Murton Park becomes York and North Yorkshire’s first Makaton Friendly family attraction.
Murton Park is an award winning family visitor attraction situated only 4.5 miles from York. With their own museum, railway, animals, playground and living history sites, they have something for everyone – and now use Makaton to enhance the visitor experience of those with communication difficulties. Makaton Friendly is a unique partnership programme which helps organisations and communities to improve accessibility for anyone living with communication difficulties.
Makaton is a communication system which uses signs made with your hands, simple symbols and speech to help people communicate. Today over 100,000 people with communication difficulties use Makaton either to support their speech or as their main method of communication.
Working in partnership with York Makaton Tutor Jo Bryenton, Murton Park has been awarded Bronze Makaton Friendly Accreditation. Makaton signs and symbols are used across the park to help visitors with learning and communication difficulties. Their Front of House team use Makaton signs to welcome visitors and their new site map includes simple symbols to help visitors find their way around the Park.
Jo Bryenton, Makaton Tutor says; “I am delighted to have supported Murton Park on their Makaton journey over the last year. We started with training staff to use a small number of signs at their Christmas event. The positive response this received from visitors encouraged them to embrace using Makaton across the Park. We have now trained all their staff to use relevant Makaton signs to help visitors use their fantastic facilities. It has been a real pleasure to work with the wonderful team at Murton Park as they strive to ensure everyone who lives with a communication difficulty has equal access to local facilities.”
As Jo says, Murton Park is no stranger to the use of Makaton signing. For the past two years, Fiona Brown, who plays Mother Christmas in the park’s Christmas event, has used Makaton signs in her performance. Her performance is well received, as can be seen in some of last year’s feedback:
“We specifically booked because of the attraction of Makaton signing. Our absolute highlight was Mother Christmas coming up to our 2.5yr daughter and signing and singing to her “we wish you a Merry Christmas”. It brought me to tears because there are very few places that use Makaton. That for me totally made my Christmas experience special so thank you to Mother Christmas!”
Olivia Jackson, Marketing Manager and Murton Parks’ Makaton Champion is delighted; “We’re extremely proud to be the first Makaton Friendly attraction in York and North Yorkshire. We have worked closely with Jo over the last year to embed Makaton signs and symbols across the Park and our accreditation demonstrates our commitment to inclusivity. We look forward to continuing to welcome families with children with SEND.”
