SEND Team – Mr Adam Phillips

Miss Pimblett is our Pastoral Lead and works in partnership with Miss. Palmer. She also leads on bereavement and loss. She works with the School Council to ensure all pupils have a voice.

What is a Therapeutic Classroom?

Therapeutic classrooms are welcoming, safe, inviting environments that cultivate learning through their design. They calm stress hormones and increase feelings of emotional safety, whilst meeting the emotional and mental health needs of the children. Therapeutic classrooms include calm spaces and flexible seating and allow children to work and play where they feel most comfortable. They take into consideration space, lighting, comfortability, accessibility, inclusivity, communication and connective learning. Therapeutic classrooms are flexible spaces that children want to be in and are underpinned by evidence based research.

Therapeutic Classrooms are:

• Trauma Informed
• Attachment Sensitive
• Inclusive
• Neurodiverse Sensitive

Therapeutic classrooms are not just about putting nice furniture into spaces. They are backed by neuroscience, trauma and attachment theory and are designed with the children’s mental health and wellbeing in mind, ensuring:

• We have spaces that are trauma informed, attachment aware and inclusive
• Designed with the needs of children at the centre
• Mental health and wellbeing are embedded into the environment
• A nurturing, welcoming environment where children feel emotionally and physically safe
• Children have a sense of belonging and are comfortable
• Children have access to resources that help reflect their needs from session to session
• The environment contributes to long lasting, significant outcomes for children
• The classroom also supports the teacher’s wellbeing and mental health

Our intended impact:

An increase in:

• Sense of belonging and safety
• Eye contact
• Social skills and communication
• Calm noise levels
• Concentration
• Attendance
• Disclosures (because children feel safe)
• Participation and focus on tasks
• Happiness and wellbeing
• Comfortability

A decrease in:

• Emotionally based school avoidance
• Dysregulated behaviours
• Barriers to learning (especially for children with ADHD, Autism, Attachment needs and ACES)

Useful Information for Families

Please find below a collection of videos demonstrating some of the most common strategies we use with our children with special educational needs. We hope that you find these useful in supporting your children’s development at home. For further information, please speak to your SENCO.

Building attention skills in children: Bucket Therapy

Building shared attention is a key aspect of developing communication and interaction skills. This video shares simple and practical approaches you can try at home.

Creating Opportunities for Communication: Using Sabotage Strategies

This video demonstrates sabotage strategies which are used to promote communication in young children.

Using Now and Next Boards

This video demonstrates how to use a ‘Now and Next Board’ to support communication and interaction.

Top Tip – Copying What Your Child Does and Says!

This video demonstrates how to help develop your child’s eye contact, attention and interaction skills by copying what they do and say.

Introducing Objects of Reference

This video demonstrates how to implement ‘Objects of Reference’ at home, with step-by-step instructions.

Speech and Language Therapy at home: Talk time course and tips

Get ideas to help your child to talk, and know what to expect from Speech and Language Therapy.

Time for Sounds: Speech and Language Therapy course about speech sound difficulties

This video demonstrates how to help your child with speech sound difficulties.

Using Visual Timelines

This video demonstrates the use of visual timelines and how you might use them with your children.

Introduction to Sensory Processing

An introduction to sensory processing and the difficulties children may have with this.

Sensory Strategies

Sensory strategies to support children with sensory processing difficulties at home.