At East Prescot Road Nursery School, we understand the links between speech, language and communication with learning, behaviour, social skills and self-esteem.

Children find it difficult to move on with others areas of development (including literacy) without a solid foundation in speech and language, which is the reason we prioritise SLCN (speech, language and communication needs).

With 1 in 10 children having SLCN, we develop strong partnerships with parents to support our children’s ‘Learning Journeys’ to ensure this and other developmental information is shared where necessary.

Every child that joins our school has a key person who will support them throughout their time with us. We plan each child’s individual needs to make sure we focus on any areas that need development – this may be as simple as giving them the confidence to speak in a group, encouraging them to practice new sounds to more dedicated one-on-one time.

If English is a second language, we will work with parents to pull together a list of common words from the child’s first language to ensure there is some familiarity of words when they are new to school. 

All of our staff are constantly training and developing their strong practice to ensure they are aware of how they can support the development of speech, language and communication, as well as being able to identify children who may have SLCN.

Any child with SCLN will be fully supported by their key person and our SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator). The SENCO will co-ordinate additional support for children and liaise with parents and other professionals to ensure that the child has their learning needs met.

Children with SLCN need lots of support at home as well as school – difficulties with developing all aspects of literacy skills, (reading, writing and spelling), in turn could affect all areas of the curriculum when they move on to school. Our Open Door policy gives parents the opportunity to discuss any concerns they have at any time, and encourages them to establish a relationship with their child’s key person.

We are very lucky to have our own Speech and Language Therapist in school.  Claire supports our school's work in the following ways:

• Providing advice and guidance for teachers and practitioners
• Ensuring our enabling learning environment supports children's communication (Communication Friendly Setting)
• Coordinating the schools Wellcomm Language programme
• Working with small groups of children and individual children on their language targets
• Making referrals to Speech and Language services as required
• Providing guidance for parents and families to support SLCN at home 

If you are concerned about your child's speech and language development, please speak with your chil'd ley person or class teacher.