Meeting our Children’s Needs
At Beech Hill School we provide learning, which meets the needs of every child. Like most schools, we have a number of pupils who have additional educational needs. Such needs may include:
- Learning difficulties
- Behavioural issues
- Medical conditions
- Communication difficulties
Children who are new to the country and speak very little English
Children with additional or special educational needs may need extra help and support from us and here at Beech Hill we have a dedicated team of Learning Mentors, translators, support assistants and other adults who, alongside class teachers, will provide support for those children who have additional educational needs.
Children who are new to the country, and speak very little English, can have daily sessions with a translator and Learning Mentor to help them develop key vocabulary to help them in everyday school life. These sessions are a key part of their welcome and introduction to life at Beech Hill School.
In our school we are very lucky to have a classroom dedicated to children with additional needs. The classroom has been set up to allow children a multisensory approach to their learning. It has a fine motor skills area where there are a variety of activities available to help children improve these vital skills and also incorporates areas for learning through play.
We have a full time Speech and Language Therapist who works with children who have difficulties with their understanding of language, use of language, speech (pronunciation), and social communication.
His role involves observing and assessing children’s strengths and needs; giving advice and strategies to support their success in school; running 1-to-1 and group interventions to develop children’s communication and language skills; and delivering training to staff to develop their knowledge and enable them to run speech, language, and communication interventions for specific children.
To ensure that children’s individual needs are met and the necessary support is given, we liaises with a range of agencies such as the NHS Physiotherapy Team, Speech & Language Therapy Service, Occupational Therapy, Hearing Impairment Team, The Autistic Spectrum Disorder Team and many more.
SEND Interventions
Beech Hill provides a wide range of additional interventions and strategies to help our pupils with their difficulties. Including but not limited to:
‘Forest School’
Forest School is an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. It’s a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland education.
The ‘Five Minute Box’
A multi sensory teaching programme and literacy resource. It supports children to understand the alphabet, letter sounds, key high frequency words and much more.
‘Racing to English’
Which is used to help children who are learning English as an additional language.
The ‘Five Minute Number Box’
A multi sensory teaching programme and maths resource. It supports children to understand the basic concept of number, to understand and use the complex maths vocabulary as well as understand the concepts of shape, money, measure and more.
‘Numicon’
A multi sensory resource which encourages an understanding of number and arithmetic relationships. It also helps to reinforce the use of number in real-life contexts.
‘Language Steps’
Is a structured resource to develop both comprehension and expression, of spoken language in young children.
‘Language for Thinking’
Is a resource that provides clear structure into developing children’s language from the concrete to the abstract. It is based on fifty picture and verbal scenarios that can be used flexibly with a wide range of ages and abilities.
‘Lets Talk’
Is a programme that aims to maximize young children’s communicative potential by encouraging speaking, listening and language skills.
‘Black Sheep Narrative’
The ability to tell a stories is a key element of everyday communication, Black Sheep groups focus on the development skills to support children’s ability to use narrative.
‘Social Stories’
These stories, which can be a written or visual, guide describing various social interactions, situations, behaviours, skills or concepts to support those children who don’t understand them.
‘Nessy’
This is a computerised program that aims to offer an alternative approach to learning how to read, write and spell for children with dyslexia or who present with dyslexic tendencies. Lessons emphasise phonemic awareness, phonics, blending, sight words, fluency, spelling, vocabulary and comprehension. Children work through different islands and each island consists of a series of lessons composed of strategy videos reinforced with games, which teach fundamental reading & spelling skills.
