Communication
Intent
The intent of the communication curriculum at Hope School and College is to allow all learners to communicate using their own preferred method in daily situations and in preparation for life in and beyond school.
Through effective communication, leaners can express a need, understand others, and show preferences. Establishing a fundamental means of communication for learners is essential to support them across all areas of life and to help them build meaningful relationships. Communication also allows them to instruct, express feelings, and make choices. Communication includes both expressive and receptive abilities, facilitating social interactions and encouraging learners to initiate purposeful communication. Furthermore, it enables them to engage in entertaining exchanges, enhancing their overall social experience.
Our Communication Curriculum is built upon and promotes our core values of achievement, equality and independence.
Implementation
Communication is one of our core subject areas, forming the foundation of all our educational practices. This approach is both personalised and individualised, ensuring an inclusive learning environment tailored to each student’s needs. It is a prioritised component of our Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) and Individual Development Plans (IDPs), emphasising a holistic method that fosters a communication-rich environment where learners can freely express themselves.
We adopt a multisensory approach to communication, enabling diverse ways for learners to engage meaningfully. Collaboration with Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) professionals and other multiagency teams is integral to our work. As part of the communication curriculum, we are dedicated to continuous improvement for learners, and sharing our total communication approach with their families, recognising that effective communication is closely connected to positive behaviour and overall development.
Some examples of our implementation strategies we use to support ‘total’ communication
- Signalong
- Project Core
- Symbols
- Gesture
- Speaking and Listening activities
- Singing and music activities
- Attention Autism
- Curiosity baskets
- Funbox Jo
- Colourful Semantics
- Objects of Reference
- Intensive interaction
- AAC including high tech’ and low tech’ equipment
Communication is embedded within familiar daily routines (e.g., greeting, snack time, sensory play) to build recognition and provide structured opportunities for response. Our curriculum provides simple choices during routine activities, even if responses are small gestures, eye movements, or vocalisations. This practice helps develop intentional communication. Positive and effective communication is supported by co-active participation and involves a multi-disciplinary collaboration between staff, families and Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Input. This supports leaners to develop individualised communication goals and interventions. Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists also support staff to ensure that positioning and movement needs are met to facilitate communication. Comfortable positioning and accessibility of materials are critical for engaging learners on the Complex Learning Pathway.
Staff celebrate every attempt to communicate, whether it’s through a sound, gesture, or word, to build learners’ confidence and encourage further attempts.
A nurturing and encouraging environment will be created where learners feel safe and empowered to explore different communication methods, whether vocal or non-speaking. The environment will promote respect for all communication forms and abilities.
Communication is a core element in all teaching and learning at Hope. It is promoted across all curriculum pathways in all thematic and discrete planned activities.
Staff respond positively to efforts to communicate with affirming language and body language or encourage self-reflection regarding communication through emotion boards or zones of regulation communication symbols.
Impact
The Impact of our Communication Curriculum is that learners can reach their full potential in communication, for all learners to get to a standard in which they are an effective communicator and have a preferred communication method. Additionally, for approaches in Communication to be individualised, and for learners to have confidence in their own method of communication.
We want all our learners to have a voice and be heard, and for people involved in the wider lives of our learners, to understand and respond to them. This enables our learners to have and feel a sense of belonging.
Rationale
All learners at Hope School and College experience communication development to empower them toward greater independence in life. Developing communication skills fosters confidence and competence, enabling learners to engage independently in various aspects of daily living.
At Hope School and College, we prioritise nurturing learners’ communication skills to build genuine understanding and support essential life interactions. This includes expressing needs, making choices, initiating social interactions, understanding others, and using both expressive and receptive language. We guide learners in developing key communication abilities, such as recognising relationships, making connections, engaging with social cues, and navigating conversational exchanges.
The teaching of communication begins with an immersive, practical, or multi-sensory approach and evolves based on each learners’ needs and abilities. We build on prior knowledge and address misconceptions when introducing new concepts. Instructional strategies include Attention Autism, continuous provision, intensive interaction, and more formal pedagogical approaches where appropriate.
Communication skills are often best learned through practical, contextual, and cross-curricular experiences. By integrating communication instruction with other learning opportunities, we ensure that learners practice and apply these skills in relevant contexts, for example, our school café, community outings, and thematic learning approaches replicate communication in real-life settings.
Language is essential to developing new communication skills; therefore, specific vocabulary and communication techniques are highlighted in our medium-term plans. These can be reinforced through displays, symbol support, and signing where applicable.
