Welcome to Sennen!

 

Our Class:

Sennen class is led by Jenny Buckland (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and Jenna Leonard (Monday) assisted by a team of teaching assistants who are extremely experienced and knowledgeable of the needs of the pupils. We are supported by the school’s Specialist Intervention Team, a team of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and specialist teachers for the visually and hearing impaired. We work with these multi-disciplinary teams to set and review personalised targets and programmes for each of our pupils.  These programmes are built into our everyday learning and the therapists enjoy joining us to see their programmes in action! Sennen class provides a happy, fun, engaging, and safe place to learn explore and flourish.

           

Our Curriculum:

Sennen class learns through a structured and holistic multisensory curriculum on our Engagement pathway. This is informed by a developmental perspective where the starting point is the individual learner’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The curriculum is personalised for each pupil and addresses the priority areas relating to the development of the learners throughout the day.  The aim in Sennen class is for each learner to achieve his or her potential in terms of cognition & learning, communication & interaction, sensory development, physical & motor skills, social and emotional awareness and independence.

We develop our Cognition and learning through a wide range of activities in and outside of the classroom. We practice our communication and interaction skills with our friends, class team and the wider community. We learn through physical, fine and gross motor activities benefiting from spending lots of time learning in different environments and when out of our chairs. We learn through social & emotional activities which often include working and playing with our friends from other classes and from Illogan school (mainstream school we are attached to).

We each have a Communication and Engagement profile which helps to identify strengths and needs, and to plan appropriate interventions and support in the areas of Exploration, Realisation, Anticipation, Persistence and Initiation. Through these areas, we will develop interests, practice and refine skills and generalise the skills we have learnt in different ways and in different situations. We will learn how our actions affect their world and the people in it. 

           

Reading in Sennen Class                                                                                         

In Sennen class we are working on our pre-reading skills. We love sharing books and sensory stories as well as enjoying songs and rhymes; these are part of our phonics learning. We all enjoy watching and listening as the initial letter of our name is written and spoken. We are also learning to recognise environmental sounds, enjoy rhythm and identify difference in sounds, for example focussing on fast and slow rhythms, or listening to loud and quiet sounds. All of this comes into Letters and Sounds Phase 1 phonics, and all of the skills we are practicing will support us to learn to ‘read’ our environment. For all children this is the first building block in their reading journey. Additionally, we will be taught how to interpret photographs and signs, another component in early reading development. In Sennen Class reading and communication are closely linked and often cross over.  We have been introduced to Project Core vocabulary. We watch and listen as key words are used to help us communicate -  the words we are using at the moment include ‘more’ ‘stop ‘different’. We will be introduced to new words when appropriate.

 

       

 

Many of our topics are taught through or using books, helping us to develop a love of literature. We enjoy sensory stories and rhymes, massage stories, musical stories and TACPAC and we are encouraged to share books with adults, a great way to develop the relationships that we have with each other.

 

Learning Environment

At Curnow Lower school we access a range of learning environments which support and vary our learning opportunities. We have a spacious classroom, a covered balcony and access to a sandpit, sunken trampoline and wheelchair accessible roundabout. We theme our balcony to link in with our topic so that our outside learning is an extension of our indoor learning. Our sensory room is used for a wide range of sensory, social, physical and conceptual development activities and the movement room provides a soft play area for structured and free movement sessions. We use the hall, classroom and outside space for physical activities both in and out of our postural management equipment. The pupils work in small groups in different learning environments throughout the school day ensuring their learning is engaging, stimulating, varied and fun!