School Teams

The Speech and Language Therapy Service works in three teams: the pre-school team, the mainstream schools team and the special schools team.

Pre-school children

Pre-school children referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service are seen for an initial appointment in the clinic setting. On receiving a referral, families are invited to phone in to make an appointment at a convenient time and clinic.

Initial appointments are 30 minutes long and enable families to discuss with the therapist what sort of difficulties, if any, the child may have, and whether further input from the Speech and Language Therapy Service is required.

The role of the therapist is to work in partnership with parents, nursery staff and other professionals to help children develop their communication skills to the best of their ability, and reach their potential both educationally and socially.

Further appointments may be clinic based, in nursery, or at home depending on the needs of the child and their family.

Speech and language therapists also offer a service to families whose children are not formally referred. Drop-in clinics and Talking Toddler groups run throughout the city.

For further information contact bev.charles@nhs.net or dana.taylor@nhs.net.

Children in mainstream primary schools

Primary aged children referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service are usually seen within the school setting.

The therapist works in partnership with parents, teachers and other professionals to help children develop their communication skills to the best of their ability, and reach their potential both educationally and socially.

For some children, particularly those with speech sound difficulties, this may involve weekly sessions for a period of time. For other children, input may be at the level of working with parents and professionals to set appropriate goals and monitor progress.

For further information contact alice.woods@nhs.net or janelle.gardiner@nhs.net.

Young people in mainstream secondary schools

Secondary aged young people referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service are usually seen within the school setting.

As with primary aged children, the role of the therapist is to work in partnership with parents, teachers and other professionals to help individuals develop their communication skills to the best of their ability, and reach their potential both educationally and socially.

At secondary school, intervention mainly takes the form of training and advice to ensure that school staff are able to support students in mainstream lessons and social activities.

Some young people with speech sound difficulties will be offered clinic appointments to work with therapists on developing their sounds.

For further information contact sasha.davies@nhs.net.

Children in special schools

Most of the children being educated within a special school setting will have a degree of speech, language and/or communication difficulty which will have been identified as part of their statement of need.

The Speech and Language Therapy Service works with staff at each school to identify the most effective way of supporting the childrens’ communication development. This may involve:

• working at a strategic level within the school to develop aspects of the communication environment
• training and development
• joint working with teaching staff
• leading sessions for targeted groups of children
• in-depth work with individual children to advise on supportive strategies
• input to the IEP (Individual Educational Plan)

The involvement of parents in this process is vital and home visits can be arranged.

Some children may experience difficulties with eating and drinking. Therapy staff will work with parents and school staff to make sure that snack and other eating times are as safe and as enjoyable as possible.

For further information contact claire.wickham@nhs.net.