January 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy New Year!

We are really looking forward to a great new year with Paddington class. We have enjoyed getting to know each other last term and will be having lots of fun with our friends and learning through engaging and sensory activities.

The daily and weekly structure of our activities is based around the children’s Education Health Care Plans to enable us to make sure that the children are getting support to develop all of the areas as set out below. As part of this structure we are still involved in activities linked to the whole school so that Paddington remains very much part of our wider school community and the children can begin to understand that children from other classes are having some of the same experiences as them.

Communication and Language – Communication is central to our work and daily lives in Paddington class. The children all have communication pathways that the staff familiarise themselves with so we can communicate with all of the children as effectively as possible. This term we are exploring two poems. One is called ‘When the Wind Blows’ and the other is’ The Mud-Pie Makers Rhyme’. Our Phonics focus is phase one of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds program. This term we are encouraging the children to use their ears to listen to sounds in the environment and instrumental sounds as well as exploring objects to find ones that are the same.

Cognition and Learning – In this area we will focus on sensory maths activities and Science and Knowledge and Understanding of the world. Our sensory maths activities will be about time and weight as well as anticipation games involving numbers. In Science we are learning about light and in Geography we will explore our local area. Work in RE is about making friends and in History we will explore local history. These areas do sound quite specific but they will be woven together in a sensory and engaging way with appropriate targets for each child.

Sensory and Physical – Art, Dance, Music, PE, Swimming and Design and Technology are the main focuses in this area. It also covers the essential work we do to support the children with their physiotherapy needs and positioning throughout the school day. Art is about exploring colours. We will use lots of different materials which will help children notice a difference in what they see and feel. We will also use torches to add brightness to the colours we are asking the children to explore. Dance is led by a visiting teacher and music is led by our class staff this term. PE will involve parachute games and exploring how we can move different balls around. Swimming will continue to be led by Halina. In Design and technology we will be cooking and using switches to activate the blenders to make smoothies. The children will get to smell and feel the ingredients but the staff team are all aware of the children that cannot taste the food.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health – During the day we will have good morning, good afternoon and goodbye sessions. Our goodbye session will include a focus on how well the children have done that day using our ‘Can Do Duck’. We will ask the staff and the ‘Can Do Duck’ to support the children in communicating to us what they have achieved that day. We will also use Soundabout to encourage the children to use their voices to get a reaction. We will make sure Paddington’s join in with whole school activities so they can enjoy the company of the other children.

Independence – The children in Paddington class are all fully supported with their feeding plans, personal care needs and physiotherapy. While they are dependent on the staff to support them with this, we encourage independence by communicating to them about what is happening to them or making sure we respond when they vocalise or are clearly trying to communicate with us. This means they can feel more involved and more in control of what is happening around them. The methods we use in class are Makaton and TaSSeLs which is a form of on body signing. We also refer to the communication pathways for each child e.g. they might have an eye gaze.

As I mentioned above we use the engagement profile to evaluate and assess how well the children are doing. I have given brief descriptions of each of the areas below.

Realisation– Are the children aware of what is happening in class and how do they demonstrate this? Pupil voice might be asking or saying: I know, I remember, Wow, I like, I don’t like

Anticipation – Do they know what is going to happen next and how do they show this? E.g., Ready, Steady, I know what will happen.

Exploration – Do they join in by exploring either through looking, touching, listening etc? Do they use their bodies to explore different objects etc? Are they tentative or confident about this? E.g. I want, I’m interested, What does it do? What is this for? How do I …?

Persistence – This one is fairly self explanatory. How long do they keep trying for and what support do they need to do this? E.g. I try and I try.

Initiation – How do the children initiate an activity? By looking or vocalising for example? If they don’t initiate, how can we encourage them to do that? E.g. I want that, I want more, I want to do it again, More to say, I go first.

We will continue to work closely with the multidisciplinary team including the Speech and Language Therapists, the Physiotherapists and the Occupational Therapists to create the best learning journeys for your children.

I look forward to meeting you all for our next PSP or annual review meetings to discuss how well your children are doing and where we think they can progress to next, agreeing individual targets appropriate for each child.

Communication is fundamental to the home/school relationship and this term we will be using homeschool books, emails or phone calls to communicate about the school day.

Yours sincerely, 

Lucy Brunnen

Class teacher

Paddington Class