Fish and Chips @ Weston Grove is the first Makaton Friendly fish and chip shop.
They first heard about Makaton when they were approached by Amanda
Glennon to become Makaton Friendly. Amanda runs the training and her
daughter Alice is a Makaton user. The owners Josette and Richard Foster
were very excited about this and jumped at the opportunity. They had
seen Makaton used by Mr Tumble on Cbeebies TV, on Strictly Come Dancing
and on the Pride of Britain Awards.
The Weston Grove team attended a free Makaton workshop in September
2019. This valuable training gave them the skills and confidence to use
Makaton in the shop.
Each member of staff who is trained wears a
Makaton lanyard which is easily recognisable to users. Attached to this
is a variety of generic and Fish and Chip shop specific picture cards.
These cards are used along side hand signs, speech and facial gestures
to communicate to customers.
Josette said, “It is really fantastic to see our customers being
given the opportunity to order their fish and chips independently and
confidently in a caring environment. We all get very excited!”
Some members of staff are now taking the training further to become
Makaton Champions. The shop now provides further resources such as books
and signs that are Makaton Friendly.
Richard said, “ We now have a growing number of Makaton users who find our shop through the Makaton Friendly search on the Makaton website."
Fish and Chips @ Weston Grove is an award winning Fish and Chip Shop
and came third in the National Fish and Chip shop awards this year. The
couple lead by example and now urge other fish and chip shops in the uk
to get involved.