What training do we offer?
The Language and Communication Team is commissioned to offer a range of training for staff and parents/carers. The Team has a ‘core’ programme which is offered every year, and an ‘additional’ programme which changes on an annual basis.
The Core programme:
Speech and Language Needs
The Language and Communication Team offers school staff the opportunity to gain the nationally accredited Elkan award (level 2 or 3) in supporting and developing children’s language and communication skills. The team is able to offer three programmes:
- Speech and Language Support for 3 to 5’s
- Speech and Language Support for 5 – 11’s (including the Foundation Stage)
- Speech and Language Support for 11 – 16’s (including the middle school years)
Autism
The Language and Communication Team offers free training in autism for school staff during the academic year. The workshop covers theoretical understanding, implications for learning, practical strategies and resources and it will be relevant for staff who have limited experience in working with pupils with ASD, for newly qualified staff, and for all staff who will benefit from refresher training.
Makaton Signing and Visual Strategies
Early Years practitioners working in school and private and voluntary settings can access support and training on how to use Makaton signing (by LCT Makaton Regional Tutor) and visual strategies to enhance the learning opportunities for children with language and communication needs within their settings.
The Additional Programme
The Language and Communication Team is proactive in developing it's specialist role in understanding the needs of pupils with language and communication difficulties in order to optimise support to schools. This requires team members to develop and extend their areas of expertise and to devise useful and relevant resources, programmes, strategies and training.
Examples of workshops developed by the team to enable school staff to more effectively understand, identify and address the needs of pupils with language and communication needs are:
- Communication and Behaviour
- Attention and Listening Skills
- Auditory, Memory and Language
- Vocabulary
School Requests for Training
The LCT will provide, free of charge, training for a small number of key staff in the use of resources, programmes and strategies specifically recommended in their reports for individual children, if this is required.
Makaton signing and visual strategies training will be provided, free of charge, for a small number of key staff when a child from the setting has accessed Dene Communication Centre during the academic year.
Schools are also able to request further training relating to language and communication needs and these will be responded to with reference to the team’s capacity for additional training and caseload commitments. The range of training typically offered is detailed in the information brochure provided for schools, and presented in the Local Offer. The team will aim to develop training workshops that are relevant to the specific needs identified by the school or setting and will work with key staff to identify training aims and desired outcomes.
There will be a charge of £150 for the development and delivery of each training workshop (available for whole staff or groups of staff).
Please note that the maximum number of learners for the Makaton and visual strategies training has been set at 15 in order to ensure that staff are able to participate fully in this practical workshop.
Parents can access:
- Cygnet (Barnados) for primary or secondary
(Attendance at these is dependent upon the age of their child and them having received a diagnosis of ASD)
