Nessy Reading and Spelling

Nessy is designed to support children with Dyslexia in reading and spelling. We also use it within school for children who need a little more support in developing their reading and spelling skills and or confidence. 

Children on Nessy  are supported by Mrs Marshall who would be happy to discuss this with you. 

ELSA Support

The school has two ELSAs who are available to support children on both a personal or group level.

Work covers a wide range of focuses such as  building confidence, emotional awareness or for specific times for example, following a divorce or bereavement. 

Catch-Up Maths

Staff start by assessing children in key areas of Mathematics: 

• Counting verbally including counting on and back
• Counting objects
• Reading and writing numbers
• Hundreds, Tens and Ones
• Estimation including rounding
• Addition and Subtraction Word Problems
• Translation - objects to numbers, numbers to objects, number words to objects and number words to numbers
• Remembered facts
• Derived facts
• Ordinal numbers

After assessment, children work through mastering each stage. Resources are used and these are then sent home, 

If you would like any further information please speak to Mrs Thurlow who would be happy to help. 

Handwriting and Fine Motor Skills

Mrs Marshall runs group handwriting sessions focusing on initial letter formation and progressing to letter joins. If you would like to know more or how you can help your child further then she will be happy to help.

Squiggle Motor Skills  works on developing the motor skills needed to write. Dough Disco takes place in the Pearls and Rubies class to support this and Mrs Moffatt supports one-to-one where additional needs are identified. 

Reading Recovery FFT

The FFT reading is an intense approach to develop children's reading skills. Children read one-to-one each day with an adult and look at particular words, personalised strategies and sentence work. There is also a writing element on day 2 and 4 which help use their increasing reading abilities to further their writing.

This intervention works in partnership with home and children will be asked to read at least one familiar book at home every day. This complements the work in school and helps to build confidence and fluency. 

If you would like to know more about the programme Mrs Bryan, Mrs Marshall and Mrs Harrison would be happy to help. 

Express through buiild

Express Through Build encourages participants to express their thoughts and ideas on any topic by building symbolic models with LEGO bricks.

It is a great tool for enhancing expression and communication. Led by a Coach or facilitator, participants in the process – i.e. the pupils – use their imagination and creativity to reflect and to communicate - enhancing dialogue. The method ensures a secure and non-judgmental process in which every team member gets the opportunity to be active, engaged and listened to. With Express Through Build participants use LEGO® bricks to build models that represent their thoughts and reflections. They use metaphors and assign meaning to their models as a means of communicating their ideas.   

This can also be used as a tool for reluctant or nervous writers. 

If you would like any further information please speak to Mrs Thurlow who would be happy to help. 

Speech and Language

The school works closely with the Speech and Language Team NHS. Once a child is attending session visits are made to school so that targets can also be worked on. Staff and school use NHS target packs to provide tailored Speech and Language support personalised to each child. The Speech and Language team liaise with home and school but staff in school are always willing to support parents further with target areas. 

Memory Activities

Some children undertake memory activities. Children who have a low working memory can find it more challenging to learn new things or complete multi-step problems as they forget earlier steps. 

At school we use games, rhymes and challenges in order to have fun whilst developing memory skills. If you would like any further advice or home activities please speak to Mrs Bryan who would be happy to help. 

INFERENCE

This is carried out as a group and involves looking at a short section of text. The children read the snippet and then discuss the following things: 

• What questions do you have? E.g. why are they there? When did this happen? Why is he not happy? These are then discussed and children offer their ideas. 
• What might a suitable title be? 
• Draw and annotate to summarise what has happened.
• What might happen next? Write the next sentence.

At each stage children discuss their ideas referring back to the snippet as to why they think this. 

The children really enjoy these sessions and this focuses strongly on developing their comprehension skills especially when reading between the lines. 

If you would like any further information please speak to Mrs Marshall who would be happy to help. 

Squiggle KEy words

The school uses the Happiness Approach including Squiggle while you wiggle and Dough Disco. 

Mrs Bryan runs small groups focusing on developing recognition of names or key words using these approaches. Children are grouped by their current level and work on specific key words appropriate to them whilst younger children begin by recognising their name. If you would like any further information please see Mrs Bryan who would be happy to help. 

Phonics

Mrs Marshall uses phonics when supporting children throughout Nessy and it is used by all staff supporting reading.

Mrs Bryan, Mrs Marshall and Mrs Moffat work with small groups focusing on Phonics. In school we follow the Twinkl Phonics approach. The sessions work on identifying and plugging children's gaps to support their reading and spelling. 

If you would like any further information Mrs Thurlow our phonics lead would be more than happy to help.