Communication and Interaction support
At Newington, ‘Communication and Interaction’ is currently our primary area of SEN need across the whole school. This is includes children who have a speech and language difficulty and/or a diagnosis of Autism.
The school has recently been awarded the 'Balance System' accreditation in recognition of improving outcomes for children and young people across the range of speech, language and communication needs.
scheme for schools certificate 4 1 .pdf
To find out more about the 'Balance System', please visit:
https://www.thebalancedsystem.org/schools/what-is-scheme-for-schools/
We are fortunate to be able to employ a Speech and language Therapy Assistant, three times a week through our service level agreement who works with targeted children on a 1:1/small group basis and a Speech and Language SEN TA who runs the Language Link Interventions across the school.
https://www.kentcht.nhs.uk/childrens-therapies-the-pod/speech-and-language-therapy/
All of our Early Years and Reception staff are level 1 trained in Makaton, https://makaton.org/
Makaton is a visual way to develop communication skills, which helps stimulate sounds and words. The visual way of communicating helps language development, such as putting words together. Makaton helps understanding by giving an extra visual cue to communication.
We have a high number of children who are either diagnosed or awaiting a diagnosis of Autism. We use a range of strategies, resources and interventions including staff training, visual support, sensory circuits, attention bucket, social stories, social interaction groups, pastoral support mentors, emotional literacy programme (PSHE), sensory room and sensory activities/toys.
How to help your autistic child with day-to-day life - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
National Autistic Society (autism.org.uk)
Other useful resources:
communication and interaction.pdf