“We owe so much of her learning and her imagination to Living Paintings”- Jenni and Bella’s story

Hearing a little girl read aloud to her class for the first time must be a very special experience for any teaching assistant. But when that girl is blind, it can be magical.

Jenni Coles, a primary school teaching assistant, never thought that little Bella would be able to read by herself – let alone to her whole class – but it’s now a regular occurrence and is all thanks to Living Paintings.

“In a year, she’s gone from sitting listening to the stories with me to reading herself to now reading in front of her whole class. Once she gets it, she gets it.,” says Jenni. “We do star time in class every day at 3pm where someone will read aloud, and Bella loves it when it’s her turn. She sits on the reading chair and says, “are you ready?” and reads her favourite story. She could never have done that without Living Paintings books.”

Jenni has worked as a teaching assistant for 10 years now in her local school, retraining from her bank job after becoming a mother. She works part time and job shared with another TA. “I trained as a class TA in order to work around my kids and have worked with many children with SEN and special needs,” says Jenni. “Bella was the first child I’ve worked with who is blind so that was daunting at first.”

Bella, who was born with no lenses and is classed as completely blind, was hoped to start her schooling journey in a setting designed for children who are visually impaired or have hearing difficulties. Unfortunately, this facility closed before Bella started school. Many mainstream settings were consulted but felt unable to meet Bella’s needs until eventually one local mainstream school worked with the LA and the other services to support Bella with the move to school. The success of which still continues to be an area of pride for the school and those working closely with Bella.

“When I found out that I would be working with Bella in year one, I was concerned. I was sad that the appropriate setting for her had closed, and worried that I wouldn’t be able to work with her as much as she needed. I didn’t want to let her down” says Jenni.

“However, my colleague Debs and I went on a braille course, and we started working with the Living Paintings books immediately. We set up a good routine of reading and discovering the stories through the raised textile pictures as well as teaching Bella braille and everyone is amazed at how far she’s come.”

Bella is now aged seven and in year two. She is a very popular girl with many friends and one of her favourite things to do is to read.

“The Living Paintings books are so inclusive for her so she doesn’t feel different from the other children. We even keep them in the reading corner with all the other books and Bella knows how to get there on her own by mapping the classroom, she knows exactly where to find her special books,” says Jenni.

“The books are also hugely beneficial for her learning as I can order specific books to support a class project such as her last project on great women – Living Paintings sent us some books including one on Florence Nightingale, so she was learning along with the class and keeping up with the curriculum.”

Like most children, Bella has some favourite books and is especially fascinated with anything to do with animals.

“Her favourites now are Peppa Pig books, but she loves anything animal related. It’s lovely to see her recognise a dog or cat from the raised pictures as she’s never seen one before. Her only understanding of some of these animals is from the Living Paintings books and I’m still amazed when she feels a tail or ear on a picture and immediately says ‘oh, that’s a dog’,” says Jenni.

“Because she loves the books so much, we also use them as rewards for when she’s spent a while on her braille but they are also a good way to calm her down if she’s a little overwhelmed. She gets so excited when new books arrive, it’s like a present for her and her friends love to explore and read them with her too.”

As well as being hugely instrumental in helping Bella to read, the Living Paintings books have also opened new worlds for her and sparked her imagination.

“Bella is so creative and loves writing her own stories – I believe this is mainly down to her being able to read and enjoy so many stories thanks to the Living Paintings service”, says Jenni. “She writes lovely stories about her family and they are so heart-warming to hear. We really owe so much of her learning and her imagination to the service.”