Claire Nice, Makaton Tutor

📕📘📗 Four workshops completed with a group of great participants from a care company in Norwich...even if today was a hot and sweaty mess!

Face to face workshops will always be my preference-more personal, easier group practicals, and more fun!

Get in contact if you have a team or group of people who would like to access the Makaton Workshops.

Each workshop covers 6 hours which can be done in 1 day or across 2, includes your participant manuals and a 30 day free trial o the Makaton website.

High Tech Devices 👄

The world of a High Tech Devices keeps growing, and I personally think it's quite exciting.

These devices can offer an amazing opportunity to give people a voice who may not have one, or may struggle to use theres.

Our devices use Grid by Smartbox Inclusive. We love this app! Its flexibility, it's focus on core vocabulary and it's ease to edit makes this app absolutely ideal.

Experiencing students share their thoughts through a voice they may not have had is a very special and rewarding experience.

Check out our giant core board! 🤓

I think I enjoyed making this a little too much.

Core vocabulary is our high frequency words, the words we mostly use when we talk to each other.

For a long time we have focused on fringe vocabulary, these words are relevant to certain topics, activities or interests.

Of course, fringe words are very important but for effective and flexible communication, teaching and practising core vocabulary is really important too.

But why the giant core board?!

The idea is for the core board to be used for students of all abilities.
The large symbols are in matt laminate...so no shine from the gloss for our students with VI, and removable from the board to bring words closer to students.

The larger visuals may also support to remind students of other vocabulary avaliable to them.

Things might have been a little quiet on here recently, thanks to this new arrival 🩷
Show Me the Signs will be back up and running soon!

'Exceptionally positive’ Ofsted visit means special school could soon be outstanding Ely special school Highfield Ely Academy could soon be rated as 'outstanding' according to Ofsted.

This awesome group of staff from the school have completed their Level 1 to 4 workshops. Their dedication to the after school sessions has been greatly appreciated...we all know how tired we are by the time we get to the end of the day in an SEN school!

This means our school now has 13 members of staff with Level 1 to 4 and many others with their Level 1 to 2. It will be a great help in implementing Makaton across our school.

Well done to an amazing team!

Another amazing group of staff from the school completed their Level 1 Workshop a few weeks back!

Well done to everyone! 🎉

Another successful group who have completed their Level 2 Workshop!
Well done to an awesome group! 👏

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The photo says it all! We are looking for new members to join our friendly team and keep us going strong! We meet to review and plan approximately every 6-8 weeks, both online and in person at the school to help with accessibility. We are looking for enthusiastic and committed people to join us, attend the meetings that you can and come to events to help out when you are able. If you’re interested or would like further information, please contact me on the following email address:

[email protected]

Or alternatively, come along to one of our next meetings:

17th October, 7:30pm, Highfield School
7th November, 7:30pm, online (please contact me for details).

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