The Meadows Primary School has a 26 place Resource Base for children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). This includes conditions like Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Speech Sound Disorder or Auditory Processing Disorder as a primary need. To be eligible for a place in the Resource Base, your child must have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and one of the above conditions.
Currently, the children are taught in two classes, which are mixed age and mostly Key Stage 2 children. There a maximum of 12-13 children and a Teacher and Teaching Assistant in each class, to help support your child.
Further details below and our Curriculum Intent is attached here: Resource Base Curriculum Intent
Our Resource Base Overview
Vision
- To provide specialist teaching and therapeutic Speech and Language support for children with Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
- To use High Quality Teaching, a language-rich curriculum and a communication friendly environment to provide a setting where children with SLCN make good and outstanding progress from their starting points.
- Time given to communicate successfully verbally and non-verbally
- Enhanced listening environment – close to teacher/ facing teacher
An example of a Resource Base classroom
Planning
- Adapted to support the needs of the children, whilst taking into account specific speech and language needs and embedding strategies into teaching
- Liaison with mainstream teachers to support learning
- Liaison with NHS Speech and Language Therapists (SALT) to support learning and language development
- Multisensory approaches to stimulate, engage and support children with their learning
The Speech and Language (SALT) Room
Teaching
- Mixture of whole class, small group and one-to-one teaching
- Emphasis on teaching language skills – phonic awareness, expressive language, vocabulary, specific grammar, comprehension, repetition of key concepts
- Concepts delivered in language that children can access and new learning continually broken down into small, achievable steps
- Prompting with visual cues
- Opportunities to integrate with mainstream children to meet child’s specific needs
- Real-life experiences – use of real objects in teaching and visits to promote life skills
Assessment
- Regular access to SALT assessments
- Standardised tests to measure small steps of progress, if appropriate
- Verbal feedback given to children during the lesson
- Use technology (e.g. digital cameras) to record work and observation to record progress
- Regular feedback and meetings with parents/ carers
Resources
- Specialist resources e.g. Colourful Semantics, Cued Articulation, Makaton, Widgit (Communication in Print) software to create visual/ symbol support for learning
- Use of visual prompts
Speech and Language Therapy
- NHS SALT provision twice per week.
- Speech and Language Champion TA interventions once per week.
- Specific speech and language programmes carried out with individual children by SALT/Champions
- Group teaching of: oro-motor skills, phonological awareness, narrative, social skills etc.
Multidisciplinary Approach
- Collaboration between staff and other professionals to meet the individual needs of the child
- Liaison with other SLCN Resource Bases to develop practice
- Liaison with professionals from other schools to aid transition to and from the SLCN base
- Regular communication with parents and carers
Training
- Ongoing CPD to keep up to date with latest research/ strategies
- RB staff model and disseminate good practice to mainstream colleagues