St Clements Hill
Primary Academy
50 Le Safferne Gardens, Norwich, NR3 4AR Telephone: 01603 984737
Email: office@stclementsacademy.co.uk
Communication Champions
Why is Communication so Important?
Developing good speech, language and communication skills in the early years and beyond has a powerful impact on the health and well-being of children. In addition to this it supports their educational progress and in turn their employability in the future.
Communication is the most significant life skill, yet 1.4 million children have a speech, language and communication need. Children with these speech, language and communication needs may have trouble communicating but also there may be children who have underlying difficulties with understanding, attention, listening and interacting with others.
Some children have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), others may be a little late in developing their skills, and some children have no identified needs but all children will benefit from the support we are able to provide.
If these children do not receive the right support, it can cause significant long term difficulties for children and young people.
What are we doing at St Clements Hill Primary Academy?
-
We have three members of staff who are Level 3 Communication Champions
-
We have one member of staff who is a Level 2 Communication Champion
-
Communication champions attend hub meetings with other trained professionals to develop best practice
-
Every classroom provides for communication friendly spaces
-
We buy into specialist support from a private speech and language company to support SLCN within our school
What can you do at home to support?
-
Sing songs and nursery rhymes. They contain rhythm and rhyme that help with speech and literacy development.
-
Read and share lots of story books with your child - books can develop language and literacy skills
-
Be a good model – speak clearly and slowly and face your child when speaking. If your child says a word or sentence incorrectly, rather than correct them or ask them to repeat it, just say the word / sentence back to them correctly to show you have understood. This way your child always hears the correct version. This is how children learn language.
-
Vocabulary is key and learning new words is very important. Help your child by using all of their senses to learn new words and build in lots of repetition and practice.
-
Build on what your child says. Perhaps adding words for younger children and expanding phrases for older children.
-
Turn the technology off - sometimes the best way to engage in conversation means switching the technology off and having a face-to-face conversation.
Where can I find out more about speech, language and communication?
These websites have useful information:
https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/
https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/
https://salt.ecch.org/
What is the Communication Champions Project?
The Communication Champion Project was a part of the Norwich Opportunity Area
https://norwichopportunityarea.wordpress.com/, launched by the government to improve the life chances of local children. The Communication Champions project aimed to support early speech and language development to give children the skills they need to communicate both inside and outside of school, now and in the future.