Communication development is embedded throughout the daily curriculum at Hope School and College. Learners practice and reinforce skills through stories, songs, games, sensory activities, and imaginative play, gradually leading to more practical applications in diverse contexts. The resources we use are carefully selected to promote enjoyment in learning and to encourage experimentation with communication concepts.
Our approach to communication embraces the diversity of learners’ expression styles. The communication curriculum reflects a universal approach by incorporating various technologies, visual supports, and simplified language to support clarity when asking questions, giving instructions, introducing concepts, and explaining ideas.
We recognise that some learners may find it challenging to practice communication skills across new contexts. These learners benefit from repeated opportunities to consolidate each new skill within a specific experience before transferring it to a range of other situations. This repetition and coverage of communication skills are outlined in long-term plans, ensuring the curriculum provides the necessary breadth and depth for comprehensive skill development.
Communication at Hope School and College
Communication in our Complex Learning Pathway
Communication with learners on the Complex Learning Pathway on the complex learning pathway involves a sensitive, individualised, and multi-sensory approach. Learners with significant physical, sensory, and cognitive conditions, focus on building foundational communication skills that allow them to interact meaningfully with their environment and people around them. The curriculum for communication in this pathway is – Engagement curriculum, attending column and is assessed using Engagement Steps 1&2 – expressive and receptive communication. Strategies and methods to effectively teach communication to learners on our Complex Learning Pathway include establishing a trusting environment, providing consistency and familiar routines which encourage learners to respond to communicative cues. Multi-sensory approaches to communication help establish strong, trusting relationships between the learner and familiar adults, which can encourage engagement and communication attempts.
Multi-Sensory Approaches to communication at Hope include:
- Tactile, Visual, and Auditory Stimuli: Learners on the Complex Learning Pathway benefit from a combination of sensory inputs for example using tactile objects, colourful visuals, and soft sounds can help learners focus and understand the context of communication.
- Objects of Reference: physical objects associated with activities or routines, help learners anticipate and understand transitions or activities.
- Smell and Taste Cues: For some learners, smells or tastes associated with certain activities or people can be powerful communicative cues, fostering recognition and anticipation.
- Responsive Communication for example Intensive Interaction, mirrors learner’s actions and sounds, gradually encouraging initiating their own actions.
- Incorporate Technology and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication)
- Switches and Simple Voice Output Devices
- Eye-Gaze Technology and Tablets.
- Symbols and Picture Communication Systems:
The use of sensory stories and personalized narratives ensure an engaging, inspirational communication approach sensory stories use textures, sounds, and scents that match each part of the story, helping learners make connections between sensory experiences and concepts.
Planning provides opportunities for repetition and consistency in communication.
Within this pathway learning may look like:
Communication in our Early Steps Pathway
Teaching communication to learners within the Early Steps pathway focuses on creating a supportive, language-rich environment where learners feel encouraged to explore sounds, gestures, and language in meaningful ways. The curriculum for this pathway is – Birth to 5 Matters and is assessed using Early Steps. Communication is embedded in all aspects of the Early Steps curriculum. It can be observed in every aspect of the curriculum and environment in a play-based approach to communication and language development.
The curriculum focuses on a multi-sensory approach but is extended by planning for opportunities to responsive interactions and joint attention through communication sessions, circle time opportunities, joint attention games with opportunity to develop early communication skills. Providing opportunities to engage in back-and-forth interactions by responding to the learner’s expressions is fundamental to supporting learner’s awareness of the rhythm and flow of communication including intonation and physical cues.
In the Early Steps Pathway modelling language and using simple, repetitive language are key to building knowledge and understanding within this core area.
The curriculum encourages gestures and non-verbal communication for example teach basic signs or gestures and visual supports
Play-based learning and social play enable communication to take place through
pretend play such as:
- Interactive games:
- Sensory play: reading aloud and engaging with books
- Storytime: interactive books:
- Encourage story retelling: music, rhymes, and songs
- Singing familiar songs
- Finger plays and action songs
Extending communication skills include planning for opportunities to build vocabulary through labelling and describing, label objects and actions, build descriptive language.
By creating an environment filled with responsive interactions, repetition, and engaging, sensory-rich activities, caregivers and educators can nurture early communication skills and lay a foundation for language development that aligns with each student’s individual pace and interests.
