We would like to welcome you to our happy, safe and flexible Hornbeam class. Our F2 Resource Provision class offers 5 full days starting at 8:45am and finishing at 3:15pm. There are 3 areas which provide a learning space for the children. The indoor space stretches across two rooms. One of which is designed to offer a sensory environment which provides opportunities for emotional regulation, social communication and transactional support. The resources in this room meet the needs and interests of the children and are adapted and changed to enable children to achieve their full potential. In this calm space, adults use Makaton signs and objects of reference to develop and support children’s early social communication needs, encouraging children to also communicate their needs with an adult in this way.
The second indoor learning space in Hornbeam class offers a variety of continuous provision areas for the children to access throughout the school day, including books in the reading corner, paint, play dough and crayons in the creative area, building with wooden blocks in the construction area, exploring in the home corner and sand and water play. Resources are carefully chosen to engage the children in their learning which reflect their interests, and in doing so, meet the needs of each unique child. This room also promotes opportunities for social communication and transactional support in order to develop early communication skills, so children are ready to learn. The adults in the room are consistently modelling to the children, using Makaton and objects of reference to move children’s learning forward.
We are extremely lucky in Hornbeam class to also have access to a sensory room, which children can be taken to, to support them with regulation. Children can be taken here to further meet their sensory needs if they need a change in environment.
Children also have access to outdoors straight from Hornbeam class and we use this as an extension of the learning environment. In the garden there are opportunities for climbing and sliding on our climbing equipment, as well as exploring the water, playing in the huge sandpit or swinging in the hammocks to support self -regulation.
Routine in Hornbeam class is important for our children, so visual and auditory cues are essential when helping children to know when it is time for snack, lunch time etc. Therefore, when the children arrive at school for their session we greet them with a puppet, who welcomes them and we sing our welcome song. We use a tambourine to signify when it is snack time. And children have their own placemats for lunchtime. Another puppet and song is used to signify the end of the day. Throughout the school day when children are choosing, all staff are using the same Makaton signs to ensure consistency and to encourage and develop early communication throughout the whole of the learning environment.
Our highly experienced early years’ team strives to achieve the very best for each child, so that they can achieve their full potential. The team in Hornbeam class are led by Mrs Dunbar, who is a qualified teacher. Mrs Dunbar, and the team in Hornbeam, take time to get to know the children and adapt approaches to match children’s individual interests. We are very flexible and experienced in accommodating a wide range of complex needs. Your child will be assigned a key person who will get to know them extremely well. And with the support of Mrs Dunbar, plan for every child to make progress. During the key person time, the member of staff working with a child will identify the next steps in learning. The team have been working closely with Helen Bibby, who has provided training on Intensive Interaction and Attention Autism. Strategies will be used to meet the needs of the children in Hornbeam class. The staff will be using their voice, body and face to develop early communication skills. Some activities will be child led and others adult led depending on the support children will need in moving their learning forward. Also, interventions such as speech and language therapy will be taking place on a weekly basis. You will be given the opportunity to be able to meet with the speech and language therapist at the end of half term to discuss the targets set for your child.
We hope to welcome you into our Hornbeam class very soon.
