by Shannon Sulston, Assistant Headteacher at Co-op Academy Delius (Special School, Bradford)
Shannon Sulston is the Assistant Head at Co-op Academy Delius, a special school in Bradford. She has been teaching there for the past nine years, after completing her PGCE placement in Primary Education. For six years Shannon has been Early Years Lead, teaching in Rockets Pathway where children are supported to have an exciting and positive start to their school experience, ensuring they are confidently prepared for the next stage of their Delius journey.
Communication: Individual timetables
At Co-op Academy Delius, communication is not just a tool; it's the foundation of everything we do. It’s central to creating a supportive, understanding, and positive learning environment for every pupil. Communication and Interaction is threaded through daily routines and our curriculum. Our staff team ensures all resources and classrooms are adapted to suit the special educational needs of our pupils, ensuring that each child's voice is heard.
Putting communication at the forefront ensures that all our pupils are given the opportunity to express their wants and needs, which can be incredibly powerful.
- It reduces challenging behaviours: When a child can communicate what they need or how they feel, frustration often decreases, leading to fewer challenging behaviours.
- It supports their home lives: The strategies they learn at school can be carried into their home environments, providing consistency and making it easier for families to understand and support them.
- It eases transitions: Strong communication skills and established strategies are vital during big changes, such as moving on to their next school, helping them feel more secure and prepared.
Individual timetables
Visual supports provide pupils with signs or symbols in everyday life that develop their language and understanding of their experiences. This includes support for structure and routine, which can help children to anticipate daily events and reduce anxiety from unexpected change.
At Delius, pupils who are at symbol level will have an individual timetable that is accessible to them in their classroom, with their name and photo labelled clearly. This is their own timetable that displays what the day looks like for them using symbols. The symbols will start on the ‘Time for’ green side of the timetable in the morning. One at a time these will be moved over to the ‘Finished’ red side once each activity has been completed. Examples of these symbols may be ‘Hello’, ‘Snack’, ‘Swimming’ and ‘Outside’.
Depending on how busy the day is, some classes have their morning routine on one side of the timetable and their afternoon will be prepared on the back. If pupils are at pre-symbol level, objects of reference can also be used on these individual timetables to display their daily routine.
When transitioning around school, the children will travel with their transition boards - a smaller version of the individual timetable. The symbol will be placed on the ‘Time for’ side when travelling to a specific room, and will then be placed on the ‘Finished’ side when transitioning back to class. The children will have these on a lanyard or will hold them in their hand.
For some children it may be appropriate to have a whole class timetable displayed at the front of the classroom - with bigger symbols. Yet still keeping the same principles of the green and red visuals as a clear sign of when an activity is starting and has finished.
The absolute key to the success of individual timetables and all of our communication strategies is consistency! When we use the same visual and the same language every time, we create clear and reliable understanding for our pupils.
If you are interested in developing your understanding and seeing individual timetables as a strategy to improve communication in practice at Delius, sign up to one of our visit days