- Specialist unit has trained staff to support young learners to improve their skills through creative and interactive activities
- Through the specialist support, nine out of 10 pupils are expected to enter year 1 at age-expected levels of SLC
ACTION
Ensuring young children develop strong speech, language and communication (SLC) skills is at the heart of Bishop Alexander LEAD Academy's success.
The primary school in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire was named early years setting of the year in the 2017 Shine a Light awards in recognition of the innovative programme of activities run from its Foundation Unit.
The unit, which takes pupils after their third birthday until they leave reception year, currently supports 37 "foundation one" (nursery) and 45 "foundation two" (reception) children. The SLC work is done alongside and integrated into the standard Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.
However, Julie Nicholson, Bishop Alexander language lead since 2013, says SLC should be a priority across the whole school.
"It is important to make my enthusiasm contagious so that everyone shares my belief that SLC is the key to all learning," she says.
Bishop Alexander staff are mentored to develop new skills and strategies in SLC. These include video feedback, one-to-one sessions and group meetings alongside a yearly action plan for SLC which is regularly updated.
Nicholson says initially a six-week high-impact action plan was devised to highlight areas staff could improve pupils' SLC skills.
"As this was successful, we continued with our action planning but on a longer term basis to ensure that changes were embedded and became routine practice," she explains.
When children enter the unit they are observed, monitored and tracked. Data showed that more than 60 per cent of the current cohort of pupils were below age-expected levels for SLC when they joined. In addition, 30 per cent of children were entering foundation one with English as an additional language and so required additional support.
After an initial assessment of a child's ability has been made, a three-tier response covering universal, targeted and specialist interventions is implemented.
Targets are set for those children who are below age-expected levels but who with support are able to catch up with their peers.
Children found to have a wider gap in one or more areas of SLC are given a "progression tool assessment" to establish what support they might need from outside agencies.
"We believe that a universal approach is key to allow the development of our children's SLC," says Nicholson.
"Further, we recognise that the environment plays a huge part in children's learning and we make sure that engaging SLC opportunities are planned, both indoors and outdoors, to create communication-friendly spaces wherever possible," she adds.
An SLC-friendly area identified by staff was the "forest school", a weekly trip to a special forest area for an extended activity session. External observation found that "dynamic teaching in the forest area led to children making exceptional progress in the development of language", Nicholson adds.
Other activities apply learning through doing approaches. Its Talk Buddies scheme involves children of different ages, cultures and home language "buddying" together to allow development of language at all levels when completing an SLC activity.
Children with SLC needs are provided with numerous ways to access the curriculum including signs and symbols, visual timetables, think time, visual props, real objects and photographs.
"We believe we need to nurture our children to allow them to become outstanding communicators - if we can equip them with the SLC foundations then they can excel in all other areas of learning," says Nicholson.
IMPACT
Figures provided by Bishop Alexander LEAD Academy show that 74 per cent of foundation one children are currently at age-expected levels in all areas of SLC, compared with 39 per cent at entry to the unit. This level is predicted to rise to 91 per cent by the summer.
Similarly, 75 per cent of foundation two children are at age-expected levels in all areas of SLC, compared with 36 per cent at entry to foundation one. This is predicted to rise to 89 per cent by the summer, in line with the national average.
This article is part of CYP Now's special report on early childhood development. Click here for more
