Fairfields Primary School
Special Education Needs at Fairfields
Fairfields Primary School is a mainstream school in the heart of Basingstoke. Currently 11% of our school have special educational needs or disability (SEND) Pupils with SEND, share with all pupils, entitlement to the greatest possible access to a broad and balanced curriculum, which embraces the National Curriculum. This entitlement is an integral part of the school’s equal opportunities policy. All children should be given access to educational experiences of the highest quality and have the opportunity to develop into confident and independent learners. The achievements of children who have SEND are celebrated equally with those who find success easier to attain. We aim to ensure that children with SEND are perceived positively by all members of the school community, and that SEND and inclusive provision are positively valued and accessed by all staff. At Fairfields Primary School, every teacher is a teacher of every child including those with SEND.
Interventions at Fairfields
Lego Therapy
Following training from our Speech and Language link team, we are now able to offer six week programmes of Lego Therapy to small groups or pairs of children during school time for thirty minutes each week.
You may have read about Lego Therapy online as it has become quite a popular intervention in schools for developing a range of skills. Lego Therapy involves children taking on different roles to create a LEGO model together and is a very popular intervention among the children.
LEGO Therapy can be used to extend a range of skills including communication skills, cooperation, turn-taking, friendship skills and even to encourage quieter members of the class to take part in small group discussions. It is also great for developing teamwork, cooperation and self-confidence. Sometimes children are nominated to join a group because they will be a good role model for others.
Each term, there will be opportunities for a small number of children to take part in LEGO Therapy. Teachers and parents (in discussion with the class teacher or SENDCo) can request that pupils take part; children are then allocated a place in need priority.
If your child’s class teacher thinks that LEGO Therapy would be beneficial to your child, they will seek to secure them a place in the first instance, parents will then receive a letter confirming that a place has been allocated with the option to opt out if you prefer.
Paired Reading
Paired reading is a research-based reading strategy targeted at younger readers to develop their reading fluency. In this strategy, children take on the role of either the tutor or the tutee and work in partners to read aloud together. The pupil tutor supports the less fluent reader by helping them to sight read tricky or less familiar words.
Read, Write, inc.
Read, Write Inc is a Literacy programme developed by Ruth Miskin which is proven to raise both attainment and learning behaviour across the school. 1:1 Read, Write Inc is a phonics intervention developed to support children who require further support in the acquisition of phonics knowledge. Pupils requiring 1:1 RWI receive intensive support from a trained LSA for ten minutes each day.
Precision Teaching
Precision Teaching is a highly effective intervention used to develop high levels of fluency and accuracy in a targeted area of learning that a pupil is finding particularly difficult. Daily monitoring and charting of results enables pupils to see the progress they are making over a short space of time.
Language Link
Language link is a speech and language package designed to help teachers support speech, language and communication needs within the classroom. Language Link is used in KS1 to screen pupils for possible language needs; it then generates personalised interventions to support aspects of language development.
Sound Linkage
Sound Linkage is an integrated programme for overcoming reading difficulties. It consists of a phonological training programme to develop phonological skills which can also be embedded in to a broader reading intervention.
ELSA
‘The ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) project was originally developed within Southampton then Hampshire by Sheila Burton, Educational Psychologist. It was designed to build the capacity of schools to support the emotional needs of their pupils from within their own resources. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.’ (https://www.elsanetwork.org/about/)
At Fairfields School, children can be referred for ELSa by a member of staff in consultation with parents.
Thrive
Thrive is a systematic approach being used in our school as a way of supporting children and young people’s social and emotional development. This approach can support children and young people who may have struggled with difficult life events to help them re-engage with life and learning. Thrive uses a mixture of online assessments and classroom observations to identify what social and emotional areas your child is finding difficult. Thrive then gives children age-appropriate tasks that are suited to their developmental needs. The aim of Thrive is to make learning more accessible, more effective and fun for children as well as supporting their emotional literacy.
Socially Speaking
For some children, communicating with their peers can be challenging and even stressful. Socially speaking groups are designed to develop children’s social communication skills in a small group setting through a range of fun activities and games. Groups are led by trained LSAs and run once a week for a
six week period. Each week, children are set targets and are encouraged to practise their targets when they are back in their class setting.
