“We’re helping the community…we’re changing the world!” Squirrel Class
“We’re helping the community…we’re changing the world!”
Ivy-Rose has been doing more fantastic communication in the community! This is a lovely example of the importance of processing time! It can be tempting to repeat ourselves when we don’t get a response straight away, but by pausing for up to 10 seconds we give our communication partner time to process the language they’re hearing. Why not have a go and see if you notice a difference ?
Frog class are continuing with their focus on using describing words on their communication in the community visits! We visited our friends at The Strawberry Fox Cafe and used lots of lovely language to request some delicious treats. Jacob asked for ” white cake with colours ” and Emma said, ” I want orange juice please”. Janav asked for “purple juice” and said “Thank you Strawberry Fox Cafe, bye” at the end of our visit! Great communication Frog class!
A Recent communication in the community session focussed on using our describing words to talk about spring flowers! Furqan liked the red roses but Emma didn’t like the smell of the purple flowers- she said “eww!” Janav was our star communicator , he used his words to label lots of items in the supermarket and showed good patience whilst waiting at the till. Well done , Frog class !
Ivy-Rose did some fantastic communication on our trip to feed the ducks! She combined 3 signs to request more cereal then enjoyed throwing it into the water for the ducks to eat! As well as this , she was able to answer lots of questions about what she could see and hear – well done Ivy-Rose!
Some of Caterpillar class visited Brentwood’s Community Cafe at St Martin’s Church hall! We were greeted, served and looked after by the fabulous staff who are all students at Brentwood college. We all used a range of communication strategies such as communication devices, symbols and talking. We enjoyed a cake and juice and enjoyed interacting with the students who even entertained us with some funny jokes! Thank you for having us Brentwood College Community Cafe.
Frog class took their communication out into the community and visited a supermarket! The focus of our communication was using describing words. We explored what we could see, smell, touch and hear. Some of the describing words the Frogs used were “little”, “quiet”, “soft”, “spicy”, “cold”, “healthy” & “orange”. We also talked about the opposites of these words. Can you guess which items we were describing from the pictures?!
Yaffa is our star of this week’s communication in the community session! We visited a supermarket where Yaffa showed amazing engagement and attention to her surroundings! Yaffa’s interest and pointing to items gave us a great opportunity to label the items using spoken language and symbols on the communication iPad- Yaffa did lots of vocalising in response!
Some of Deer class had their first communication in the community session! We are incredibly proud of how the children used their visuals to help them with transitions from school to the bus and then back to school after our visit. Visuals are great to support understanding of language- the spoken word disappears instantly, whereas a symbol/photograph lasts longer which gives more time to process the message.
During our communication in the community sessions, we visit different shops. We are given lots of different tasks that require us to use or listening and understanding skills. On this day, we focused on finding healthy foods that were certain colours! This meant that we had to use our knowledge of different categories to help us find the items. We also practice our independence skills by scanning , paying and asking staff where items are. A member of staff from Tesco said “you’ve all had a fantastic time, you’ve done so well!”
As part of our communication in the community sessions, some of Fox class visited The Strawberry Fox Cafe at @Pioneer House High School. The students who were working at the cafe did a fantastic job of using their visual order forms and menus to take our orders and serve us some delicious snacks and drinks. Fox class also did some amazing communication- ordering and saying thank you using spoken language, signing and visuals! The students even supported our children to play a game of Uno! We are so proud of both the students at Pioneer House and Fox class who demonstrated fantastic social communication skills which allowed us to enjoy our special afternoon out!
During our communication in the community walk , we went on the hunt for ice! We took our communication iPad and talked about how the ice felt cold. Faaris and Yaseen used TD Snap to say “ice” and then enjoyed pressing and hearing “cold”! Great communication work, boys!
We made the most of the snow and used it to do some communication in the community! Aubrey enjoyed seeing the snow be thrown up in the air and feeling the snow fall on him from the trees! Aubrey also requested to spray some of the snow green- he used his eyes to look at the colour he wanted on his communication board. Well done, Aubrey!
Our Signing Choir went to see our friends at De Brook Lodge! We sung them some of our favourite songs and some of the residents enjoyed singing along with us! Our stars of the performance were Saami and Ruby who were smiling and laughing all the way through- one of the residents said how lovely their smiles were!
Some of our pupils took the first step in what we hope will be the start of something incredible! They visited three cafés in our local area and asked them if they would help us on our quest to make our community more communication friendly.
The girls eloquently explained the importance of being able to support those who have communication difficulties and told the staff that “we all have a right to a voice”.
All three venues in Urmston agreed to display our visual communication supports and the staff at Lily’s at Eden and Sainsburys were fantastic when it came to supporting the children to use the visuals to order some drinks and snacks. Having this support enabled the girls to be independent and had a great impact on confidence and self-esteem. Kenzi said “I did it!”
If you visit Costa Lily’s Cafe or Sainsburys café in Urmston make sure to tag us on our Social Media pages of you using our communication supports! We can’t wait to see and hear about all your fantastic communication in the community.
Ladybirds are continuing to practise their communication in the community. We took a visual shopping list to our local Tesco, which encouraged us to be more independent and talk about what we needed to find next. We were all excited to have our own list and when we found the items on them!
As part of our communication in the community, some of the Owls visited Flixton train station to talk about what we could see and hear. Sebastian and Kye both heard the train before they could see it and looked in its direction and Kulsoom loved the loud noise of the train pulling up! We also heard the train announcements, doors beeping and the conductors whistle! We are working on adding ” I see”, “I hear” and “I want” to our phrases and this was a great opportunity to do this in a different setting.
Rabbit class have been talking all about what we can see and hear at Wythenshawe Park. Two of our future Signalong Champions have been learning lots of new signs- they can remember and use the signs correctly each time we visit!
During our weekly communication in the community sessions, we have been working on our individual targets. Kulsoom is working on identifying what she can see and hear and Damaris is working on giving her opinions on different things. Kulsoom used the communication iPad to say she could see the “horse eating ” and Damaris told us that she thought the horse was big and that it was wearing a pretty coat.
