Communication Champion

Supporting the development of children's communication and language is at the heart of our curriculum. We value helping children to find their voice and have a member of staff appointed to the role of 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 are skilled at 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)

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':