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Lakenham Primary and Nursery School

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Communication Champions

Lakenham Primary School and Nursery are proud to be one of the Norwich Opportunity Area's four hub schools promoting the improvement of speech, language and communication skills. The Communication Champion Project is one part of the Norwich Opportunity Area, launched by the government to improve the life chances of local children. It aims to support early speech and language development to give children the skills they need to communicate inside and outside school, now and in the future. We have two communication champion leaders in school who are qualified to train others.  We are training our own staff to identify speech, language and communication difficulties and to provide support for our pupils.

When children enter nursery, they concentrate on the three prime areas of learning, one of which is communication and language. This continues into the reception year. We give children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations. This continues as the children move into key stage one and key stage two. Children are given real life experiences and visits together with the use of drama and small world objects throughout the whole school to encourage language and communication. Questioning and communicating are key aspects of our enquiry led learning approach. 

As a hub school we hold regular network meetings to provide support and ensure consistency throughout the local community. We will provide support to feeder and other local settings too;  providing the training and inviting them to join our network of practitioners. We are also planning training sessions for parents and childminders. Please contact Tracey Hawthorne or Jess Bell if you are interested in receiving this training or joining our network.

This free training is now available online and can be supported by telephone or video call support, even during lockdown. Please contact office@lakenham.norfolk.sch.uk  if you are interested in receiving this training. 

 Please take a look at our support page for parents and our support page for practitioners for further information. 

 Please see below year one children singing and using Signalong to support England in the UEFA European championship.   

Here are  some of the Signalong signs we have been learning in school. Remember Signalong is used as a supportive communication tool, to aid rather than replace spoken communication.