang Happy Birthday.
Refurbish
As always we haven’t just been busy improving our knowledge, strengths and talents but we have spruced up the unit by the way of painting, wallpaper hanging, new furnishings and carpets.
We would like to thank KRISTOFFERSON CARPETS of Newtongrange for their kind donation, THE TILEMAN of Newtontoll for kindly framing for free some of the client’s artwork, the staff who donated their time for sourcing new pieces of furniture, painting, curtain hanging and making furnishings, the unit is looking great and without all your help it wouldn’t have been possible – THANK YOU.
I hope you have a good Christmas and I will be back in January 2024.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Summer
Hello all, it is that time again and the summer blog is here. I hope have had a few good months.
Here is what has been happening at Cherry Road since my last blog.
Artroom
The staff have worked tirelessly clearing work, equipment and resources ready for the joiners revamp the room.
We have loved being back is this room, we have even added some extra drop-in creative sessions on a Monday and Friday to allow more people from outreach and the community to benefit from using this fantastic facility.
Gardening Group
After a lot of hard work, dedication and determination some of our vegetables actually grew! We harvest what we could and our lovely ladies in the kitchen cooked them for us, thank you Izzy and Kasia.
Our flowers and sunflowers really brightened up our centre, we all enjoyed nurturing them and watching them grow & bloom.
We had a sunflower competition and the tallest was a staggering 6 feet 2 inches, there were a few near that height but that one won.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for coming in on their days off, donating plants and equipment also the local businesses that made donations and kindly reduced prices for us, without this kindness our project wouldn’t have been possible.
Drum farm estate
Summer Outings
This year’s summer trips were kindly organised by Corinne. We interviewed her and she spoke about needing to take into consideration everyone’s ability, needs and preferences, she asked the staff and clients to fill in a sheet of things they would like to do. Here are some of the things that were suggested …
Beach, North Berwick or Portobello, Kelvingrove museum, Royal yacht Britannia, Donkey sanctuary, Edinburgh Festival, Scottish owl sanctuary, Seagull trust barge trip to name just a few.
Staff Wellbeing
Two of our staff members organised and ran some wellbeing sessions for the staff every second Monday morning to get us ready for our week ahead. This included light yoga, self-reflection and mindfulness. These sessions were optional and lasted for thirty minutes. These who attended found the sessions beneficial – thank you ladies.
Quiz Master
As some of you know I along with one of my key workers started to develop a variety of quizzes a couple of years ago.
We have quizzes on things from Famous Scots to Italian Food and Sports to Geography. The staff enjoy it when they see me coming round with the quiz sheets and it creates some good banter. 
There is a lot of staff interaction and the occasional person being banned from the next quiz for cheating or sulking!! We all have a good laugh and it has been known that I have got the answers wrong, so I just blame Google – It’s all good fun.
I hope you have a lovely summer and I will be back with the autumn blog before you know it.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Wow – where have the months gone?
Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the last blog? Here is what has been happening since then.
Students
We had the pleasure of two University students for six weeks between January and February. They greatly enjoyed their time here and learned a great deal from all the staff and service users. Here are some of the words they used to describe their time at Cherry Road – wonderful, educational, welcoming, friendly, happy and made to feel part of the team.
We also had a student psycho art therapist who ran individual sessions with some of the service users, this was a great experience for all involved.
We wish them a well with their future studies.
Image source(student Art therapist ) -Chia-Yu-ko
New starts
Over the last year we have welcomed some new clients and staff. Everyone has transferred and settled in well, some of the clients have increased their days.
Gardening Group
We are reusing our raised beds in the conservatory, removing the large unruly plants was a task in itself but we now have vegetable lots.
This took a lot of preparation. The staff organised everything from collecting manure from a local farmer for fertilizer, sourcing seeds, plants, tools to ensuring those who wanted to take part could fit it into their busy programmes. We intend to grow, harvest and eat our produce, these include tomatoes, peppers, spring onions, lettuce and potatoes.
Art Room Refit
Out art room is fantastic but has started to show its age and has begun to fall to pieces. New cupboards have been measured up …… watch this space!
We need this room for many different things to happen. Planning for the outreach groups, one to one work, Artlink groups, and therapy groups as well as storing a huge variety of resources for everyone to use either in the room itself or in their individual rooms.
Some fantastic work has been produce from here and the clients enjoy the ambience of the room.
- Art room before refit, check back to see the results!
Care Commission
We were visited by the Care Commission and their full report can be found on their website in due course, we hope you find this report interesting.
We are extremely lucky to have a very professional, confident and a happy staff team who go beyond their role to ensure that all the clients have access to other services.
They work continuously to ensure we get the best support when building friendships and gain confidence with independence.
The staff strive to offer new challenges and projects and ensure everyone’s positive outcomes are recognised and celebrated.
