With support from Wandsworth Council, we've made a series of films to encourage adults with learning disabilities and autism to get cooking.

This is part of a project to encourage healthier eating and healthier living in general. We made the films last year at a local co-living space, Folk at Sunday Mills in Earlsfield, who kindly lent us their kitchen.

We hope that our students (and anyone else!) will be inspired to cook healthy meals at home. And watch this space: we're going to publish an easy read cookbook with many more recipes very soon.

We've made one longer film where the group make a delicious and healthy lentil bolognese with a side salad. And we've also made five short film clips to support kitchen skills in general:

1. Kitchen hygiene - wearing aprons
2. Kitchen hygiene - cleaning surfaces
3. Knife safety tips
4. Food safety and cross contamination
5. Storing cooked food safely

Huge thanks to our stars of the films - students Doris, Carla and Ella and our chef tutor Tim - who have done a fantastic job!

All the films are available to watch below. Please share them with anyone you know who might find them useful, just click the 'share' button or the three dots at the top right of each film:

A group of Share art students performed their original dance piece, 'The sun shines down on me when...', at the Royal Academy of Dance on Wednesday 18th December. 

This moving and magical piece was the culmination of months of hard work and dedication. Students attended weekly classes with RADiate dance artist Jasmine Hall, exploring self-expression through movement and collaborating on the choreography for this stunning final performance.  The RADiate project usually offers dance classes to children with special educational needs and disabilities, and we were delighted when they expanded this to work with adults from Share. 

'The sun shines down on me when...' explored themes of nature, connection, and celebration while also embracing each dancer's unique personality. They moved with light balls to convey sunshine, autumn leaves were blown around the stage with a fan, and the audience could participate by waving cloud props in the air, creating a wonderfully atmospheric experience.

Groups of students from all Share's sites travelled to the venue to watch the performance which ended with a 'dance circle', giving everyone in the audience the chance to join the performers on stage for a dance fest! The joy and warmth in the room was inspirational and we're so grateful to the Royal Academy of Dance for their support and dedication to the project.

We're committed to creating opportunities like these for our students, harnessing the power of creative expression to boost mental and physical wellbeing.

Our Annual Awards Day took place on Tuesday 10th December at the Wandsworth Civic Suite. As always it was an uplifting and vibrant celebration of all the steps our students have taken towards their goals over the past year.

We were especially honoured to be joined by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Sana Jafri, and our Trustee Treasurer, Chris Jeffery, to present certificates to our students. This year, we introduced Makaton into both the speeches and visual prompts we used around the room to make the event as accessible as possible.

The day was packed with unforgettable moments. Our Share Choir kicked things off with a stunning performance that left us in awe, singing heartfelt renditions of 'Oh Happy Day,' 'So Strong,' 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' 'Lovely Day,' and 'Amazing Grace'. Then student Jodie got everyone on their feet with an energetic Zumba-inspired dance session. After that, students from Share Tooting took to the stage for a Makaton sing-along, bringing the whole room together to sing and sign. We ended the day on a high note with an epic disco, featuring a mix of classic and modern hits.

Thank you to all our students, their families and carers, and our friends, volunteers and supporters who made the day so special. And a huge thank you to the Tooting Business Network who very kindy donated a delicious hot lunch for us to serve to all our guests.