St. Michael’s House Special National School was awarded €5,000 to collaborate with The Kolbe Special School and Little Angels Special School to identify and integrate effective communication practices that support how adults and children in special schools communicate and interact.
This project involved a distillation of concrete practices and activities which facilitate and empower student voices. It also involved the trialling of resources and activities in order to refine and share with other special schools in the Republic of Ireland. The project also aimed to explore and examine the effects of greater student and adult voice in special schools.
School’s reflection
This project was most fulfilling. The teacher professional learning was in my opinion exemplary. Over the course of the various workshops, each school shared a resource that they had been using to support pupil communication, along with the positive impact that the resource has had in their school. Implementation approaches were discussed as well as challenges that the schools faced. Some of the approaches that were discussed were:
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Software e.g. TD Snap Core, Proloquo2go,
- Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) Words for Life,
- Core Boards
- Lámh
- Objects of Reference
One of the key points addressed throughout the workshop days was the importance of consistency throughout the school when implementing a new approach. By standardising posters, symbols, and materials across all environments, pupils become more familiar with the approach and are supported by predictability.
The huge value of collaboration coupled with the active interrogation of resource value and practicality meant that as a professional learning exercise, the participants had concrete and ‘user-friendly’ resources they could share with colleagues in their schools. It was also noted during the workshops, that by sharing resources across schools, staff workload can be reduced, while also ensuring that every classroom has access to high quality tools and resources.