Cherry Road Learning Centre really is the place to be!
Craig Pentland
Blog editor
New Year 2023
This is my first blog of 2023. Firstly I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you good health for the coming year.
Since my last blog lots of things (as always) have been happening at Cherry Road.
I for one was fortunate enough to visit the Scottish Parliament whilst it was in session. It was very interesting listening to Nicola Sturgeon and I would like to thank my member of staff for organising it and taking me.
Over the winter months we had some fantastic visitors. Nick Clater who is Head of Services, Morag Barrow who is Director of Health and Social Care and Dr Grace Vickers Chief Executive. They all enjoyed their visit greatly and said how welcome they were made to feel and that the services in which the staff at Cherry Road provided was exceptional and that the clients were offered a huge range of activities and support to cater for their individual needs. Give yourselves a pat on the back everyone.
Wendy Armitage who is part of the Learning and Development team came to visit Cherry Road Outreach staff with the view to providing council buildings, schools GP surgeries etc with artwork and sculptures made by the people using Outreach services provided by Cherry Road in the community – watch this space!
We have introduced even more activities within the centre, these include – Open University (free courses), Audio bathing, Volunteer work and swimming as well keeping up with the healthy baking groups and our Sign Zumba.
OPEN UNIVERSITY – There is a huge variety of free courses which both staff and clients have shown a great interest. I myself have started “Succeeding in a digital world” with my support worker.
AUDIO BATHING – Many clients enjoy this new experience. Relaxing listening and watching ocean scenes, birds, fish, trees and snow scenes. Some people become so relaxed they fall asleep.
VOLUNTEER WORK – The staff have spent a lot of time researching opportunities for this and the Midlothian libraries are very interested in offering positions.
KEEPING HEALTHY – more clients are taking up swimming with their support workers, we have increased our healthy snack making to two sessions a week, Sign Zumba sessions have also increased, this, not only helps to keep us fit but helps develop our sign language.
As always Thursday live and Artlink are keeping us busy and entertained.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog, watch out for Aprils updates.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Summer Blog
Hello and welcome to my summer blog.
Since my last blog Government Covid rules have changed but in Cherry Road we are still taking precautions.
We have welcomed some new staff and clients over the past few months. They are all settling in well. We have also seen members leave and wish them all the very best in their future ventures.
Artlink recently launched a new exhibition at Tramways in Glasgow called Human Threads. It was a great success. Staff and clients have been visiting on Wednesdays throughout the summer.
Human Threads was an exhibition done in collaboration with Artlink, Cherry Road and Tramways. It was an inclusive, multi-sensory, interactive exhibition with special guests providing live entertainment each week. I visited a few times and really enjoyed myself.
When I arrived I went onto the vibrating ramp, I could feel the vibrations coming through my chair and I found that feeling very relaxing. Visitors could interact with the ramp anyway they chose. Vibrations were made using audio recordings of the voices of people from Cherry Road coming from underneath the ramp.
The Windy Tunnel was a large fun exhibit. Visitors can hide inside vast sails of materials, feeling the breeze from the fans. I chose to go through it in my chair. The wind effects made it nice and airy, when the room got hot.
The Smoke Chimney reminded me of “Stars in Your Eyes” TV programme. The smoke coming down on me. I enjoyed the experience.
Beanbags were set up in different areas of the room. I found this very chilling a good place to relax and each beanbag had different textures. Some people loved the feeling of being wrapped up under the beanbags. It was a great place for people of all ages and abilities.
The Artlink were around to explain the exhibits, I was interested in learning the science behind all the exhibits.
It was great being able to interact, we could hear, see and touch things. A lot of dedication, time and effort was put into the exhibition. Thank you to everyone involved.
In addition to the above we had various activities, visitors and outings.
We had outings to the Five Sister’s Zoo which was enjoyed by all (we were very lucky with the weather), the animals were great to see. Others went on different outings such as the beach, cinema, bowing and trips out to Peebles for coffee and cake!
We had a visit from Tod the magician who was a performer in the Edinburgh Fringe, The Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland along with many others which were enjoyed by all.
Also we had many singers, dancers, drummers and Kick dance for our Thursday live who all had a great connection with everyone.
We again have been fortunate to have a selection of students who enjoyed their time learning with us at Cherry Road. Here are some of their comments – “I’ve learned a great deal”, “I was made very welcome”, “Every member of staff and clients helped me understand things”, “It’s a lovely place to work”
Blog Interview:
Recently I interviewed Aga Rozik-Szyszka, Team Leader at Cherry Road Learning Centre.
Aga’s main responsibilities are to allocate staff and clients who will be working together and ensure they have a good rapport and to help deliver outreach sessions to the clients who are out in the community within Midlothian.
