Specialist Resourced Provision
The Aquarium
Our school is fortunate to benefit from an on-site Specialist Resource Provision (SRP) for Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). The Aquarium SRP is located at the heart of the school across three designated rooms: Barnacles, Reef and Cove.
All children formally supported through the SRP have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) identifying significant speech, language and/or communication as their primary need. This includes Developmental Language Disorder, Speech Sound Disorder and SLCN related to a diagnosis of Autism. Children who are officially placed within the SRP will be those requiring either intensive speech and language therapy alongside specialist teaching or a total communication immersive environment. All will require access to joint planning and delivery of their curriculum by the specialist teacher and speech and language therapist.
In addition to those pupils officially placed within the SRP, a number of our mainstream pupils access the Aquarium at times on an unofficial in-reach basis when capacity permits. However, while they will indirectly benefit from the specialist teaching and joint planning, they will not be able to access intensive speech and language therapy and any additional interventions will be supported by mainstream staff.
While many pupils will be working at a level significantly below their chronological peers, this is usually a result of their communication needs. They should have the potential to access elements of a mainstream curriculum with the appropriate level of adaptation, language support and specialist teaching and intervention.
Common difficulties
- Difficulties processing and understanding spoken language
- Difficulties remembering and recalling vocabulary
- Difficulties organising their own spoken sentences
- Difficulties with speech sounds
- Difficulties with social communication
Admission to the Specialist Resource Provision is via the Local Authority SRP placement panel.
We are staffed by an experienced team which comprises of:
Lead Specialist Teacher for SLCN and Assistant SENCo with post-graduate qualifications in SLCN and SEN Coordination who works closely alongside the mainstream SENCo,
2 Speech and Language Therapists,
1 Speech Therapy Assistant,
4 Specialist SLCN teaching assistants
The team are also able to access support from the school’s on-site Play Therapist, 3 SEN teaching assistants and a Specialist Nurture/ELSA trained teaching assistant.
Our Day
While some children are local to Hythe, many of the children accessing our SRP travel from a variety of locations across South Kent and travel via minibus or taxis arranged through the local authority. They arrive with their escorts at the main reception and join their mainstream classes.
All SRP children are part of a mainstream class and are included with their peers for social times, trips and extra-curricular activities.
In the morning, phonics and literacy are taught discreetly for most SRP pupils. The literacy is jointly planned by the Specialist Teacher and Speech Therapists to ensure generalisation of therapy targets across the literacy curriculum. There is also some team teaching by the Speech Therapists and Speech Therapists. SRP children accessing Pathway Three also receive 1:1, group and/or collaborative therapy as appropriate while pupils on Pathways One and Two have an immersive total communication environment with positive language modelling, communication boards and speech therapy coaching.
Most children access playtime, lunchtime and collective worship with their mainstream peers. Maths is taught in adaptive mixed groupings of SRP and mainstream pupils with additional support from the SRP team.
In the afternoon, following a reading session within the SRP, pupils move back to their mainstream classes for Science and foundation subject learning. Members of the SRP team support are available during this time for in class support and interventions.
Children following Pathways One and Two, usually spend a larger proportion of their school day within Barnacles and Reef accessing a more intensive communication approach. However, each child will have an inclusion timetable that aims to build in mainstream opportunities appropriate to the individual. Please see the link to our Pathways Model booklet for more detailed information on each of the pathways.
We aim to offer a fully inclusive learning experience, following the National Curriculum at a level appropriate to each child.
There are many ways that we involve parents in their child’s journey from face to face communication, telephone calls and a secure interactive app (Class Dojo) to twice termly EHCP target reviews, Annual Reviews and workshops.
ADMISSIONS AND ENTRY CRITERIA LINK
SRP LEAFLET
PATHWAYS LEAFLET
SALT SUPPORT APPENDIX
The Balanced System
Balanced System ® Scheme for Schools and Settings:
Our school has taken up an opportunity to work towards a nationally recognised ‘Balanced System ®: Scheme for Schools and Settings’ accreditation, created by Better Communication CIC and endorsed by NAPLIC and Afasic.
The school was awarded accreditation as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ back in January 2019. However, with the widening of our admissions criteria and the evolving landscape of SEN, we felt that the Balanced System re-accreditation process would be an excellent vehicle for reviewing and enhancing our current provision.
We are working to develop our provision for speech, language and communication needs across the whole school and the Specialist Resource Provision with the support of a local mentor and our on-site speech and language therapists. To achieve accreditation, we will provide impact evidence to show the difference we are making for pupils and their families.
Among other evidence, we will capture staff, pupil and family voice to show the lived experience of how speech, language and communication needs are being supported across the school and how this is making a difference.
Developmental Language Disorder
These excellent resources from the RADLD give clear overviews of the difficulties some of our children face alongside ideas for supporting their needs. We celebrate DLD Day every October, raising awareness and understanding not only within the school but also the wider community.
LINK TO RADLD RESOURCE SHEETS – DLD Information Sheet and Bubble Model
EMBED LINK TO DLD DAY VIDEO
Click on each icon for links to useful advice leaflets for supporting different aspects of DLD
COMPREHENSION EXPRESSION SIGNING UNCLEAR SPEECH
Interventions we use
Put back in all historical links to interventions
Additional – Dyslexia Gold, Attention Autism, Curiosity Project
Use the button links to click on
Are we able to embed QR Code to ask for further advice and support for SLCN?