Communication with Parents
Regular communication between home and school plays an important part in the education of all pupils. Parental involvement is welcomed and encouraged through an ‘open door’ policy.
Parents are welcome to visit their child’s classroom and are also free to contact their child’s teacher over any matter. However, due to teaching commitments, it is not always convenient for the teacher to respond immediately to such visits or phone calls. Teachers are happy to arrange for parents to visit the class, and will always return a phone call if they are not free to talk at the time. The school nurses are available to take phone calls on medical and care issues.
Seesaw
We are using the Seesaw App as a means of digital communication between teachers and families. It is a lovely interactive and safe way to share news, photos and videos between home and school. Families can communicate daily with the school staff on their child's own personal page and also post on the class page.
All About Me
Along with a revision of our planning systems in school, we have designed a suite of documents (Core Learning & Care Profiles, All About Me & Next Steps). These are compiled by the class teacher with input from parents, and contains information about each pupil, such as how they communicate, their likes and dislikes and their care needs. The "all About Me" information is kept in each pupil’s school bag and posted on the classroom walls so that it can be accessed easily by people who know them and also by people who are meeting them for the first time. The more comprehensive information in the Learning & Care Profiles will be shared as required.
Communication and language Curriculum:
The content of the language curriculum is presented in one strand:
Oral Language
The elements of Oral Language are:
- Developing communicative relationships through language
- Understanding the content and structure of language
- Exploring and using language
Each of these elements has a number of Learning Outcomes. See pages 30-34 of Primary Language Curriculum.
Each Learning Outcome is divided into Progression Milestones a-e (junior and senior infants) and d-h (first and second class). See page 51 of Primary Language Curriculum.
Each Progression Milestone is in turn divided into Progression Steps. See page 65 of Primary Language Curriculum
Most of our students will be focusing on the Progression Milestones a-e. The above can also be accessed at the following link;
http://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/524b871d-1e20-461f-a28c-bbca5424112d/Primary-Language-Curriculum_1.pdf
Furthermore, there is currently a draft early a Progression Milestone which is suitable for many of our students. This can be accessed at the following link;
http://ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Early_Childhood_and_Primary_Education/Primary-Education/SEN-and-the-Primary-Language-Curriculum/
Also the Special Education Needs Pathways (also found in the above link) can be used in combination with the above to support curriculum planning.
Senior students have the opportunity where appropriate to partake in the new Junior Cycle Level 1 Communication language and Literacy.
https://curriculumonline.ie/Junior-cycle/Level-1-Learning-Programmes-(L1LPs)/Priority-Learning-Units-(PLUs)/
Communication underpins all learning and is fundamental to the capacity to transfer learning. Communication and language form the foundation for all other PLUs. Learning in this unit covers both verbal and non-verbal ways of receiving and giving information. Language development requires social interaction between the student and a communication partner. Some of the students in this cohort may first need to be alerted to the fact that they live in a world outside of their own body. Communication for these students can be enabled and progressed with aids like augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), e.g. visual and object cues, verbal prompts, facial expressions, gestures, sign language (such as ISL), electronic devices, Braille (or Moon ) and the written form. Through developing communication skills students enhance their social interactions and improve their self-esteem.
Students undertaking L1LPs should be exposed to a broad literacy experience. This definition of literacy includes multi-modal literacies encompassing spoken, printed, visual and digital literacies.