Within this pathway learning may look like:
Communication in our Pre-Formal Pathway
Communication for learners in our pre-formal pathway involves building on early skills while introducing more structured methods to develop vocabulary, word and object association, listening and attention, social skills, and confidence in self-expression. Learners on this pathway will begin to communicate to navigate social situations, understand emotions, solve problems, and engage in learning activities, so we follow a balanced approach that combines structure with play-based and social learning is essential. Communication in this pathway is delivered using the Engagement curriculum, Responding column and is assessed using Engagement Steps 3&4, expressive and receptive communication.
Learners will be exposed to vocabulary, symbols and objects in a multi-sensory approach around specific themes or topics relevant to the learners’ experiences (e.g., nature, feelings, school activities) to support and consolidate each word’s meaning.
Staff will continue to model language in sensory based experiences and encourage the use of the preferred methods displayed by individual learners.
learners to describe objects or experiences and ask open-ended questions to prompt fuller responses, building both vocabulary and expressive skills.
Planning will include opportunities to develop listening skills and follow one step instructions. Learners will encounter simple stories presented in a multi-sensory way.
Social communication and interaction skills are practiced for example waiting for turns and showing interest in others’ responses. Visual cues like turn-taking cards or timers can help learners understand conversational flow.
Pre formal learners build communication and language through play-based learning, structured communication games and activities, sensory play with descriptive language commentary, problem-solving play and interactive story time.
By providing a structured yet dynamic and responsive environment, these methods effectively support learners’ communication development, enabling them to express their ideas, needs, and emotions with growing confidence and skill.
Within this pathway learning may look like:
Communication in our Semi-Formal Pathway
Communication in this pathway is delivered using the Engagement curriculum, Attending column and is assessed using Engagement Steps 5&6 and Progression steps 1& 2.
Every learner has unique communication needs and abilities and those on the semi formal pathway will be showing preferences for communication strategies. Communication interventions and teaching strategies should be tailored to meet each learner’s developmental level, and specific needs. These should be regularly reviewed and updated as the learner’s communication skills progress.
Communication development will be supported through various modes, including verbal language, sign language, symbols, pictures, gestures, body language, and alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices where applicable.
The curriculum reflects the development of both receptive (understanding) and expressive (speaking/gesturing) communication skills, emphasising vocabulary, simple sentence structure, and the ability to follow and express basic commands or requests.
Activities focus on promoting social communication skills, turn-taking, listening, responding to others, and using communication to engage with peers and adults.
Learners are supported to use communication as a tool for expressing their needs and emotions, increasing their ability to advocate for themselves and navigate their environment.
Classroom environments continue to accommodate sensory communication needs, with quiet areas and visual stimuli that help learners focus on communication activities.
Learners will be encouraged to communicate with their peers through structured group activities and guided social interaction. This will help build social communication skills and provide opportunities to practice functional language in a variety of contexts.
Within this pathway learning may look like:
Communication in our Formal Pathway
When teaching within the formal pathway, the focus for communication should be on building existing communication skills that support the learners to extend their preferred method of interaction and communication whether that be ACC, oral or written language. Two-way interaction and listening are critical components of communication, focusing on expressive and receptive understanding.
Learners focus on active listening, focus on the speaker, following directions, listening for detail, understanding and responding and building vocabulary
Learners will encounter experiences to help expand vocabulary and enhance both speaking and listening skills.
Teaching opportunities include supporting learners deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context in which they appear.
Word pronunciation is key in learning environments and staff along with SaLT support, model key speech sounds and pronunciation
Opportunities to organising thoughts, expressing opinions and ideas and asking and answering questions.
Encourage learners to ask and answer questions to deepen their understanding and engage in conversations. Learners maybe asked a variety of questions (e.g., yes/no questions, open-ended questions, “who,” “what,” “where,” “why,” and “how” questions).
Teaching and learning activities support learners to clarify information, responding appropriately and encourage learners to answer questions in complete sentences and to elaborate on their responses to provide more detail.
Learners are promoted to participate in effective communication to engage in two-way conversations with peers and adults, encouraging learners to tell stories about their personal experiences or retell stories they’ve read or heard, helping to develop their narrative skills.
Learners will have the opportunity to explore and develop skills:
- in respectful dialogue
- explaining and justifying opinions
- participating in group conversations
- listening for purpose and understanding
- listening to inform
- listening to perform a task
- making inferences
- digital storytelling
- interactive apps
Teaching expressive, receptive, and listening skills is about building confidence and competence in communication. These skills are not only fundamental for academic success but are also crucial for their social development, emotional intelligence, and future learning. Through structured activities, games, and situations, opportunistic and planned classroom interactions, learners will grow as effective communicators both in interaction and understanding.
Within this pathway learning may look like:
