Case Study: Virtual School Norfolk: No Labels Needed

Overview

The Virtual School’s training offer was developed as part of an ongoing targeted project to support both professionals and foster families working with children in care. The initiative began with collaborative information sharing across the wider Virtual School team to ensure a shared understanding of the project’s aims and objectives before providing targeted training sessions for setting staff.

Training combined speech and language therapy theory and knowledge with learning on trauma, anxiety and attachment. These sessions moved away from diagnostic labels and instead placed an emphasis on developing skills and confidence in understanding the adult role in children’s presenting SLCN. It explored how we can identify, support and understand these complex children to improve their wellbeing, communication and academic outcomes.

Audience:

EYFS Practitioners

Duration:

2 Twilight Sessions

Learning Objectives:

To be able to identify children whose speech, language and communication is non-typical and creating a barrier to their wellbeing and/or academic engagement.
To appreciate the impact of trauma and anxiety on speech, language and communication, especially social and emotional development.
To understand how to adapt adult communication to support a child’s understanding, expression and sense of belonging.
To understanding the link between language and self-regulation skills and the importance of offering co-regulation.
To feel confident in referring and/or signposting families for additional specialist assessment and/or support for SLCN.

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