Primary One pupils in West Belfast’s Christ the Redeemer Primary School are flourishing with the help of the South Eastern Trust’s Colin Schools Speech and Language Therapy Team’s Building Together programme, which supports children with speech, language and communication needs.
The schools’ ‘Sunshine Hub’ welcomed pupils Luan, Michael and Cohan who enjoyed a vibrant and engaging morning that began with a delve into the classic tale of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The children along with their classroom assistants enjoyed a bespoke session especially designed by the Trust Community Speech, Language and Autism Team to support their language and communication skills by using practical, multisensory activities, based around familiar narratives and stories.
South Eastern Trust Speech and Language Therapist Jayne Parkhouse explained how, “We have delivered this intervention over a period of eight weeks, it is a collaborative approach which involves staff workshops and parent training as well as group sessions with children from Primary One attending.
“The Building Together programme consists of Children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and social communication differences can face additional challenges when transitioning into Primary One. The Building Together programme, created by our Community SLT Team and Autism SLT Team, was designed to support these children, and provide practical approaches to support language and communication within the classroom and at home.
“We have put together a series of activities that help develop and bring out different aspects of their communication. The children will follow a very structured, visual schedule where they will see exactly what activities are happening and when.”
Jayne continued, “We work together on encouraging their independent skills and we branch out after our story time to table top activities so that the children can practice following a visual sequence to make their own crafts linked to the story, they read that particular week and that will complement what we are learning that particular week. This is a way to reinforce language building strategies and for staff and parents to practice implementing the techniques.”
Jayne shared how the children who have taken part in the programme, “Have made huge progress. Our parents have commented on their children’s confidence and for us it has been lovely to see the bonds form between the children taking part and the friendships formed.”
Passionate about her role, the children and teaching staff she collaboratively works with, Jayne reiterated supporting a child’s communication skills. “They are an essential life skill for friendships, to grow and it is really nice that you can be part of someone’s journey whether that is a child, a staff member or parent to know how to best support their child’s communication skills.”
Mum to five-year-old Luan, Niamh Tierney shared how much her little boy looks forward to the weekly session. “It is so lovely to see the children together, they all get on so well. The session really helps with their social skills. Luan really enjoys the ‘Storytime’ element of the programme and talks about the books they have picked and how he wants to do the activities at home. He really loves it. Luan is more eager to be more interactive and his favourite books at the minute is definitely The Hungry Caterpillar!” laughed Niamh.
Niamh continued, “Jayne is amazing. Luan looks forward to seeing her every week and it is just so lovely to have the session here in the school. We couldn’t be more thankful that he gets do it.”
Christ the Redeemer Teacher and SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) Claire Doherty added how the collaboration between Jayne’s team and the school is a, “Brilliant opportunity for our School.”
“From the very start, the engagement from our staff, our parents, everyone was onboard. It is a sharing of good practice which we find very important within the school. We house speech and language in school, teachers are able to liaise with Jayne on a regular basis and we able to tract and monitor the progress of our children who are involved in the Building Together programme.
“The children who Jayne selected to take part have social and communication difficulties and I was fortunate to attend the first session with Jayne and the Classroom Assistant to follow that journey up until now has been amazing.
“To see how our children are engaging in the project, the level of excitement, the build up to coming along every week is fantastic. I just hope other schools will take it onboard.”
Reflecting on the success for the children who have taken part Claire added, “The structure of the lessons, the pace and passion that Jayne presents the session with, the children feed off her energy. You can see the enjoyment on their faces when they leave the room to go back to class.
“I have been SENCO for the past five years and it is amazing to see the journey these children have been on these past eight weeks and they are ready to go into Primary Two.
“Their self-esteem and confidence have grown and it is a lovely thing to see here at Christ The Redeemer.”