Special Educational Needs in the Early Years

At St. Matthew's we believe that early intervention is the key to a successful schooling career. To do this we work closely with families and external agencies to foster relationships and get the correct support in place as soon as possible. This makes our school a happy, safe and supportive place to be.

Speech and Language

Communication and language is the building block on which we develop many other areas including reading, writing and how we express what we need. We work closely with external agencies while having a highly skilled workforce trained in many areas of Speech and Language including Selective mutism, Narrative, Colourful Semantics, speech sounds, AAC devices and the delivery of complex needs strategies.

• Rachel Green, NHS SALT

• Pam Barr, NHS SNS SALT

• Laura McCandless, SpeechWise buy in service

We also work closely with the local authority complex needs team and Early Years SALT for our Nursery children.
See attached our Balanced approach model for more detail (coming soon!)

Universal offer

All children who join our Early Years will undergo a Wellcomm assessment followed by regular intervention groups to support understanding and language acquisition. All children will complete a Reception baseline at the start of Reception and intervals within the year to measure progress as is statutory.
In Nursery all children are assessed against ASQ levels and we work closely with local Health Visitors to provide personalised support.

Of course should some children need further support they will then graduate up our support triangle, see below the attached areas of need and how we as a school support them in the Early Years and beyond.

Interventions

If for whatever reason further support is needed school can increase support. Our staff team are trained in a range of practises and continue to develop their expertise year on year.

• Narrative groups

• Wellcomm

• Access to Rainbow Room (Specialised provision room)

• Sensory Processing

• Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA)

• Attachment support

• Attention Autism

• Intensive interaction

• Oracy

• Sensory Circuits

• Motor Skills United

Further Agency Support

We work with a range of agencies to further support our young learners so they can get what they need on their learning journey to S.H.I.N.E

• Inclusion Service, Core

• Inclusion Service, Complex needs

• Inclusion Service, Early Year's Intervention Team (EYIT)

• Team around the School

• Family Support Workers/Family Intervention workers

• School Nurse/Health Visitor

• Once Upon a Smile (Bereavement support)