This week we celebrated a very special friend’s birthday in class.  Our Conlan turned 11!! We celebrated with a wonderful Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake.  Thank you very much to Conlan’s parents for sending the delicious chocolate treat in to share with his friends.  We all enjoyed  a party with music and dancing.  Conlan was also treated to a look at Newcastle buses on the smart board.  This is his favourite thing to watch.  All of his friends loved it too.

Happy birthday to you

This week was also the first week the hydro pool has been open since we came back to school in September.  Daniel was the first to try out hydro .  He was super excited.  Some other children may get the chance to go in the pool soon, but as you can imagine, nothing’s quite as simple as it once was!

We pride ourselves at Hadrian in our total communication approach.  Children are immersed in opportunities to communicate in their own way, on their own communication pathway. This could be facial expression, eye contact, gesture, Makaton signing, symbols, a communication aid and speech.  We’d like to share some examples of what this looks like in our class in this week’s blog.  We use what really makes our children engaged and enthusiastic to plan activities which encourage children to make requests or comment, using whichever form of communication works for them.

In class all adults wear a board with core vocabulary on to support children who are on a symbol pathway   Adults model how to request use it, for example ‘more’ or say ‘stop’ by touching the corresponding symbol.  Boards have as many choices on appropriate to  each child.  Many children in our class are working between a 2,4,6 and 16 core vocabulary symbols.  Our children use the symbols brilliantly.  Here are a few examples of the symbols being used in sessions throughout the day.

Yahya has been  very successful using his core vocabulary.  He is about to begin to try out his  own VOCA (voice output communication aid).   This is a new device for Yahya .  He loved his first exploration of it.  We’ll see how he gets on in future weeks.  Well done Yahya.

Every Friday we enjoy a zoom assembly in class.  We want to celebrate our children’s achievements with the school, especially in these uncertain times.  Phil did a great job this morning of co-ordinating everyone’s achievements and giving us all an insight into what wonderful work is going on in other classes.  Our Leen was celebrated in our class. She has been super engaged this week.  Showing us her engagement through stomping in puddles, exploring using her hands and smiling and giggling at favourite activities.

كانت لين سعيدة للغاية في المدرسة. تبتسم كثيرا. إنها تجعل جميع المعلمين سعداء أيضًا. نحن نحب وجودها في المدرسة.

Have a lovely weekend friends.

Stay safe

See you all bright and early for more fun on Monday