"A clear focus on children’s communication and language sits at the heart of the school’s curriculum. This includes for those children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)." Ofsted, July 2024

Communication Champion

Supporting children to develop their communication and language skills is central to our curriculum. Our staff value helping children to find their voice and are skilled at engaging children in high-quality interactions. This helps them to build strong relationships and learn and develop academically and emotionally.  Katrina Fox is our school's Communication Champion. 

Each week we produce a 'This week ...' poster which includes a key Makaton sign linked to our learning focus, the book and song / nursery rhyme of the week and a top tip for families to help them support their child's understanding and talking at home.

Skilled Staff

Our staff are experienced in identifying difficulties and providing targeted communication and language support to help children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) develop their skills and confidence. All staff have expertise in engaging children through high-quality interactions to support their language development, vocabulary and learning. Visual support such as visual timetables, Makaton signing and symbols are used routinely throughout our school to support understanding and expression of the spoken word.

In particular, we specialise in helping children with the following difficulties:

•  Understanding language & following specific instructions
•  Expressing themselves using spoken language
•  Unclear speech making them difficult to understand
•  Attention and listening difficulties
•  Social interaction 

Support for Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)

"Staff help children who need extra support with their speech and language effectively." Nursery School Ofted Inspection, July 2024

We offer a range of interventions to support SLCN including:

• BLAST (Boosting Language, Auditory Skills and Talking)
• ELKLAN's EYBIC (structured framework for promoting understanding of vocabulary, following instructions, auditory sequential memory, social skills and expressive language) 
• Attention Autism sessions (to develop shared attention and social communication skills, known in our school as 'Attention Builders')
• TACPAC and Handi Pac (sensory-based communication)
• Speech Sound Box (to support children to 'tune into' speech sounds and recognise similarities and differences between sounds)
• Makaton signing, symbols and communication boards - to support understanding and communication
• Cued Articulation (gestures representing each speech sound to help children remember them and produce them)

Top Tips

Below are our 'Top Tips for Communication':