Communication

Communication is important in all areas of school life and we are developing a Total Communication Approach.

This means we value all forms of communication including speech, signing and visual resources.

We have just purchased a new resource to use in our specific Communication lessons. This is called Talk Boost and will develop key skills for pupils to support them to:

• access the curriculum
• use their language to interact in the classroom
• form and maintain friendships

Talk Boost covers a variety of areas.

In Primary 

• Attention and listening
• Vocabulary
• Building sentences
• Telling stories
• Conversation

In Secondary 

• Listening carefully
• Learning new Words
• Telling stories and saying what happens
• Remembering and thinking
• Working with others
• Making friends and having conversations

Pupils will have weekly lessons using the Talk Boost resources. However the learning will be included in all areas of school life.

As a school we learn a new Makaton sign (or signs) each week and practice them during form-time.  

We also ran a competition for pupils to send in a video of them using Makaton. We had some amazing entries.  Below is KS3 signing to the song "Happy".  We also have some signing videos below by Miss Gotts, who uses Makaton with the younger, non-verbal pupils.