When asked what her future vision for Cherry Road was she said ideally to grow a bigger service and offer extra services to a larger amount of people and to also expand the Outreach services to cover more areas within Midlothian.
I hope you have a lovely autumn and I look forward to sharing my next blog with you in the New Year.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Welcome back! Hope you all had a wonderful New Year. I’m looking forward to all the new challenges coming up this year.
So far this year we’ve had some great acts for Thursday Live. In January we had the band Ubuntu Vibes come to Cherry Road for the very first time. They were accompanied by Andy Cooke a musician. They performed an African story through music, dance and speech. They interacted with our clients very well, they were humorous and lively. We would welcome them back to the centre anytime.
One of our favourite regular acts, Elvis, was back in Cherry Road for Thursday Live. He was great! Everybody was dancing around having a good time from start to finish. He took the time to interact with everyone. Even those who are usually reluctant to join in were inspired by him. The room was full of laughter and everyone enjoyed themselves.
I had the pleasure of working with Mat Clements in a 1-1 drumming session. He’s very talented, and I learn new skills from him.
We are very creative in Cherry Road. Our centre is full of artwork created by us all. I have designed and produced my own artwork. I enjoy painting and pottery. These are some of my paintings.
On a wider note in the rest of Scotland, Glasgow Burrell Collection will be re-opening on the 27th March. Something to look forward to.
I recently interviewed one of our team leaders John Connell. He is responsible for assisting with the day to day running of the establishment. He is very involved with staff training and support. John works in collaboration with Napier University. He mentors the learning disability students on placements in Cherry Road. I help out with this too. John told me he was in a unique position as he was in the old Cherry Road at the turn of the century. In those days it was a very busy environment attended by people with mixed needs and abilities. The Council needed a base for people with complex needs and so Cherry Road adapted to serve their needs. John’s vision for Cherry Road is “to become an internationally renowned centre of excellence.” John would like to see, in the future, our service extend to include evenings and weekends but not at the expense of the quality of service we’ve got just now. Some of John’s fondest memories are of our Creative Learning workshops and he says our Thursday Live performances are genuinely world class!
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
Welcome back! My first Blog went down a treat, thanks for all your feedback. I am always open to new ideas.
Caitlin Mulgrew and the pots and pans samba band came to Cherry Road for the very first time. Caitlin worked extremely well with our clients. Everybody was up and out of their seats having a good time. We’re hoping to see them back at Cherry Road soon.
A Spanish couple from Edinburgh joined us and performed Flamenco in our conservatory. Daniello played a guitar and a cajon. Inma danced and played the castanets. As one of our service users often says we all were “shaking our shimmy!”
Performer Ciaran McGee was very good right from the start. He was an excellent singer! He would always be welcome back. Everybody joined in and had a good time.
I went to my first meeting with People First in Dalkeith. People First Scotland are an advocacy group for people with learning disabilities, run by people with learning disabilities. It’s a great opportunity for me to get involved with the Scottish Government and Midlothian Council. My confidence has grown during my time at Cherry Road and the support I receive here allows me to access other opportunities with continuing support from Cherry Road.
Over the past 18 months our Outreach service has been preparing an Art Exhibition at The Steading in Rosewell. The pieces on display are all designed by service users. The artwork showcases the hard work and dedication of the service users and staff on the Outreach programme. Well done to all involved.
Staff profiles will be a new addition to the blog. This update includes an interview with Liz Davidson, manager of Cherry Road Resource Centre.
Liz explained she loves her job “I feel very privileged to be part of making people’s lives better, more enjoyable and helping people to learn.” Cherry Road felt a safe place to be during the pandemic. Staff and service users really looked after each other. Liz is always open to new ideas, assessing the service and getting feedback from us and our families to inform future plans for Cherry Road. I asked Liz if she had a special moment to share. She spoke of the success of the summer programme and a special moment when one of our clients reached out for the first time to play the strings of the violin. Liz said it was very emotional and brought a tear to her eye.
I’m sorry to report that one of our staff members Steve Bruce is moving on to pastures new. We all wish him well in his new venture. He will be missed by all at Cherry Road.
Craig Pentland
Blog Editor
COVID-19
Cherry Road Learning Centre are currently operating a reduced service for people with critical need.
For more information about current provision, please contact us on 0131 561 5402 or email liz.davidson@midlothian.gov.uk
We are working in partnership with residential and other day service providers to replace our input in imaginative ways in partnership with Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians, families and care teams supporting people at home.
Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians have developed online resources specifically for people with learning disability, their families and care teams.
They have a website of resources and ArtlinkTV featuring sensory based ideas for activity at home. If you’d like a hand to find content to suit the person you support please contact kara@artlinkedinburgh.co.uk or call/ text/ what’s app 07715083926.
Releasing Your Potential 